#harmatan leather

[christophershaw-bookbinder-blog]

1914 Bound in Pepper Harmatan goatskin with a Black Harmatan goatskin solander box

[christophershaw-bookbinder-blog]

Spinola Insects Plates 1844 Harmatan goatskin, Payhembury Marbled Paper sides and endpapers

[christophershaw-bookbinder-blog]

Binding of pastepaper offcuts from Mark Hearld's scrapbook. Teal Harmatan goatskin

[christophershaw-bookbinder-blog]

Compton Marbling sample book bound in

Blue Harmatan goatskin spine with Compton marbling paper sides and slipcase.

[christophershaw-bookbinder-blog]

Finished Book, Harmatan Valencia crimson goatskin, Payhembury Marbled Paper,23 carat gold leaf.

[dddots]

A long awaited visit to Harmatan leather, a place where all the beautiful Fine Goat leathers I have been using come from. I made a call to Lee just as we got the car from Heathrow Airport and said we will arrive in Northampton in about 2 hours. Just as we pulled up into the carpark, Lee came out and warmly welcomed us. 

It was just pure excitement for me and usually when I get excited, I start to behave rather oddly, being lost for words and extremely reserved (though I really wonder why). Lee showed me the various colours that I asked for, and I picked out 6 beautiful pieces of skin: 2 chocolate browns, which have been really popular, 1 midnight blue, 1 terracotta, 1 royal purple and 1 peacock blue. 

I have always wondered how is it even possible to measure the area of a piece of skin, it being in such an irregular shape with the funny scraggly ends. Lee showed us this machine that ran on many mechanical gears and pins that once you feed the skin through, will measure every bit of it. Now I understand why Mark always tells me that you pay for every square centimetre of leather you buy.

Thank you, Lee, for showing us around the wonderful tannery.