A week in the penumbra workshop
Have you ever been curious about what goes on in our workshop? In this article, we’ll give you a glimpse into our world and take you on a quick tour through our week.
Monday
Monday is our day for dirty work. First, we manually cut the rough shapes of our leathers and vegan alternatives, which will then be handed over to the laser cutter for precision cutting. You can choose from about 30 color and material options for the base material alone, meaning we have quite a bit of rough cutting to do each week.
When cutting with the laser, soot forms on the edges, so the pieces must be carefully cleaned by hand afterward. Wearing masks and gloves, we get to work. Everything needs to be finished that day to dry overnight and be ready for further processing the next day.
Tuesday:
On Tuesday, we focus on all sorts of preparation steps. A collar, for example, can consist of up to five layers of material when it’s finished – and all of them need to be bonded together first. We glue, iron, tack, and – if we’re quick – even start sewing.
Our collars from the incision collection, your absolute penumbra favorites, require five preparation steps before we can even get to the sewing machine:
- Lining and backing are joined together
- We also need to incorporate the correct ring base at this stage
- The lining leather is then hand-cut to its final shape
- The edges of the lining leather are folded over and glued
- The top leather and the colored backing fabric are glued together
- Only then do we move on to the “real” work at the sewing machine, where the collar, as you know it, is created
We carry out all these steps by hand, ensuring that we accommodate your color and material preferences. Over the years, we have developed a system that allows us to quickly identify how each individual piece fits together.
Wednesday:
On Wednesdays, we aim to make all the collars ready. We finish stitching and then fit the collars with the correct hardware, rivets, and eyelets.
Avoiding mistakes here is crucial; if something goes wrong, we must start the entire piece over again. Leather and vegan alternatives don’t forgive errors, and once it’s sewn or eyeleted incorrectly, there’s no going back.
It’s definitely our most meditative day. The sewing machine hums and the workshop fills with the soft clicking of the spindle press as we add the finishing hardware to your penumbra accessories. We use small clips to mark which metal color goes with each piece – if you’re into sewing, you’ve probably seen these clips before.
Thursday:
On Thursdays, we finish up anything we didn’t complete on Wednesday. This usually includes sewing hand and ankle cuffs or adding rivets and eyelets here and there.
Thursday is also our packing day, which can take several hours.
It’s our “this-and-that” day, too, as small tasks often pile up during the week that need attention. Sometimes, that means breaking down boxes from material deliveries or tidying up the workshop in general. It is when we handle all those little things we can’t get to during the rest of the week.
Friday:
On Fridays, your packages head off to the post office. It’s usually quiet in the workshop on this day – unless we haven’t managed to finish all orders in time, in which case we’re back at the machines. Typically, though, you’ll find Lena and workshop dog Oscar working from home on Fridays, where they prepare the task lists for the coming week and set up files for the laser cutter.
Our order cycle typically runs from Thursday to Thursday. This means that products added to the order list by Thursday morning will most likely make it onto Friday’s task list and into production the following week.
Theoretically, this should mean that we only need up to two weeks to complete an order. So, why do we indicate longer processing times? While this timeline is generally accurate, unexpected delays can always occur that may impact production time.
- Sometimes we’re waiting on material deliveries that arrive later than expected, which can prevent us from completing an order as quickly as planned.
- Occasionally, someone is on vacation or out sick – or the workshop may be closed for a few days for company holidays. This also affects our processing times, as in such a small team, every person makes a huge difference.
- Sometimes, there’s simply too much to do, and we have to push orders back by a week to keep up.
- Finally, although it’s rare, occasional mistakes do happen, requiring us to start a piece over from scratch. After all, we’re only human.
We hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our world!
If you’d like to know when to place your order to receive it by a specific date, feel free to check out our guide on order and delivery timelines.
With love,
Lena and the penumbra team!