Surround yourself with leather, paper and colors in an artisan shop in Florence
Good Morning Dear Explorers,
As you know I love Florence artisans and made in Florence products and during my shopping tours and artisans tour in Florence I always select small artisan shops to visit, where not only you can buy handmade products but also have the change to get to know and chat with the craftsmen.
Today I want to tell you about “Lo Scrittoio”, Artisanal bookbinder and stationery.
Watch this video to discover more
Florence Artisans: “Lo Scrittoio” artisanal bookbinder and stationery.
Lo Scrittoio was founded in 1974 by Mrs. Anna who dealt with the books restoration and binding, a very requested job at the time, especially due to the 1966 flood in Florence which caused so much damage to buildings, precious artworks and ancient books.
Today the business has passed into the hands of her sons Andrea and Alessandro, who have kept this family tradition intact, enriching it with the production of bookbinding articles, desk accessories and other objects made with 100% natural Florentine leather and handmade paper.
The shop and laboratory of 2 Florence artisans
Andrea and Alessandro told me that today most of the paper decoration is industrially made but that they, as well as a few other historic Florentine artisan shops, have decided to carry on with manual processing as much as possible to try to keep both the quality and the originality of their pieces.
Their laboratory is located right inside the shop in the historic center of Florence and it is there that Andrea and Alessandro with their mother Anna create their special products. It is really exciting to know that their work desks and tools are located right inside the store and that everything on display for sale is made directly by them and under our eyes.
How to customize your leather notebook or journal?
Almost all of their creations are handmade and can be personalized with engravings of initials or phrases and / or with special decorations. I was lucky enough to visit the shop just while Andrea was at work and he showed me how the process takes place: the artisan uses heated molds in the shape of a letter or drawing, according to what the customer chooses, to press on the leather and thus engraving it.
The ancient marbled paper technique
One of the oldest decoration techniques is paper marbleizing already used at the time of the Medici which has become a symbol of beauty and excellence all over the world.
Many of their notebooks and journals but also bookmarks and pencils are made with this type of decoration which, because of its shades of color, is somewhat reminiscent of a peacock’s feathers. Furthermore, since it’s completely handmade each decoration will never be the same, thus allowing you to have a unique, precious and inimitable object.
100% Made in Florence Shopping: high quality and tradition
Lo Scrittoio truly represents the best of Florence high quality and traditional craftsmanship and for this reason I decided to select some of the products I liked the most and put them on my small online shop, together with my other favorite Florence artisans items Leather jewelry boxes, hand-bound signature books, marbled paper notebooks, leather journals are just some of their products that you can find both on this website and in their shop in Florence.
Furthermore, if you are looking for alternative experiences or things to do in Florence with kids, it is possible to include in our artisans tour also a marbled paper workshop in Alessandro and Andrea laboratory, where you can learn yourself how to replicate this splendid ancient technique and some other trade secrets.