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February 28, 2017 2 min read
Simple, yet effective. This is one of our staple leather presentation print portfolios. We make them for photographers, designers, models, architects, fashion students, companies, pretty much anyone looking to stand out and make a bit more of a statement about themselves.
The leather we use is sourced from a wholsesaler in London who buys it direct from the tannery in Italy. It is top grain (top surface) leather, therefore hasn't been corrected and so each piece is indvidual and as such has a bit of its own character.
The leather is quite thick at approximately 35mm. It has been veg (vegetation) tanned as opposed to Bromide tanning. The effect of this is that it is a little bit more rigid, but also you get that Leather Smell! Bromide tanned leather can tend to be very soft, but you don't get the smell.
The leather has had second 'finishing' process done to it at the tannery in Italy and that is 'tumbling'. The hides are place into a large drum which is then spun relatively slowly - It's a bit like a big tumble drier, but on a cold cycle. This gives the leather its look and its texture. The top grain of leather is naturally very flat in looks and texture and the only marks you see are natural scars. Anything else tends to be put there by the tannery (for instance a skin pattern). Tumbling, however lets the leather create it's own pattern and as a result you very seldom get similar hides looking the same. Some hides crinkle more that others!. Tumbled leather is only available to us in 35mm brown and 25mm black.
We make our portfolio-books out of a single side of leather. Depending upon the size of the hide, we'll get roughly two A3 or 11x17 portfolios out of each hide we buy. We match the spine of the portfolios with the spine of the hide. This is quite important for us, as we get the natural look of the leather with the grain running in the right direction in relation to the portfolio.
After preparing the inside facing of the leather, the second process is placing innner and outer covers onto the leather. These are made from 1.5cm acid free grey board (which is recycled board) which are then covered in book cloth, the colour of which can be chosen on our swatch page. You can have whetever colour you want, there are no surcharges for differant colours.
To see more examples of leather portfolio books, click our gallery page here