A Place Is Set – a leather gift collection for the well-set table

From the Practice Log – Shops Waterfall, Volume I-D.

A September study.

A Place Is Set – a small leather collection about the well-set table and the people it waits for. Five stamps, from a luggage tag to a journal, each one a way of telling somebody a place is theirs.

First, the design the collection is named for. We set a full place seen from straight above, the silver where it belongs on either side of the plate, and arched A PLACE IS SET over the rim. A catchall tray is a set place too – the spot on the dresser where keys and coins are expected home every evening.

Black-and-white A Place Is Set place-setting leather stamp artwork.

It looks genuinely beautiful pressed into the golden tan.

Golden-tan leather catchall tray stamped with the A Place Is Set place setting.

Next, the luggage tags. We ran a long table lengthwise down the tag, a row of chair backs behind it, and wrote YOU ARE EXPECTED above the whole scene – the sentence a traveler most hopes is true at the other end of the trip.

Black-and-white You Are Expected table-and-chairs leather stamp artwork.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – here in deep wine, then in pale sea-blue.

Deep-wine leather luggage tag stamped You Are Expected.

Pale sea-blue leather luggage tag stamped You Are Expected.

The black tag carries the design in gold.

Black leather luggage tag stamped You Are Expected in gold.

Then, the smallest gift in the set. There was a time when a bride could send away for one real sample teaspoon and choose her wedding silver by it – a small handled object standing in for a whole future table. So the keychain fob carries a single teaspoon with FIRST OF THE SET beside it, for the giver whose larger gift is still on its way.

Black-and-white First of the Set teaspoon leather stamp artwork.

The little spoon looks just awesome on the fob – in deep wine and again in warm tan.

Deep-wine leather keychain stamped with the First of the Set teaspoon.

Warm-tan leather keychain stamped with the First of the Set teaspoon.

For the toiletry kits, we tied a parterre knot – one continuous cord crossing itself the way a knot garden's hedges are clipped to do for a century and more – above the words A GOOD KNOT HOLDS. It is true of gardens and it is true of marriages.

Black-and-white A Good Knot Holds parterre-knot leather stamp artwork.

Pressed low in the corner of the golden tan bag, over its deep brown partner.

Golden-tan and deep-brown leather dopp kits stamped A Good Knot Holds.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Four teaspoons stand in a row with every handle carrying a different pattern, and one is lifted just out of line – the chosen one. Beneath them, CHOOSE YOUR PATTERN. Silver used to be chosen this way for a lifetime of tables; a blank journal asks for the same nerve every morning.

Black-and-white Choose Your Pattern four-spoon leather stamp artwork.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – in deep brown and in pale rose.

Deep-brown leather journal stamped Choose Your Pattern.

Pale-rose leather journal stamped Choose Your Pattern.

We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.

If you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

Alternate deep-wine leather luggage tag stamped You Are Expected.

Alternate pale sea-blue leather luggage tag stamped You Are Expected.

Alternate black leather luggage tag stamped You Are Expected in gold.