Ocean Square Wallet

HOW IT IS MADE: Each artwork-come-design is a labor of love that begins with Sharon spending many nights painting a myriad of little creatures and plant life. The next step is to scan these beautiful artworks at a very high resolution, ensuring even the most minute detail is captured. Once digitized, the visual elements’ placement is meticulously worked out, following the technical patterns of each WREN item: a laptop sleeve, an iPad cover, a notebook organizer, or a wallet.

Next comes Wren’s paper, commonly referred to as “cement” paper due to the company’s origins with a literal cement packaging bag (you can read the story here). Even today, there remains a strong link to cement because Wren uses the same type of paper, but from a different source.

Ten years ago, Wren collected misprinted cement packets, but now the company sources and collects this paper directly from local packaging printing factories. These factories discard the ends of paper reels due to creases, imperfections, or their small size, and Wren acquires the paper from them. This process involves a combination of recycling, reclaiming, upcycling, and repurposing.

Once the paper is delivered to the Wren studio in Muizenberg, Cape Town, it gets printed and handed over to Wren’s expert team of makers (meet the team). The skilled hands and sharp eyes of our makers meticulously hand-cut the printed paper, fuse it with cotton to enhance its strength, stitch it with great care, and apply a coating of environmentally-friendly Nano Liquid Glass for water resistance.

More information about Wren’s paper, coating, printing, and packaging can be found here.