British designer Tove Emilsson has created modern purses using medieval techniques with his Hunters Bend collection.
The line’s wallets and spectacle cases seem very contemporary, but they’re actually made using an ancient method of manipulating leather. The leather is soaked with boiling water, which makes it pliable. Once it’s dried the leather then sets hard in place.
The technique was original used to make armor during medieval times. More recently Simon Hasan made boiled leather stools and vases, and Tortie Hoare made boiled leather furniture. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before a handbag designer experimented with the technique!
Emilsson created the Hunters Bend line while studying at Sweden’s HDK School of Design and Crafts.
“The Hunters Bend project is about how our personal possessions affect our perceived identity and in what way the value of an object may increase with the relationship that is built up towards the user,” she explained.
Each purse is made from a single piece of leather, which is folded in upon itself until it locks into place. The effect is quite stunning, and the sort of thing I’d love to see rolled out into a mainstream collection. As the Hunters Bend line was created as part of a school project, I won’t hold my breath waiting for its appearance in stores. I’d love to see some boiled leather goods hitting the accessories market though, wouldn’t you?
