GEOFFREY PARKER - the craftsmen & women
Of course at the core of the Company are the folk who have learnt from the skills handed down by Geoffrey and subsequent members of his highly skilled team, or have brought with them skills learnt elsewhere in the leather trade and embellished further while working within the workshops of Geoffrey Parker.
Geoffrey and his team, circa 1979
Our work has always been niche - not only in our product and market, but also in the skills that we employ to create the World's finest games - this we are sure you will not be surprised to hear when dealing with such precise and specialised designs.
All design work is undertaken "in house", whether it is nowadays a computer assisted creation or, as many have and still are - a drawing on the "back of an envelope" which is turned into the most amazing and unique item of its kind in the World. Of course this design process is often a "hand in glove" process with our customers, whether they be individuals or part of a World renowned design house in their own right.
Sometimes a new product can take months to develop, while our team search for the best materials for the job (something that is getting more difficult to find these days as "specialist" suppliers are becoming scarcer in a mass-market world). Often, despite having a huge array of traditional skills at our fingertips from the 300 combined years of expertise within our workshops, we can find a better and more modern way of solving a design issue............never one to rest on one's laurels if there is a new different way which will rcreate a better result, for you the customer.
Once a design is established, which will often entail a number of prototypes, it is placed in the hands of our Workshop Manager who will see the order through the workshop, checking at every stage that the best materials for the job are used and all the intricate specifications often requested within our Bespoke made to order range, are adhered to.
The first process is to select the leather skins, whether they are from our stock Dauphin calf leathers to exotic hides such as Alligator, Ostrich, Shagreen and Water snake.
Dauphin calf leather store
Each skin has its own peculiarities whether it be in shape, soft/hardness. substance, print, cutting area, natural blemishes etc. All of which can effect what one makes out of it, what part of the skin is used for embossing, turn-edging, skiving, splitting etc. Every skin and part of the skin is different and presents different challenges to our craftsmen and women, as one would expect when dealing with a natural product such as ours.
Nick inspecting Alligator skins before cutting
Once selected, the skins are then cut into the vast array of different shapes and sizes required to make up each item. For example a Competition Backgammon alone can comprise of 160 cut parts totalling a staggering 32 square feet of leather!
Some of the 800 different cutting knives current in daily use
This is usually made with a combination of hand cutting and using the vast array of specially made steel cutting knives made to our design and cut with the help of our 25 ton "clicking" presses.
One of the Clicking presses in operation
Then if for example a Backgammon is being made, the individual "points" will be checked for thickness against the main leathers for the playing field and if found thicker will be "split" by our large splitting machine (a job years ago undertaken by hand taking many hours) or if thinner it will be built up to match the field leather, thus ensuring a completely flat and uniform playing field, so that there are no bumps to slow play down.
Marie splitting Backgammon points to match playing field leathers
Some of the many tools used daily by our craftsmen and women
When all the various inlay colours are assembled, we "kiss-cut" the playing field after gluing this down onto its wooden base and while still wet, the inlays are carefully pushing into position. A "bone", "pricker", leather hammer, "roller" and a great deal of "elbow juice" are employed on this painstaking task. A keen eye is required to ensure a snug fit and that all the points are as uniform as possible.
John inlaying a leather Backgammon field
The last operation before the leather parts move to the craftsmen's work benches for assembly is to our "blocking" department which has 5 traditional hand embossing machines, including the largest in Europe, we believe, with over 2 1/2 tons of pressure. Here under around 100° Centigrade or 220° Fahrenheit the brass founders type or copper or magnesium blocking dies are used to emboss the leathers in gold or silver foils or in the case of furnishing leathers and Bridle Hide, "blind" embossed (without any colour, just an impression).
Max checking some gold embossing
Although looking a simple task to the casual observer, this skill takes years to master when dealing with the four main elements a skilled "blocker" faces: the leather (grain, thickness, firmness, surface finish); pressure (too much will punch through the leather, not enough will not crush the grain and give a clear impression); temperature (too hot and the impression will fur around the edge, not enough and the foil will not adhere to the leather) and lastly "dwell" (too much time on the leather with the hot die or type, will result again in a furred impression, not enough and the foil with not adhere) and all this happens in less than a second!
One of the many drawers containing customers dies over the year including many world famous brands
Dies are made by specialist makers for the trade, but often we will create the art-work "in house" to our customer’s specifications.
Holly inlaying a Cluedo®
When all the preparation has been undertaken and all components gathered, whether they are the special wooden shells and carcasses, game components, dice, locks, catches etc., this is then brought to our craftsmen's benches.
Maureen putting the finishing touches to a Tic Tac Toe
Skills at this stage can often become highly specialised, with individual craftsmen having a particular mêtier where they may work to assist their colleagues on products that may require a large number of skills. For example: turn-edging is used on most items and is a skill often found in the Small Leathergoods trade where items like wallets and bookbinding is undertaken.
Trish making a Boulé case
Here fillets, dice cups and attaché case work will involve this; whilst our famous weighted leather stones and the finishing our dice cups will require fine edging, a skill which is fast dying out these days in the mainstream leather trade, but something we find is a particular strength within the workshops of Geoffrey Parker. Taking sometimes years to master (some never master it) it places a very fine bevel edge on the leather which almost dissolves to "paper" - much thinner and more angled than the skiving machines (see pictured) which will assist us on other less involved parts and all applied by a special hand held knife held at a precise angle and pressure and then drawn across the leather at the very tip of the cut edge.
Tom using the skiving machine to pare down the edges of leathers ready for turn-edging
Hand-stitching, often akin to the Saddler is employed on our solid leather handles and the use of our special "machine" (see photo) which comprises a wooden knee clamp which holds the leather parts together allowing the hands to be free - we are sure there is a more modern and automated machine somewhere, but we feel it would detract from the beauty of this hand process.
Louise hand stitching handles
Edyta inlaying a Rubik® Cube
Louise gluing leathers to a wooden Backgammon carcass
John putting the finishing touches to a Backgammon
Then skills often attributed to a cabinet maker or carpenter are employed to fit each lock, catch and hinge and as the cases, cabinets and plinths come together, each craftsmen is able to see the product evolve into an item which may appear the following week in the shop windows of a luxury store in exotic location, which may have been only seen within the pages of glossy magazines. A great achievement and one made with justifiably great pride.
Finally the item will move onto the polishing and QC stage where our QC/dispatch Manager will inspect each item and apply (if a Backgammon) our special slip agent solution and give each item a final polish before it is wrapped within protective packaging for shipment to world-wide destinations.
Some of the many polishes, dies and treatments applied to the many different types of leathers used in production
Joe polishing a Monopoly®
The Company stands or falls on the skills of the many folk who have worked throughout the years at what started as a "cottage" industry and is now a world-wide luxury brand in its own right. Amongst this article you will see many of the faces who have been part of our "story", some are still with us, others have moved on and some we do not sadly have photographic records of, but are just as much a part of our evolution.
Maureen applying final dyes/polishes before quality control and packing prior to dispatch
This is very much a "family" business just as much from the generational connection but also from the close knit relationship we enjoy as a unique craft team in a world so often lacking in this type of workplace sense of purpose.
Thank you for interest and we hope we may have given you a brief insight into the many operations we undertake on a daily basis - your support is much appreciated.
Max Parker -Chairman, with a completed piece in front of his father, Geoffrey's, self portrait
For further information of the Company please go to GEOFFREY PARKER - The Company
GEOFFREY PARKER - The Man
GEOFFREY PARKER -The Artist.
