Client: Private

When I was studying Ottoman bookbinding in university in Istanbul I was captivated by the ornate detail in the original bindings we saw in museums and collections. The sculpted relief was highly intricate and allowed for a rich variety of form. In contrast, the photo-etched ‘zinkograf’ blocks we used, while their patterns were beautiful, depended solely on the ‘bubble’ effect of the embossed area rising up into the cavity etched into the block. Since then I have had a desire to make hand-engraved blocks that would enable this sort of detailing and was fortunate enough to do that very thing in this project. The client requested me to compose an original design, and then to create a fully hand-engraved embossing block to be used to emboss a bespoke leather bag he had commissioned from a renowned English leather-worker.