About

We are Karen Rudd and Raoul Gatepin, owners and founders of Frapperie, established in 2020. Our workshop is located in Neuville-Sur-Saône, a small village outside of Lyon, France. Our shop name comes from the French verb “frapper” which means to hit or strike.

HOW IT STARTED

Karen: I’m a bookbinder from the US and Etsy design finalist for 2019. I started selling hand bound guestbooks in my Etsy shop Spellbinderie in late 2010, which I opened shortly after moving to France with my partner Raoul. In 2011, I started adding small hand-stamped brass plates to the guestbook covers.

Raoul: I’m an online marketer from France. In my spare time I enjoy building custom bicycles that feature hand-stamped plaques with my brand name ROUL.

Much to our surprise the guestbook nameplates became a success on their own with buyers from all over the world requesting them for their mailboxes, doors, buzzers, etc. And voilà… with the plaques becoming a bigger and bigger part of the business Frapperie Etsy Shop was established in 2020 with Raoul officially joining the production team in 2022.

Since 2022, we have continued develop our expertise and expand our atelier space to allow us to make larger and more varied custom plaques and signs for businesses, restaurants, shops, sculpture parks and museums as well as smaller nameplates for memorial benches, photo albums, urns and homes.

Karen & Raoul in Mexico
When not in our workshop, you’ll probably find us in Mexico where Karen’s mother lives.

Workshop & Process

Following artisan production ethics, each slow step of the process is done by hand resulting in a unique high-quality durable product.

The plaques go through several stages of manual treatments : stamping, cutting, filing, drilling, sanding, patinaing.

Some of the tools used are : letter punches, hammer, sanding paper, files, manual guillotine, oxidizing agent.
The only motor-powered machine used during the process is a drill press, when holes are needed.

We believe that craftsmanship, meticulous attention to detail and an eye for aesthetic letter placement give Frapperie’s brass and copper plaques a distinct advantage over machine made. No two plaques are the same, showing off the quality and value of handmade.

 

News

You can check out and follow our instagram account to see what we’ve been up to lately :

Other Things Of Interest

Karen was recently interviewed about her bookbinding supply shop Spellbinderie Too. Read here:
https://www.alura.io/interview/spellbinderietoo

Voir la version française de cette page