MU

The very last thing I do before letting a courier bag out of my hands is burn my brand into the top.

MU

It’s a process.  I clean up the shop first, I ready the bag and where the brand will be, start the fire and heat up the U, make sure there’s some music going on, pick up the U with a piece of leather wrapped around the end of the hot metal.  And without mind the U is pushed into the leather, picked up, moved over and pushed down again, the U is flipped upside down, moved over and pushed down for the final time.

I do the branding at the end to make the searing of the leather the final act. Once you place the hot U on the leather you are committed, there’s no turning back, there’s no fixing, there’s nothing to hide behind anymore.  Different amount of heat and time and pressure create their own indelible signatures. Each is unique, each is never perfect. 

Like all things made by hand the branding shows the strengths and the weaknesses of the maker.  The personality is revealed.  Where is attention placed, where is it not?  Is uniformity a virtue or a failing?  Which mistakes are fixed, which are allowed?  Is the idea more important or the execution of that idea?  One focused strike at the center or tiny blows from the perimeter inward?

The MU is Me. 

I burn it in and walk away from it.

By happenstance I came upon this as I was writing the blog entry.  Beautiful