The Massaccesi Workshop Chronicles!

Greetings everyone!  This is the first installment of a behind the scenes look at our beloved customer MM bags, while they are actually being created in the workshop!

Our maiden chronicle voyage is with a dear lady’s Massaccesi, who happens to be my handbag twin.  We both chose the same style, in the same leather, so I am more thrilled than ever to showcase her beauty.

The beginning of what we will soon hold all starts here, on a table within the MM workshop.  There she is, no form yet, only awaiting our decision on which style she will become to make all our dreams come true.  The patterns of Marco’s exquisite designs are placed atop the gorgeous leather and then each and every piece is cut by hand.

One by one, so many steps are taken.  For example, the machine they use to work on the edges and borders in Italian is called spazzolatrice.  It comes from the word spazzola, in English “brush”.  This machine is used to make the edges smoother.  It has different disks that you change depending on the kind of border you have to work on and also the type of leather. 

After the borders are all smooth, they paint every edge by hand.  Then they use brushes.  And then they paint again.  Occasionally between the second and third paint, it is necessary to pass the edges on a machine with a hot cylinder that slightly burns them.  During the summer months, it takes around 15 to 20 minutes for each layer to dry.  They often place pieces directly under the Italian sunshine!  I want to be placed directly under the Italian sunshine!  In the winter, it can take more than 40 to 45 minutes for each layer to dry. 

Once the edges are smoothed, sealed, and dried it is time to place the holes in our straps.  To add them the workshop carefully measures and uses a tool named “fustella for holes”.  Fustella is a generic name for any metallic tool used to cut any shape.  The fustelle come in many different sizes.  A fustella is held and then tapped with a hammer to puncture the leather.

  

Thread!  All that glorious and colorful thread!  Now there is an important role.  The size of the thread for stitching is called “title”.  For external stitching the workshop uses title 10 or 20.  All of the internal stitching is title 30 or 40.  The needles typically used are a size 110.  Sometimes a 120 depending on the thickness of the leather.  There are many examples of when hand stitching is required and it is often in much hidden areas such as reinforcing all parts that have more pressure.  It is intricate, such as on an ornamental piece like the final areas of a strap.  This process requires a lot of time and a bigger needle is used. 

In this picture, there is a tiny dot at the top of the bag.  This is placed after measurement so they have their “center”.  We have never seen their center before because later as the completion of the bag continues, the top stitching covers this center.  But now we know it is there!

It all begins with Marco’s incredible vision.  And then lucky as we are, a delightful decision of which style and leather suit us best.  Each bag is made individually and specifically one by one, for each of us, with tender loving care, as Marco and his talented team make all our dreams come true!  I hope our dear lady loves her Little Miss M in Red Cherry Natural Flat Calf as much as I love mine!

Happily at the ready for you!

colette@marcomassaccesi.it