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As is always the case, we love to hear from our customers and we can't really do that on the blog, so if you have worn one of our bow ties recently, if you want to see the latest silks that have just arrived, if you want to know what we are up to or you just want to say "G'day" - drop us a line through Instagram on @lenoeudpapillon or you can alert us by using the #lenoeudpapillon tag.

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New Organza Silk Bow Ties Now Online - Shop Le Noeud Papillon's Website For The Latest Silks

The organza silk warps that we have been able to get access to produce a very lustrous and beautifully dense but light silk that is possibly some of the best fabric I have worked with though at times it is difficult to cut and requires sharp and fresh blades at all times.

The resulting silks produce lovely dimples and have a very smooth handle on them, slipping through the hand beautifully but creating enough tension to make a consistent and decent sized knot. 

As is the case with all our silks, it's usually not possible to make more than 20 bow ties from each new limited edition and the best work is usually cut from the first batch. I encourage all our customers to engage with the silks as they first become available because once they have been stored afterwards, it could be months before we get back to cutting them again as new silks are arriving every week.

Shop the new silks here.

New silks are arriving each week. Shop the website to get new silks as they come through. 

David Boucher And Co - The Le Noeud Papillon Butterfly Tray - A Masterpiece In Craftsmanship

Over the coming weeks I will be posting more content on the tray that was designed for us by Boucher & Co but I wished to begin by showing you the finished product and taking you back to the initial concept.

I remember an old professor from my university days once said "all the best business deals usually start on the back of an envelope" and in the case of this tray, it started on a loose piece of paper that was in my studio as David Boucher stood over my cutting table trying to figure out how we could incorporate our butterfly into something which could be functionally used in the LNP Studio.

I had said that the only thing we might be able to do was to create a tray that I could use for when customers come to pick up custom made work and which I could use as a backdrop for product shots on social media. 

David asked me what kind of design was I into and I said that of all the designs I had seen of things in my life, one thing which was etched in my mind was the scalloped fluted bezel of a Rolex watch. And with that, David picked up a piece of paper and started to sketch out a design based on fluted bezel, creating a vanishing point outside the top right corner of the rectangle. 

Initially from the pencil drawing I thought to myself "yeah right, well, if he even gets close to this design I will be happy" . And literally I set my expectations very low from that point because, though I had seen some of his extraordinary work, I did not think he could achieve the complex nature of the design I put in front of him with the materials that he uses in his craft. 

At the point where David was comfortable with the design he asked me what timber veneer to use and of course I initially wanted whatever was the most luxurious, which I believe was walnut or macassar ebony. Then I was offered an alternative, would I be willing to consider an Australian native fumed figured eucalyptus. Since we were an Australian made product, it seemed more fitting to use Australian materials where possible. And so, David formed up a more formalised CAD drawing, we agreed to materials and a 'no promises' policy on the finish of the logo, and I gave him the green light and a deposit. 

Over the coming months I got the occasional email or whatsapp update with regards to the progress and I found it really captivating. This was a totally one off piece and each particular problem had to be solved as they went long. For example. how to slice the flutes and get them to line up perfectly. How to inlay the butterfly, what materials to use in the butterfly, how to finish the scalloped edges with the right timber contrast and so on. And as the project went on I started to see stingray being inlaid into the butterfly by hand, the font of the logo was somehow printed onto a piece of timber painted black, the lines around each in white carved and laid in by hand. Then there was mother of pearl add to the butterfly and a sycamore veneer used to form the base of it. At every stage I was continually marvelled by how much work went into each detail and I started to feel as though I didn't have the right to call myself an 'artisan'. These people were truly artisans and master craftsmen. They didn't shy away from any part of the design, they did not cut one single corner. If they did, I could not find it and I have been staring at it ever since. 

When David posted a video on his Instagram wall of the final product I got so excited that I started envisaging ways that the tray might never get to me and to practice the art of non-attachment. Maybe it would go down with the air-craft on it's way to Sydney. Maybe the driver will misplace the parcel. Maybe someone will steal it from the depot. Maybe it will arrive and it won't look like it did on the video.

It did arrive. With some difficulty and trepidation I might add. And as I cut open the timber box it came in I was concerned that I might be putting the box knife blade into the timber. "Slow down" I said to myself.

What a tray. What a work of art. It is up there with the few things I might like to specifically allocate in my will. It deserves an inter-generational life of being admired and looked after. In the end, the choice of materials; stingray, mother of pearl, sycamore, eucalyptus and ebony - all came together so harmoniously that I find myself gazing at it like I do when I am outside the window of a fancy watch store. There are not enough superlatives to describe it. 

Stay tuned, in the coming weeks I will be writing more on individual stages of it's production.

Boucher & Co Eucalyptus Veneer Tray For Le Noeud Papillon

The initial CAD drawing which was used to create full scale tray. 

Fumed Figured Eucalyptus Timber Veneer Used For They Trays Inlay

Treboles And Key Organic Vodka - If You Come Across It, Drink It

For most of you that read this blog it will probably be difficult for you to get a hold of this vodka. It is by one of our bow tie customers, David Meisenburg, who has done something extraordinary in creating a certified organic vodka that is in his own words "a limited artisan vodka that is pure from Seed-To-Seal" . 

That means growing potatoes as a Certified Organic Planter and as a Certified Organic Handler whereby no herbicides or pesticides are ever used in his farming fields in Wisconsin and where by each rototilled row of potatoes has had all harmful pests and weeds around each plant removed by hand. 

The result, which I tasted yesterday, is such an unusually smooth and lovely vodka, unlike any others that I have tasted. It had a soft sweetness on it that reminded me of freshly cut grass and one sip and I went back for another, then another. By the time I had finished 'tasting'  it I was three sheets to the wind and cutting silks like a mad scientist. 

I am very happy that David found us and over the years he's sent in so many wonderful shots and, as some of you may recall, he purchased F. Scott Fitzgerald's house in St. Paul, Minnesota some years back. We've always had a mutual appreciation for literature, fine menswear and, now, his organic vodka.

If you stumble upon one of these bottles, drink it. It's a good bit of vodka. Very smooth, very clean.

You can read more on his website. 

The Sale Continues

We've never changed our tune on this one. We can't hold onto silk. So our desire to move onto the next silks is to your advantage, because during our Dutch Auction Sales you can practically steal bow ties from us. Nearly all the bow ties have been finished with rose gold plated clips. Some are English woven jacquard from what are some of the most densely woven and highest grade silks you can get in the world today, to some very ritzy Italian organza silk warps which give a lovely rich finish and handle to a design. 

Otherwise, you can wait, because we've just received new silks in the last 48 hours and over the coming weeks they will trickle onto the website, some perhaps even before we are done with the sale.... So keep coming back to the website. 

Simplicity Trumps Complexity Any Day Of The Week

When I consider how complex and how much time goes into some of our silk designs only to see the loom send them back scratchy and where one can hardly recognise what was the original inspiration, such as happened this week with a recent bird of paradise silk, I often and fondly recall an anecdote that was relayed to me by a banker who I walk with in the mornings.

The story goes that in a meeting where high level mathematics were often discussed in order to pursue strategies for derivatives trading, the managing director stood up to give his own talk about what he thought should be the M.O moving forward.

He drew three arrows, one going up, two going down. Under the first he wrote revenue, under the second he wrote costs, under the third he wrote complexity. And then all he did was enunciate exactly what he'd written. Bring me more revenue, lower the costs involved and decrease the complexity of any strategy you put forward.

My friend said that in all his time listening to presentations, the simplicity of this one hit home and of all the presentations he's ever heard, this one he knew off by heart. 

When I arrived in Como I took a stool by the bench to start looking through existing designs that were coming through. One stood out, the one below. It was one of the least complex designs we'd run in five years, submitted by a Parisian woman I had been working with. She was very talented and I'd sent her down the rabbit hole chasing Parisian street art when really, she already had the gift of the gab. 

Simplicity in design; that ability to pull yourself back and understand that the more you add, the more you over-power something, is a real gift. The Italians know how to do it, you can see that in their cooking. And really, its a great life skill, regardless of what discipline you apply it to. 

Cashmere Factory Visit - Understanding A New Discipline

We have embarked on a project with a new cashmere factory which might take up to 6 months to realise all but 20 units of product. It is an ambitious project and there is no guarantee it will turn out they way I'd like it to but I took the risk mostly because my contacts were as enthusiastic as I was in trying something a little more offbeat. 

Cashmere stoles and rugs like these are often used as decorative pieces for beds and lounges. Each of these pieces would fetch somewhere between one and thousand euros in a retail store and there are minimum orders required that mean that all but a handful of companies internationally would have the client database to move this kind of product. 

My understanding was that the business was primarily involved in selling fabrics in volume to makers who in turn would dye and discharge or digitally print on their fabrics. However, where significant investment was undertaken, they were capable of taking the most prestigious projects, such as personalised cashmere rugs for super yachts, from start to finish.

I had intended to begin producing cashmere scarves for Le Noeud Papillon after this visit, but with the minimum order in the vicinity of 400 metres of fabric, it would be a month of Sundays before we would move the stock. Accordingly I chose a different project, one which would require me to find no more than 20 customers - rich ones.

More to come later. 

Animal prints are particularly popular when producing large cashmere rugs like these. 

The super yacht cashmere and wool rug made Eclipse. 

A customer loved his horse so much he had it turned into a cashmere rug.