Tell us a little bit about the company. Where are you based? When did the company start? We’re based in Oxford, England and debuted the first collection at the May 2024 London Stationery Show. Who founded the company and why? I founded the company while pregnant with our second child. Coming out of the pandemic, many of us had set up home offices or hybrid workspaces, and I was still working full-time at Oxford University. I’ve always felt strongly about having a home environment that’s both beautiful and functional—something that supports your mental well-being, especially as life gets busier and your family grows. I began thinking more seriously about how to shape a future that aligned with my values: creativity, control over my time, sustainability, and meaningful work. That’s when I attended a sustainability trade show in London—while heavily pregnant!—and met Midushi, a researcher who had developed a chemical-free method of transforming fallen Areca Palm leaves (a waste product often burned by farmers, contributing to air pollution) into a soft, leather-like material. I immediately asked, “Can we make this into a notebook?” And to my delight, she said “we can try”. We spent the next year co-developing what would become our Natural Notebook line—the first and only notebooks in the world made from Areca Palm leaves. We’re incredibly proud of that innovation. The final piece came together when I called my oldest niece, Yazmin, an exceptionally talented portrait artist, and a new mother herself and asked her to create nature-inspired illustrations for our designs. Pattern work was outside her comfort zone, but I had total faith in her. Watching her grow into that role and now lead the visual side of our products has been a true joy. Samantha Salvatorelli, founder and director of Gilded of Oxford (Formerly: Gilded Words) chats to Craft Focus about bringing quality and craftmanship to your home or office desk Take note! “I went around Oxford meeting with local bookbinders to learn how leather works, how it bends, folds, holds detail. The more I experimented with this beautiful, sustainable material, the more possibilities I began to see...” 48
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