The production time for our standard items is up to three weeks since everything here at penumbra is handmade, and we only work on commission. Every product you order is made just for you. The leather or vegan alternative needs to be cut with our laser, washed, and treated with leather care. Then, the material must dry before adding pattern backgrounds, lace, bows, lining, straps, eyelets, and rivets… all of this takes time. After that, your product is ready to be shipped.

Please note that producing items made from white leather or the vegan alternative might take a little longer. We need to make sure it really stays white, which can be tricky, especially when working with the laser cutter. If something goes wrong, we need to start all over again.

It’s hard to predict a timeframe for custom orders; that really depends on the project scope.

We ship our parcels with the Austrian Post or with DHL in case of express shipping. Packages outside Austria will be handed over to a shipping partner by the Austrian post. We don’t have any influence on who they work with.

As soon as we hand the packages over to our shipping partner, these are the delivery times:

Austria: 2-3 days

Germany: 3-5 days

EU: 4-7 days

Europe (outside EU): 1-2 weeks

Outside Europe: 2-4 weeks

Express deliveries have the following delivery times:

Austria 1-2 days

EU: 2-3 days

Outside Europe: 2-5 days

Please note that shipping might take longer during the Christmas season.

Unfortunately, no. Our shipping contract is with the Austrian Post. We use DHL express for express shipments, but they come with an additional cost.

This mainly happens with orders outside the EU. Usually, these packages are stuck at customs – this can take quite a long time (up to 14 days is considered “normal”, unfortunately). We can´t influence this in any way.

If a package hasn’t moved for two weeks (regardless of the destination) we are happy to start an investigation for you. Alas our shipping partner will not investigate before the two weeks standing time.

Here you can see our shipping costs.

In short: directly on the skin at the place where the product will later sit. We published step-by-step instructions for you here to ensure you know how to get the perfect-sized penumbra product for you or your partner.

Our size recommendations are based on body measurements and do not reflect the actual length of your product. That means a size S collar (31,5-37 cm) will fit a neck that falls into that range. If your neck measurement is 37 cm, it will close at the last or second to last eyelet.

If you want a collar that is perfectly tailored for you, you can choose our “custom size”. We’ll create your collar so the buckle closes in the middle of the eyelets. That leaves you some room for adjustments in both directions, in case you don’t wear your collar as tight or loose as we think.

Unfortunately, since we produce individually for each order, exchanges or returns are a bit tricky. We don’t keep a large stock of ready-made products since we tailor our items specifically to our customer’s needs.

We are happy to help you choosing the right size, though! We created a post on this topic here or you can send us an email to office@penumbra.at.

If you’re shopping for a surprise gift and don’t know how to get your partner’s measurements, we got you covered! Here are some ideas on how to measure someone without them getting suspicious.here

Unfortunately, no – we can’t “just” shorten or lengthen our products.

Unfortunately, since we produce individually for each order, exchanges or returns are a bit tricky. We don’t keep a large stock of ready-made products since we tailor our items specifically to our customer’s needs. Please send us an email to office@penumbra.at and we will try to find a solution.

It depends. The screw, on which the rings are screwed on, is sandwiched between the layers of the collar. This screw has different thread sizes depending on the ring size.

The following ring sizes have the same thread (and can be exchanged):

Small ring (14 mm) & medium thin ring (20 mm) -> both have a M3 thread

medium heavy ring (20 mm) & large ring (27 mm) -> both have a M4 thread

Our rings are “only” screwed on to give our customers the possibility to change or remove them by themselves. Unfortunately, this can occasionally lead to the loss of the ring. You can reorder our rings here.

If you are sure that you do not want to remove the ring, you can fixate it with a drop of glue on the screw.

This is due to the way the collars are made. The screw where the ring is screwed on is sandwiched between the lining and upper leather. This gives our customers the opportunity to change the ring size or color by themselves.

The best way to tighten the ring is to press your thumb against the base of the screw from behind and tighten the ring. The tighter the ring and screw are screwed together, the less it turns.

If you are sure that you do not want to remove the ring, you can fixate it with a drop of glue on the screw.

For the pin of the lokcing buckle we need oval eyelet holes for which we can’t use metal eyelets. For other collections it is no problem to omit the metal eyelets and just slide the pin through the oval cutouts in the leather. However, the “delicate” and “leather & lace” collections have a “lace overlay” or band which would fray completely if not secured with a metal eyelet. Therefore, we can only offer a locking pin for these collections, which can be slid through our larger round metal eyelets.

Yes! Special products, personal engravings, unique “incision” cutouts, colorful stitching, special hardware, luminous foil under the “incision” pattern… You name it – we are always happy to hear about exciting projects 🙂

Very likely: Yes! If you’re looking for a product but haven’t found anything suitable in our store, send us an email to office@penumbra.at. Please include sample pictures or drawings so we can get an idea of your vision.

We already made a lot of custom products, as simple as belts or complex as full leather harnesses 🙂

Yes! We can make your product wider or narrower for a small extra charge 🙂

Just send us an email with your wishes to office@penumbra.at – we will be happy to help you 🙂

We recommend cleaning your penumbra product with a damp soft piece of cloth and, if necessary, a mild detergent. Please be careful not to use sharp solvent-containing cleaning aids for our leather or vegan products since they can harm the surface of the material.

If you own a product made from real leather, it is a good idea to add some leather care as well. We like to use one with bees wax since it smells fantastic, acts as a moisturizer for the leather and seals the leather in a natural way.

How often this should be done depends on the frequency you have your product in use.

As a guideline: it is recommended to clean and maintain leather shoes every other week. However, shoes are usually put through way more stress than collars or cuffs. If your products are used very regularly (like a collar that’s worn daily) we recommend cleaning and caring for it once a month. The less you use your accessory, the more seldom it is necessary to maintain them. Still, you shouldn’t totally neglect it.

Finally: it’s also not good to over-care for your product, so please don’t overdo it.

It’s no problem if your penumbra product gets moist, for example when cleaning it. You shouldn’t soak it, though, so please take it off before showering or swimming etc. Too much water on a regular basis will dry out and damage the leather.

Our vegan products are a little less sensitive in that area, but they still should be handled with care when it comes to regular contact with water. Due to the multi-layered structure, moisture can settle between the layers and damage the product.

Leather is a natural product and therefore often has color differences or slight irregularities in the material – this is something we can’t prevent. At the same time, these “irregularities” make your product something unique.

We can do outside and inside engravings for all our products (the products of the collections “leather & lace”, “floris” and “delicate” only inside). There are five different fonts from which you can choose.
It is also possible to engrave small pictures or symbols – just send us a file of the engraving in black on white background in a common file type (vector graphics are preferred but not a must). Please make sure you send us a high-resolution picture for best results.

You can also have our calligrapher do a design for you.

There are three ways to get a custom engraving:

1. send us your own design
Send us your design either as a graphic (preferably a vector file, but all standard file formats will work) or a scan of your handwriting. If you send us your handwriting, please write with black pen on white paper and scan it in with as high a contrast as possible 🙂

2. choose an existing calligraphy
In our “calligraphy” collection, we carry six different ready-made calligraphies!

3. 3. hire our calligrapher
For an extra charge, we will commission our calligrapher for you. Just tell us the word(s) you want us to engrave, and we will forward your wish to her. She will then create your personal and unique calligraphy!
By the way: she hand-lettered all the calligraphies from our “calligraphy”-collection.

There is no general rule for this. It always depends on the size of the product and the font you want. Please note that the longer the text, the smaller the letters have to be.
If you are not sure if your desired text will work, just send us an email to office@penumbra.at – we will be happy to help you 🙂

Theoretically yes – but only with an appointment. Our workshop is located in a small village in Burgenland (Austria) close to the border of Hungary. We do not sell directly in the workshop, but we can make an appointment with you to discuss large projects 🙂
How exactly this works (and where else you can meet us) is explained in this blog post.

Maybe. We try to leave the workshop a few times a year for fairs and events. However, this is always a challenge with such a small team as ours since we don’t want to get way behind with our work.
Here’s a blog post with the dates of our next events (plus a guide on how to visit us in the workshop)