Your Sparrowhawk Leather hand made piece can be personalised with embossed initials, numbers and dates. Here is a description of the hand embossing process. Sparrowhawk Leather only embosses the leather pieces it makes.* (see below)

  • Only effective on hand finished leather before dyeing
  • Can not be applied to pre-made / finished pieces* (see below)
  • Can not be applied to tannery finished leathers
  • Upper case (capital) letters available (limit of 4 letters)
  • Small & Large numbers including numeric date available
  • Pilot wings for Pilot's items
  • Sparrowhawk Makers mark for authenticity
Embossing is a personalisation option for Sparrowhawk Leather's Mens Wallets (including numeric date), Women's Wallets, Diary / Journal / Book Covers, Portfolios, Document Folders, Pilot Logbook covers & Pilot Licence Wallets (including pilot wings),

    View Sparrowhawk Leather's handmade in NZ products

    Ā Sparrowhawk Embossed initials and date on mens wallet

    Ā Above: Sparrowhawk Leather Anniversary Wallet with hand embossed initials and date, hand dyed in Antique Black and hand stitched in Black to match black calf leather inner. Order your Sparrowhawk Leather men's wallet here

    Sparrowhawk Leather embossed initials on Journal Covers

    Ā Above: Hand embossed letters on two Sparrowhawk Leather Diary / Journal / Notebook covers, hand dyed in French Navy with Butterscotch hand stitching & Emerald Green with Black hand stitching. Order your Sparrowhawk Leather Diary, Journal, Notebook cover here.Ā 

    Sparrowhawk Leather embossed initials on Portfolio Compendium in Tan

    Ā Above: Hand embossed letters on Sparrowhawk Leather hand dyed tanĀ  Portfolio / Compendium with black hand stitching to match the black calf leather inner. Order your Sparrowhawk Leather personalised Compendium here.

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    Sparrowhawk Leather ladies compact wallet tan with embossed initials

    Ā Above: Sparrowhawk ladies compact wallet hand dyed in Tan with embossed initials and black hand stitching to match the black calf leather inner (photo supplied by customer - thank you Michaela & Ryan). Order your Sparrowhawk Leather customised ladies wallet here.

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    Sparrowhawk Leather embossed initials and wings Pilot Logbook Cover

    Above: Embossed small wings and initials on CASA (Australia) Pilot Logbook Cover & matching CASA Licence Folder Cover hand dyed in Antique Black with Butterscotch hand stitching. Order your Sparrowhawk Leather handmade Pilot Logbook cover here.

    Sparrowhawk Leather's makers mark with Handmade in New Zealand is featured on all hand dyed leather pieces

    Above: As per artisan leatherwork tradition, Sparrowhawk Leather's makers mark is embossed on all hand dyed leather pieces for authenticity. These pieces hand dyed in Royal Blue, Emerald Green and French Navy (from left to right)

    I hand emboss initials by striking individual metal embossing stamps with a rawhide mallet (See Below : the letters on stamps are reversed so as to appear the right way when embossed) Sparrowhawk Leather hand embossing metal stamps initials makers mark

    Ā These metal embossing stamps are only able to give a crisp impression when applied to raw, undyed, vegetable tanned (russet) leather (Sparrowhawk's hand dyed pieces). The dyeing also enhances the embossing by leaving the letters "undyed" and highlighted, although filled in or blind embossing is also an option.

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    Sparrowhawk Leather highlighted embossingĀ Ā 

    Above: Highlighted embossing. The light colour in the letters is the indentation of the stamp where the natural colour of the vegetable tanned russet leather is left undyed.

    Below: Blind embossing. The indentations left by the stamp have been dyed to the same colour as the rest of the hand dyed russet leather.

    Ā Sparrowhawk Leather blind hand embossing of initials

    As hand embossing needs to occur before the russet leather is dyed, it means, I can not pre-make pieces for later embossing, and I can not emboss tannery finished leathers. I use Engraved Plates, or Laser Engraving (where suitable) for personalisation of Tannery Finished Leather pieces.Ā 

    The letters I use are only available in capitals. There are no lower case letters available.

    There are two fonts

    Below: Modern San Serif

    Below: Traditional Serif Font

    Traditional Serif Font

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    It's tricky to align the letters, particularly when each letter is applied individually using a rawhide mallet. For this reason, I prefer to limit the number of letters to 4. For some products, like Men's wallets, the 6mm letters are just too large if more than 4 letters are embossed.

    However, I do try to meet requests for additional embossing where I can.
    Below: Bespoke embossing on the inside front sleeve of a Journal Cover to be presented as a leaving gift to a teacher (hand dyed in French Navy with bone hand stitching). Contact me, Fiona Ritchie, Leather Artisan, with your special embossing request.

    Sparrowhawk Leather embossing message on inside front sleeve

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    Below: A Memorial Book for a well respected member of his community, hand dyed in Medium Brown with Butterscotch hand stitching. Order your Sparrowhawk Leather Memorial Book

    Sparrowhawk Leather Memorial Book

    Ā Thank you for looking at my work,

    Fiona Ritchie, Leather Artisan, Sparrowhawk Leather

    (Personalisation is one of the qualities that makes your handmade Sparrowhawk Leather piece unique. I only emboss the Sparrowhawk Leather pieces I make and do not make personalised patches or labels to apply to mass produced or other premade pieces).

    Ā View our NZ Made Products