How a piece is made
Every piece on this site is made after you order it. Nothing is warehoused, and nothing is drop-shipped. This is what happens between the moment you press the button and the moment the parcel reaches you — written so you can check it against what arrives.
1 · The drawing
A piece starts as a phrase set in a classical Arabic script — Thuluth, Naskh, Diwani, square Kufic — or as an arabesque pattern. You can set that phrase yourself in Mashq Studio, free and without an account, and the outline you see there is the outline that gets cut. For the original artworks it is not a drawing at all: a calligrapher writes the piece by hand, in ink, once.
2 · The proof, before anything is cut
Every bespoke piece is shown to you first as a 3D render and as dimensioned projection drawings — top, front and side, in centimetres. You approve the spelling, the script and the size before the material is touched. This is the step that makes a made-to-order piece safe to buy: nothing is cut on a guess.
3 · The cut
The approved outline becomes a cutting file and goes to the laser. The trays, boxes and tissue boxes are 5 mm acrylic — gold-tinted, deep black, or crystal-clear, whichever you chose. The laser is what gives a letter its edge; a router or a blade cannot hold a hairline curve at that size.
4 · The hand-finishing
This is the part a machine cannot do and the part that takes the time. Cut edges are sanded, the faces are cleaned, the piece is assembled, and it is inspected before it goes anywhere near a box. It is also why two production runs are never quite identical, and why we tell corporate buyers to order a batch in one go rather than in halves.
5 · Prints, paper and frames
Calligraphy paints and prints take a different route: they are printed rather than cut, and they ship rolled in a tube and unframed when they leave the UAE — safer for the piece and far cheaper than shipping glass. Framing, when you choose it, is done by hand here in Dubai.
6 · How long it takes
Most pieces are produced within five to seven working days before dispatch. Personalised work adds a step, because the spelling has to be confirmed and the layout approved. Every product page states its own time, and the product page is the promise.
7 · Where it is made
In our own workshop in Dubai — two founders, a laser cutter and a shelf of acrylic. The seller is 1click2open LLC; the registration details are in the legal notice.
