Renaissance Art

Number 4, Sara, won Giveaway #40, our  Classic Size Leather Cover with flap and D-ring snap closure for your Rollabind or Circa brand notebook with 1-inch rings. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

So, it’s National Fishing Week and the artisans at Renaissance Art have no shame in confessing that we love fishing. Arthur heads to the Jemez Mountains for fly fishing. LaShanda/Tommy (resident bag maker) catches trout at Monastery Lake near Pecos. Jackie can fish on her property north of Abiquiu. And JenMarie (that’s me) loves sushi (does that count?).

If you love fishing as much as we do (that is to say, if you already knew it was fishing week), then you’re gonna love our new giveaway: a Wrap-&-Tie-style Rustic Fishing Journal.

Where’s your favorite (past or present) fishing hole? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

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In his special instructions, one of our customers recently asked if we would document the creation of his Laptop Messenger Bag. We were more than happy to oblige. If you have ever wondered the what the life of an order at Renaissance Art is like from start to finish, check out Part II of this three-part installment:

At the end of the last entry, Tommy had just cut the gusset, strap hanger and strap parts and began to skive (a process to split leather in order to make it thinner) sections of the bag pieces to prepare them for assembly. To provide the laptop case with stiffness, the bag needs edging. To fashion it, Tommy measures and cuts a thin piece of skived leather. She marks the placement on the wall of the bag where the edging will go.

She then tapes the wrong side of the piece of edging and carefully folds a quarter of that onto itself.

She then places half of the now folded edging along the long side of the wall. She folds the other half of the edging into the back of the wall. The edging wraps around the raw edge.

In order to keep the edging firmly in place and to create an attractive stitch pattern, Tommy sews the edging along the top and bottom to the wall of the bag.

After finishing the edging, Tommy starts working on the flap pocket. The flap pocket is the piece on the inside of the flap that gives it stiffness. She has to skive the edge and roll it over to provide a nice, finished edge.

Tommy then tapes three edges of the flap pocket and places it firmly on the flap.

Stay tuned for Part III: the Final Build

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Arthur brought in an entire tray of scones five minutes ago, and they are already nearly gone. He didn’t have any oranges, so he used lemon zest in the batter. Studio opinion: delicious!

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In his special instructions, one of our customers recently asked if we would document the creation of his Laptop Messenger Bag. We were more than happy to oblige. If you have ever wondered the what the life of an order at Renaissance Art is like from start to finish, check out this three-part installment:

The first step to creating a custom laptop bag is to create a calculations sheet. Tommy, our resident bag lady, takes measurements of the customer’s laptop and plugs them into an Excel database that provides her with the correct dimensions for templates. Once she has the calculations for the templates, she can get started on the bag.

• Look at order and complete a calculation sheet
• Cut templates according to calculation sheet
• Use templates to cut leather
• Click gusset, strap hanger and strap parts
• Put edging on the wall and front gusseted pocket
• Skive, roll and sew the rear pocket
• Attach strap hangers to flap wall and sew
• Attach rear pocket over strap hangers
• Skive one end of gusset
• Attach front gusseted pocket to front wall and sew to gusset
• Attach gusset to extra compartment wall (if applicable)
• Attach second gusset
• Attach two compartments to the flap wall
• Attach the flap pocket to the flap
• Use template to round corners of flap
• Sew around the entire bag
• Sew strap and buckle. Add keeper.
• Process the order, pack and ship the bag to its new owner

If this sounds like Greek to you, follow along with our pictures below.

After printing her calculation sheet, Tommy will select a hide appropriate for the bag. She’s looking for one with few to no blemishes: brands, scars, weak spots. All products crafted from our Rustic Brown leather start out in the hide pile. Our leather is delivered on pallets in this way. We receive the black and Rustic Elegance leathers in rolls, so we keep those in roll piles.

After choosing a hide, Tommy will put it on her work table while she cuts her templates. She uses the ruler on the cutter to size the binders board according to her calculation sheet. The templates she will cut for a Mac bag are flap/wall (the back of the bag and the flap that covers the opening), flap pocket (pocket that is on the inside of the flap–it gives it weight), wall (front piece of the bag, rear pocket, gusset (the thinner piece of leather that connects the wall to the flap/wall), strap hangers (this part attaches the strap to the bag) and gusseted pocket (a three-dimensional pocket). We have to cut templates to size from binders board for all our custom items.

Once she cuts her templates, Tommy picks perfect sections of the hide to make the pieces of the bag. She uses the templates to cut each piece precisely. If we have dies for the piece, Tommy has to use our “clicker” (a big industrial machine that uses metal dies to cut pieces out of leather) to cut the gusset, strap hanger and strap parts.

After cutting the pieces, Tommy has to skive the leather (shave it to an appropriate thickness) so that she can fold a small section over to create a smooth edge. This skiver is set to 1/4 in. width. Tommy is skiving the wall in this picture.

Stay tuned for more soon…and, if you haven’t heard, it’s March Bag Madness. Look for our Basic Essential Satchel on sale this week and Custom Laptop and Mac Bags at the end of the month.

Number 31, Julie (okami), won Giveaway #36, our 3 x 5 Binder. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

Because we offer personalization on all our items at Renaissance Art, we work daily with metal moveable type.

We have to dig through our type trays for the right letters and then place them (backward) in a 300 degree stamping machine.

For most journals, we use the small typeset. It is tiny! And some letters look really similar…

That said…we are giving away a Hers Valentine’s Day Journal (personalized of course: MPD)

And what exactly does MPD stand for? Most Perfect Doppelganger? Many Prizes Deserved? Monster Poet Dork? You decide.

What’s your favorite antiquated tool that you still use? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

One forecaster called for an inch of snow…we got eight : )

LaShanda, JenMarie and Ariel be in a little later today…or maybe tomorrow…

(p.s. for those who like songs with harp, Joanna Newsom has a new album out today from Drag City Records. Catch the free stream of the entire album on NPR…good in the sun or the snow)

And one more thing…for those of you in the Tucson-area, there will be great poetry readings this Friday and Saturday at Casa Libre en la Solana. Camille Dungy will be leading a workshop there and reading with Niki Herd Saturday night. Our very own JenMarie and a slew of others will be reading Friday night.

This is Artbeast, Arthur, and…. one of my great passions is Chinese Tea, specifically gung fu tea, tea served with great care.  This is not at all like the more formal and lengthy Japanese Tea Ceremony.  Gung Fu tea is informal and centering and with a group quite social.  I practice it daily.  Anyway… this being one of my passions, I am working on a new venture, finding local potters to develop with me a unique line of handcrafted teaware to bridge the Chinese and American/European tea cultures.  I am calling this new company Tea Hardware.  One of the potters I am working with is Ray Morales.  He sent me 19 sample cups the other day and I have been sitting with them, drinking tea in the dawn hours in my tea room.  I thot I would share a picture of what he sent me and see what other people’s life passions are.  This pic is taken on the table in my tea room.

So….. What are some of your great passions in life… those things you love to do by yourself or with a group? Another one of mine is playing the Shakuhachi flute… maybe a future post on that one.

Ray also has a Facebook Fan page HERE
As does Renaissance Art HERE
As does Artbeast HERE

For those of you who think that Santa Fe never sees snow:

Santa Fe is actually located about 2,000 feet ABOVE Denver. And we are over 1,000 feet higher in the city than in the Pojoaque Valley where the Renaissance Art studio is. So the three artisans that live in Santa Fe proper and carpool the 25-minute commute to work together have a delay!

Well, I guess the filming for The Rum Diary just finished and they are having a party in Puerto Rico on Monday.  We are making leather cases for the film manuscripts that will be given to the actors, including the stars.

Here is a pic of what they will be receiving.

Number 8, Windy won the free giveaway last week. It was the 4X6 refillable journal with wrap and tie closure. Please email us with your name and address to get your free giveaway from last week

SO… a little trivia along with this giveaway.  Hope you enjoy it

A long long time ago in a distant state, on the kitchen table in the tri-plex where I lived…. that is where I made my first book.  That was after spending 6 months after work every day in Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores reading all the books I could find on the subject.  When I finally bought a few books and started making them it was just a hobby.  AND… they were not leather.  They were a tri laminate of handmade papers to make them more durable than just paper.  So, I wonder, how many of you all out there ever knew this is how Renaissance Art started and that we did not make anything leather at the beginning.  At the start I had less than 10 products in my line and the very first summer art fair I did was in Bellingham, WA.  The booth fee was $150 and I sold $75 of stuff.  My booth was 2 folding card tables covered with burlap.  I was nervous.

We still have on Special our 4X6 refillable journal at a 40% discount.
Go HERE to see what the 4X6 Refillable Journal looks like.
Go HERE to get linked to the specials page… coupon code is on the page.

We are giving away one of the paper books we made in the beginning.  This book still has the Arches paper we have always used in our books.  This is the book we eventually patterned our medium 72 page journal after.  Here is a pic. Hope you all like it.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

As usual, click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS THIS post.

Well… I guess that is a wedding vow but it also applies to us when it comes to shipping out orders on time.

As some of you know, we are a really small company… five employees plus Kristel and Artbeast (that’s me).  So, when 2 people are sick the same day, that is almost half our work force.  LaShanda has an absyssed tooth and Larry… well, without going into too much detail, he is feeling just plain miserable.  That was yesterday.  LaShanda is here today making bags for you all.  It looks like she has some chew in her mouth but that is still that same tooth giving her trouble.  And… even though she wants to laugh, she can’t.  So why did she come in today?  That woman just loves making bags for everyone.

So, if we are a bit slow this week please excuse us.  We are workin on it

I wrapped up Giveaway 20 today and am conjeuring up another.

… this custom bag will probably hold it.  Here is LaShanda… (more about her next week) sewing up a custom bag with a usable inside space of 24 inches wide and 12 inches high… including our POVS’s.  I think this is the largest bag we have made.

JenMarie just started working for us a week ago. She will be the assistant of Artbeast, that’s me, probably do some writing on this blog and the newsletter (yes… finally a regular newsletter will be going out) and helping me to keep on trac with designing, producing and getting all the new product stuff we have here on the site.

You can read her bio HERE or by clicking on the JenMarie link on the right side of this page.
Have a look-see of her website too.  It is called Fact-Simile Editions and you can get to it HERE.

So… say Hi to JenMarie.

Btw… in the coming weeks you will see bios of the rest of us being put up… thanks to JenMarie

When I was a teen I ran away from home (didn’t most of us).  Two weeks later my parents found me in a library.  Today, bookstores, new or used, are the library for me.  I learned how to make books by sitting in the aisles of two well know bookstores.  My favorite, though, are used bookstores and garage sales with old books.  And while some of these books are really wonderful, they are typically in less than poor shape.  I bought one such book at a garage sale in Providence, RI two years ago while on a road trip.  On the flight home from CT it fell and at the same time fell apart, leaving book crumbs all over the aisle of the airplane. 

So, I decided to make this rustic looking pouch for it so I could take it with me and read it…. one of the benefits of having all the tools, materials and a workspace.

We are thinking of creating a product around this concept…. Custom pouches and slipcases… not just for falling apart books but for anything, including maybe a moleskine notebook with some pencils or a portable watercolor set or whatever.

Btw… the book is The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by O. W. Holmes.

Beneath the well fed exterior of this friendly looking man lies some medieval madness and the spirit of a warrior.  Today at 2 in the afternoon, Mountain Time, Larry will be putting his talents to work auditioning for the Santa Fe Opera as a spear carrier. 

Let’s all wish Larry a broken leg… or however they say that good luck thing in the acting world.

You can read more about Larry HERE.