How Olive sparrow started.
Hey there!
My name is Billy Tziatas, 50-50 Greek & German and I'm based on Thassos, the most northern island of Greece.
My main profession was actually photography (https://billytzphotography.com/), but I've always been a maker, be it with wood, metal, or tinkering with my motorcycles.
How did I start leathercrafting?
In 2020 My grandfather gave me some of the leather tools he had laying around from when he was doing leathercraft as a hobby, and I started playing around and making some things for myself, soon friends started asking for things, then friends of friends, and even random people who saw my stuff on social media.
The birth of Olive Sparrow Leather Goods.
In Late 2021 during the long winter quarantine here in Greece due to the pandemic, I obviously had a lot of time on my hands and also was economically quite stretched because I previously relied on photographing people, which was kinda difficult during that time. And somehow (I really don't remember how) I stumbled upon Etsy, started posting the things I had made, designed new products, and decided to sell patterns as well for everyone who is a tinkerer like me!
Fast forward to 2022 and I created this website So I can present my work the way I like and my YouTube channel to help people who want to do what I did!
And as they say, the rest is history?
Thanks for reading! feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions or wanna chat!
“I love leather as a material.
The way you can make so many things out of it, which will last a lifetime while looking better with each passing year, if you give them just a little care.”
