At Savoir, we collaborate with leaders, masters and the most respected names within the design. We are thrilled to reveal our recent collaboration with the master of leatherwork, Bill Amberg. One of the most respected names in contemporary British leather craft; we went on a journey with Bill to reawaken the leather bed.
The new leather bed design from Bill Amberge is a celebration of British craft and innovation. Based a stone’s throw away from the Savoir Bedworks in North West London, we sat down with Bill in his studio to discuss how he brought together a modern aesthetic. This is done through pioneering a leather printing technique and heritage craft to deliver a fresh approach to a classic piece of furniture.
There are two designs, ‘Sky’ and ‘Ocean.’ For both, I found the idea of transitioning from dark into light interesting. The gentle shift from night into day and from the sleeping into the waking hours.
The inspiration was from the light at dawn, moving into day and the light over the ocean in the very early hours respectively. I created two paintings that for me, reflect these calm and quite cathartic periods of the day.
Firstly, I created some A4 watercolours, and then scaled these up to A2 watercolours, applied using a mix of sprays and marbling techniques. Once I’d captured the mood of the dawning, I transferred to 2×3 metre sheets of watercolour paper and created full-size paintings. Drawing on intricate details from the sky and the ocean. Finally, these were then scanned 1:1, in preparation for digital printing.
I love brass for its softness and malleability, but also for its colour. It’s a very sympathetic material to put with leather and so much nicer to live with than steel.
When I called in on the Savoir factory, which is just around the corner from us in North West London, I was in awe at the quality of their work. That really got me thinking about sleep and my perfect bed. It started the thought process about the transition from dark into light; and how we might realise that together.
As a team of designers and specialist leatherworkers, my business is rooted in craft. From the selection of materials and their provenance (including well-being and husbandry of the animal), through to creation and development of leathers. The leathercraft techniques involved and the physical act of crafting what we make. All aspects of British craftsmanship are central to the work of my studio, and always have been.
We bring together artisans from very traditional leathercraft disciplines, including saddlery, casemaking, bookbinding and bag making. The idea is that everyone cross-trains and learns from each other. In this way, we’re able to reinterpret these traditional skills, for use in contemporary interiors, furniture and products.
I’ve long been interested in the intersection between craft and cutting-edge technology. The science that has gone into creating digitally printed leather, or ‘Print’ as we call it, has been three years in the making.
To produce a suitable canvas for printing on, we developed a type of leather tannage from scratch. This was carefully designed to accept the dyes used in digital printing, whilst still retaining the handle and character of the leather. It was important to us that our practices also met and surpassed the strictest sustainability and environmental criteria for leather production.
Sleep is the ultimate regenerator of the mind, body and spirit. A comfy bed is therefore essential.
To uncover more about bed design from Bill Amberg and other collaborations, please visit the design page.
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