By Heart – a leather stamping study in well-chosen gifts

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies. Volume I-D.

A September study.

We call this collection By Heart. Each design in it is one small thing you know about a person without having to think – which scissors are the good ones, or where the pockets empty at night. A gift should prove that kind of knowing.

First, we borrowed the stencil language of shipping crates and taught it a gentler line. A freight-cut heart stands beside HANDLE WITH CARE – on a luggage tag, the fragile goods are the person carrying the bag.

The black tag carries the design in gold.

Black-and-white freight-stencil heart and HANDLE WITH CARE die artwork for the By Heart leather gift collection.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the HANDLE WITH CARE design from the By Heart collection.

A poppy-red leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the HANDLE WITH CARE design from the By Heart collection.

A gray-sand leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the HANDLE WITH CARE design from the By Heart collection.

Next, a keychain for whoever guards the household's most defended tool. We drew a pair of tailor's shears and set THE GOOD SCISSORS beneath them – anyone who sews knows exactly which pair these are, and exactly whose keys should wear them.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white tailor's shears and THE GOOD SCISSORS die artwork for the By Heart leather gift collection.

A Parisian-blossom leather keychain blind-stamped with THE GOOD SCISSORS from the By Heart collection.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-stamped with THE GOOD SCISSORS from the By Heart collection.

Then we turned the catchall tray into the smallest museum we know. Inside an exhibit label's double frame, a few of the day's findings hang above the words FOUND OBJECTS – and every evening the pockets empty into their own little exhibition.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white museum-label die artwork with a key, button, spool and FOUND OBJECTS for the By Heart collection.

An Arizona-tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with the FOUND OBJECTS museum-label design.

We also gave the toiletry bags a crest. A toothbrush and a razor cross like ceremonial swords above THE WHOLE KIT – for the person whose packing everyone quietly relies on.

Black-and-white crossed toothbrush and straight razor with THE WHOLE KIT die artwork for the By Heart collection.

Caramel and Sicilian-brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with THE WHOLE KIT.

And finally, the journals. Down in the corner, where a maker would sign, a small asterisk stands over START ANYWHERE – a footnote's permission for every blank page. One journal in deep wine, the other in pale sea-blue.

Black-and-white printer's asterisk and START ANYWHERE die artwork for the By Heart leather gift collection.

A sangria leather journal blind-stamped with START ANYWHERE from the By Heart collection.

A pale sea-blue leather journal blind-stamped with START ANYWHERE from the By Heart collection.

P.S.

An alternate black leather luggage-tag render with the gold HANDLE WITH CARE stamp.

An alternate poppy-red leather luggage-tag render with the blind HANDLE WITH CARE stamp.

An alternate gray-sand leather luggage-tag render with the blind HANDLE WITH CARE stamp.

An alternate sangria leather journal render with the START ANYWHERE study.

An alternate pale sea-blue leather journal render with the START ANYWHERE study.

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.