Phygital Art - Fully Functional Leather Bags Build History Permanently Recorded
Sep 23, 2026
Thomas Bradley is a United States Marine veteran and former solar sales professional based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He began silversmithing in March 2023 and leatherworking shortly after, learning from patterns made by Vasile — a Romanian craftsman with over 30 years at the bench. https://persecutedtruth.com/
Tulsa, United States, September 23, 2026 /PressCable/ -- In November of 1929, the Seiko Watch Corporation supplied the Japanese National Railway with pocket watches on a grand scale. The railway ran on time. If it ever made a worker late, a handwritten apology note was delivered to the worker's employer. That story of craft, punctuality, and honor became the inspiration for Bradley's latest work — the Timely EDC Conductor. Built as a homage to the Japanese people and the spirit of Seikosha, it represents over 131 hours of hand craftsmanship, pure silver hardware, and a modified GMT watch integrated directly into the bag. It is listed at $18,000.
What sets his work apart isn't just the craft — it's what happens after the bag is finished. Every piece Bradley makes is embedded with an NTAG 424 DNA NFC chip and minted as a 1-of-1 NFT on the Ethereum blockchain. The entire build history — photographs, hours logged, certificate of authenticity, 3D model — is stored on Arweave, a permanent decentralized archive that requires no company to keep it alive, and linked to that chip. Tap the bag with a phone and the full provenance record opens instantly. It cannot be faked. It cannot be lost. It travels with the bag forever. Sotheby's catalogs objects with less provenance.
View his work here:
https://persecutedtruth.com/pages/portfolio-1
The phygital idea came from watching the NFT space and realizing that provenance — knowing where something came from and who made it — was the missing piece in handmade goods.
Thomas combines physical craft at the highest level with a permanent digital record that travels with the bag forever. His work demonstrates that American handmade craft is alive. One person working alone, with their hands, can produce something that competes with the great luxury houses — not by copying them, but by doing something they can't: total transparency, total provenance, total story.
These bags are proof that craft, faith and integrity can produce objects that belong in the same conversation as the world's great luxury goods — without the pretense, without the factory, and without the lie that a logo is the same as a story.
The ultimate business goal is to build a multi-discipline atelier in Tulsa — a physical space where leather, metalwork, and eventually other crafts are practiced under one roof, with a small team. Plans include a Provenance Library that documents every piece ever made. It is a lighthouse, literally and figuratively.
Thomas states, "I love to make bags. And it's simple, but then again it's not. The leather comes birthed from the death of something and given to me to make it have new life. I receive the leather (natural vegetable tanned leather) fairly marked up from the life of the animal who gave it. I like to use the parts that are nearly free of blemishes or scars, but then I come across a part that will make a good story. Inspecting and feeling the leather can tell you what part of the hide will go well for what part of the bag. I cut out the pieces using a bag pattern that I previously drew up while waiting for the materials to arrive. Something will inspire me on what I want to replicate- It's a bag and it works as a bag, but I want it to radiate with a specific feeling or style, to make you stop and think about it. I apply oil to the cut panels that are laying flatly on the workbench and this is where I start to really get into it: Putting dye on the panels makes it start to glow with a beautiful and deep color only achievable through dye and oil. This is not the final color as it still needs the finish applied, but I can now see what was previously only a thought. I am able to now add the supple but strong liner leather that I picked out just for the bag. This can give a contrast only noticed when opening and then you know that integrity was used throughout. I like to use a hardware metal color that not only is solid throughout (solid brass, silver, steel, etc.) but also makes the story of the bag complete. The finished bag is really where I can interpret the full meaning of the story put into the bag. I am always very surprised by how beautiful each bag turns out and I believe that it is brilliance in the basics."
"One of one. Always."
Contact Info:
Name: Thomas Bradley
Email: Send Email
Organization: Persecuted Truth
Address: 5103 S Sheridan Rd. P.O. Box 451, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145, United States
Website: https://persecutedtruth.com
Source: PressCable
Release ID: 89204208
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