Today in the studio, the knots on our Arc Shoulder Bag are being turned and burned. Our unofficial term for the act of melting the ends of each knot—of which there are over 40 on any given bag—and folding it back over into the leather, turning and burning is one of the most critical production steps.

For each knot, an artisan like Vicky will burn the nylon thread just enough to melt it. Then, before it hardens, the knot and end are pulled back into the stitch’s hole with tweezers and pushed in with a hammer. They’ll subsequently use a bone folder to smooth the leather back over the sealed knot, which hides it almost completely and makes it unlikely that any unraveling will happen later on down the line. 

The dual-colored threads of the Arc are safely secured in one of three manners: a non-visible turn-and-burn, a visible turn-and-burn, and an edge wrap. Non-visible ones are done on a piece of leather that will later be attached to another; because the knot will never see the open air, the bone folder step is rendered unnecessary. Visible ones appear on the bag’s exterior, and so it’s important that these are perfectly sealed and invisible. Edge wraps are, lastly, turn-and-burns made extra strong by virtue of five threads that reinforce the bag’s corners. 

Once all of these are completed and determined to be undetectable, these nearly-done Arcs will move on to their next stage. 

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