Renaissance Art

Last month we introduced these new covers for your pocket size Moleskine notebooks.  We are now introducing a new line of covers for your large size Moleskine notebooks.

All of these covers utilize the elastic band in the rear of the notebooks and come in 7 different leather colors.  There is a pen loop inside with 3 extra pockets for storage.  We are also offering 2 styles of non closure covers, our less expensive Traditional cover (not shown and not included in this offer) with no extra pockets or pen loop and our No Closure style (not shown and IS included in this offer) with those 3 storage pockets and pen loop. Below is a pic of the new designs (the traditional style has been available for over a month now and is not showing). All of these have pen loops and 3 extra pockets on the left side for extra paper storage.

Go HERE to pick the one you would like to read more about.
Enter coupon code MSRELGCVR for a 20% discount off the base price.
The discount is available thru Sunday, 14/June.

A couple days ago an order came in with the request to make the flap from the edge of the leather hide instead of it being rounded.

After laying out and holding the template to all the sides of a leather hide, well… being the perfectionists we are, it took scouting out the best spot on 3 different hides before finding the one that looked the best for this.  Below is what we came up with.
You can click HERE to see how the regular one looks.

Cost of this tweak was $10.  But after taking all that time to lay out 3 hides and find the perfect space I think we would charge $15 next time.

I guess that title could have multiple meanings but I assure you that we are not talking about the economy.  We are talking about our Rustic Brown Leather.  Many of you keep asking what does our brown leather looks like when it is distressed.  Well here is pic.

What we did is to take a piece of scrap, cut in two pieces and then take the one on the right on wring it out like wet rag.  This is what happens.  It also gets softer but you cannot see softness in a photo.

If you already have some of our stuff, try it sometime.  It will add a whole new dimension to your leather.  And, if you have tried it, let us know what you think and how it looks in relation to the pictures below.   We show it in the brown leather because the black does not do this.

This happens because the Rustic leather we use is oil tanned leather.  What this means is that when you bend it, the oils move around to create different color depth effects.  The effect is called “pullup”.  It is the same reasons why scratches will rub out of it.  Our leather is 2.2mm in thickness or 5.5 - 6 ounce in American terms.

If you would like some scrap with your next order just let us know by making a note in the Special Instructions box located on the Shipping page when you checkout.

Durk is the name we have given to our big sewing machine.  You can read about it here.  Yesterday durk broke.  When Durk breaks it means that book covers and bags cannot be made.   A small, seemingly insignificant piece in the shuttle just plain broke.  A shuttle in the sewing machine is what holds the bobbin and connects the thread on top to the bobbin thread below.  So, it is an absolutely essential piece.  You can see in the 2 images below the broken shuttle and the housing for it.

The pieces above fit into the housing on the side of the machine:

This morning the new shuttle arrived and within 30 minutes the piece was installed and the bobbin tension set.  Btw… for you serious crafters, fyi, this piece was $100 less at Campbell-Bosworth than it was at Weaver Leather.

It may look ordinary, but it’s not your great grandmother’s sewing machine. This Adler 205-320 Cylinder Arm Saddle is the Big Daddy of three sewing machines we use – and there’s a reason we use it 98% of the time. With a triple feed mechanism and a maximum stitch length of 1/4 inch, it’s the real workhorse of the studio.

We purchased this Adler about five years ago when Arthur’s Mountainsmith cordura fanny pack broke. When he couldn’t find a suitable replacement, we decided to just get our own sewing machine and start making our own bags (sound familiar?). We also use the machine to sew up all of our book covers, bags, moleskine products, menus and some custom products. (NOTE: All of our journals are HAND STITCHED with needles and thread.)

The advantage of this heavy-duty machine is that it guarantees maximum durability and a solid aesthetic. The heavy thread we use gives our products a hand-sewn look and superior strength. The triple feed mechanism sews any material that goes through here in three different ways to ensure an even stitch length and that there is no slipping.

In the title picture, you can see the large flywheel on the right. This is where the motor connects to the machine by means of a belt, much like the fan belt in your car. Weighing 10 pounds, the flywheel gives plenty of momentum to provide smooth stitching when the needle travels through multiple layers (up to 1 inch) of leather. The handle just to the left of the flywheel controls forward and reverse. All the way to the left is where the needle is housed, and the pressure foot is raised and lowered by the handle on the top left. But we have a pedal on the floor for that also.

As you can see in this next photo (click the thumbnail for a bigger version), the needle and bobbin are huge. The needle has twice the diameter of a paper clip and is almost as long as a Bic lighter. The bobbin has a one-inch diameter and is housed in the shuttle for sewing.

For all those home sewers who frequently poke their finger on their home machine, this is not a needle to get close to. At a top speed of 600 stitches per minute it will effortlessly sew right through your bone. Arthur, Kristel, LaShanda and Allin all work on this machine, and they can all attest to how carefully they use it in order to save their fingers.

In this next photo, you can see the machine and how the cylinder arm hangs over the table. This helps when sewing bags because the bulk of the bag hangs over the table as you stitch the edge. Those two spools of thread on the top right? They are two pounds each. One is for the machine and the other for winding bobbins.

This next picture is of the shuttle assembly. This is where the bobbin thread and the top thread get all tied together and make the stitch. Various screws and dials here and on the machine control how tight the stitch gets. It’s good to mention now that there are about 24 places to oil this machine, all of which gets oiled once a week. The shuttle itself gets a drop of oil every 2 or 3 bobbins - on average, we go through about 6 or 7 bobbins daily. When working on a large order for menus or binders or a large custom order, we can go through 30 bobbins in a single day. Granted, they do not hold much because of the heavy thread we use - one bobbin can sew 3-1/2 to 4 shoulder straps for a bag before it runs out.

We do require our people to train on this machine extensively before using it for production. How? By having them make leather coasters. By sewing two pieces of square leather, they learn how to sew straight, use the guide, how to start, stop and control the machine as well as mastering how to do nice, neat corners. Afterwards, they can put a stiff drink on the coaster (that they get to keep, of course) and celebrate keeping all of their fingers.

Next time you look at the large stitches on our products, think of Big Daddy, and pray we don’t stick our fingers!

P.S. Happy Easter, everyone!

This is our skiver, probably the most complicated piece of equipment in the studio, and definitely the most useful. In short, the skiver allows us to thin down the end of a piece of leather to virtually any depth, allowing us to give the leather a rolled edge without making it any thicker.

For those who thought we made rolled edges through sorcery and magic - sorry to ruin the mystery.

There’s a lot of parts that go into this piece of machinery to make it do what is does. As you can see from the picture above, there’s a pedal at the bottom that controls how fast the leather gets fed into the blade. The skived waste is ejected down the chute and into the garbage can.

The level of thinness the leather is “skived” down to is determined by adjusting a presser foot up or down via a lever. This is done by means of a dial on the very top of the machine. How deep into the leather the skive goes is set by a guide which the leather rides against as it is fed into the blade. (Click on the below thumbnail for a close up.)

The skive blade is shaped like a bell with the knife end on the left. This blade spins while leather is fed into it from left to right. In this close up, you can clearly see the bell knife on the right, the presser foot on the leather and the stainless steel guide which controls the depth. (Click on thumbnail for close up.)

Now the leather is ready to go.

The leather runs through pretty fast. This how it looks when it is about half-way through. You can see how the leather runs underneath the presser foot.

The following pictures show the back side of the piece of leather, before and after. The first picture is untouched, of course. The second is after the skiving. The third is after the leather is folded to make a rolled edge. Beuatiful!

Our skiver is incredibly precise, and can skive leather even thinner than paper. However, it can only skive to a maximum depth of 2 inches, so leather that is too wide can be a problem. Multiple passes to thin a wider piece of leather can be made but it definitely pushes this skiver to its limit.

A better machine for wide pieces is a splitter, which we hope to acquire some time in the future. (Note to accounting.)

Keep an eye out for a video demonstration in the future!

Welcome to the first of our equipment profiles, to give you a behind the scenes about how we produce the products in our studio. Yes, this intimidating apparatus looks like something out of a Tim Burton film, but we swear this almost 120-year old machine does something useful at Renaissance Art.

Guess what it is? Say hello to one of our paper cutters. This is a Chandler and Price Guillotine cutter that we use to cut up our 3X5, 4X6 cards. Built in Cleveland, OH in the 1890’s, has a 26 inch cutting blade and weighs about 1000 pounds – it has enough heft to cut a stack of paper 3 inches thick.

The bar is thrown by hand and has a counterweight that cannot be clearly seen in this picture. Also imperceptible in the photo is some of the old detailing, but some of the original gold leaf ornamentation is still visible in person. It is indeed a sight to behold.

The cutter is permanently mounted to a pallet so that we can move it around when needed. We even use a section of old iron railroad tie to add additional weight to the cutter so it does not slide on the ground when in use. Keep an eye out for the upcoming video when we’ll show you the cutter in action!