Meet Jonathan-Blake E. Zananiri | Founder & Maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jonathan-Blake E. Zananiri and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan-Blake E., what do you attribute your success to?
Relationships.

Per the business model: to realize the creativity and ideas of clients through each collaboration and distinctively-made piece has proven to be the foundation of Lineage Leather. Developing relationships with clients and becoming a trusted craftsman has allowed me to become the “neighborhood leather guy”. I also believe clients’ realization of their own creative depth in a piece that I have made provides another level of relationship seldom realized through mainstream retail goods. In turn, this has not only allowed for many special projects but repeat clients that become friends of Lineage.

Further, the idea behind Lineage was and is to maintain connection with others, specifically family at its origin. As I began leatherwork in 2016, I was equipped with the desire to continue a family trade that began with my mother. Lineage quickly assumed the role as a connection to her and all others in the family who might pick up a needle and wax thread, or at the very least, enjoy what what we could make for them. Such a trait of the brand provided success outside of business, though ultimately, contributed to it.

The engine behind Lineage is best fueled by each collaboration had with another rather than any blind sale. While such is an essential factor to success in any standard business, Lineage has the privilege of living as mode of connection and collaboration between people and creativity.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My favorite aspect about my art is that it is not my own. While aligning two on one final design or idea can provide a challenge, the avenues for innovation are that much more vast and fulfilling. There are and have been many original Lineage designs produced, yet since the nature of a good being sold requires two parties, leveraging my creativity with leather as a business has benefitted by including the client.

Currently, I am enjoying a minimal pursuit of business and a maximum pursuit of art, which has allowed me to come up with new ideas and pieces that are more for my personal enjoyment and less for a sale. I have always struggled with the balance of holding onto leather as a hobby versus a business, so at times, I like to step back from the business and allow the creativity to breath a bit deeper.

Lineage will always be a bridge to others, allowing me to share a trade passed down to me; though, at times, I have learned that in order for the passion to persist, business has to be second and the thought of money even more fleeting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Shouting out the FW in DFW, here are my favorite spots in Fort Worth.

Eat:
– Gemelle
– Maybe an odd choice, but Central Market is the best
– Mamaka Bowls for acai and coffee
– Rodeo Goat (in Dallas and Fort Worth)
– Lolas Cuban Food Truck
– Game Theory (board games and food)

Hang/go there:
– Sundance Square, FT Worth
– Trinity River for a walk/run
– go get tatted at Panther City Tattoo
– Morgan Mercantile

Coffee:
– Arcadia Coffee
– Vaquero Coffee

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Per the origin of my leather story, I would’ve never picked up the tools without the smell of leather first permeating our home in 2010 when my mother, Briskilla Zananiri, would begin her practice. After a failed search for the perfect iPad cover, she opted to make her own. This very notion, to solve a problem by making the solution with a set of hands, provided the stepping stone for me 6 years later. Thanks, ma.

My wife, my beloved wife, Briana Zananiri, is the ultimate encouragement. Whether it be through her direct verbal support of what I make or when modelling Lineage products, she is here for it all. She also inspires through her own endeavors; namely, her “Finding the Good” series where she share the testimonies of women that are on a journey with God.

Any success, where I am in life, and each good thing can all be attested to my relationship with Jesus Christ. To know Him, the ultimate creator, and to pursue a creative trade combines for quite a divine and peaceful pursuit. To Him I am always thankful.

Website: lineageleather.us

Instagram: lineageleather

Image Credits
I took them all personally.