Cut. Carved. Struck. Sewn.
Leather, wood, and stone objects made slowly, by hand, at the bench. Every object begins with material selection and is refined through repetition.
A template is an argument about proportion.
Card bays, the depth of a pocket, the height a mill should stand, the weight a hand expects. Each is drawn, made, lived with for a week, and drawn again.
Leather, wood, stone, brass.
Hides are dyed by hand in small lots, so no two finish the same. Oak is chosen quarter-sawn for straight figure; stone for weight; brass because it is solid, not plated.
The lathe, the press, the iron, the pony.
Oak is turned on the lathe and cut back until the proportion is right. Marks are struck under an arbor press. Holes are pricked with an iron, not drilled. Seams are sewn saddle-stitch with two needles, so one broken thread stays one broken thread.
Machines are used where a machine is honest. Everything that decides how an object feels is done by hand.
An edge is finished when it stops feeling like a cut.
Bevelled, sanded, sealed, burnished — four passes, no shortcut. Wood is oiled and left to move. Surfaces are allowed to reveal their age. Then the object is held, used, and carried before it is allowed to leave.
Objects come back to the studio for repair, for the life of the object. That is the point of making them this way.