A wallet that had to glow

The client wanted a Halloween wallet that would not look like a costume in March. The answer was to treat it as a dye problem, not a drawing problem: heavy relief, almost no outline, and all the drama in the fade.

Letters and the lantern were laser-engraved first for crisp edges, then re-cut and bevelled by hand so the walls of every stroke are steep enough to hold shadow. Dye starts as yellow at the core, moves through orange and blood red, and dies into black at the spine.

Edges are black, the lining natural, the thread bone white. It has been carried daily for a year and the fade has only got deeper.