Changed Hands – a Sacramento leather stamping collection

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.

An August study.

Changed Hands, Volume I-A. A leather collection for Sacramento – for the hands that hunt old things and carry them home on a keychain.

First, the luggage tags. Everything in this collection's world came over the water in a crate, so we borrowed the crate's own language – the stencilled goblet that means fragile, and the plain record of the trip: CROSSED AN OCEAN, HANDLE WITH CARE.

Black-and-white CROSSED AN OCEAN stamp artwork for the Changed Hands leather collection of Sacramento, California.

The black tag carries the stencil in gold; the navy and warm tan tags press blind.

A black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with CROSSED AN OCEAN from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

A navy leather luggage tag blind-stamped with CROSSED AN OCEAN from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

A warm tan leather luggage tag blind-stamped with CROSSED AN OCEAN from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

Next, we drew an old lever key that keeps its own history – IT OPENED SOMETHING ONCE – and put it on the keychains, where it rides beside the keys that still do.

Black-and-white antique key stamp artwork for the Changed Hands leather collection of Sacramento, California.

On the black fob the gold pass turns the key to brass; the chestnut fob presses blind. The keychains came out just awesome.

A black leather keychain stamped in gold with an antique key from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

A chestnut leather keychain blind-stamped with an antique key from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

Then we set a roundel of the confluence in the corner of the toiletry bags – TWO RIVERS round the top of the ring, ONE CITY round the bottom – navy stacked over deep espresso.

Black-and-white TWO RIVERS ONE CITY stamp artwork for the Changed Hands leather collection of Sacramento, California.

Navy and deep brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with TWO RIVERS ONE CITY from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

After that, we sent a small key across the catchall tray between two printer's hands – CHANGED HANDS, the collection's namesake – because a tray is where things wait between owners.

Black-and-white pointing-hands and key stamp artwork for the Changed Hands leather collection of Sacramento, California.

It looks genuinely beautiful in the golden tan.

A golden tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with a key handoff from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Sacramento keeps calling itself the City of Trees no matter what the newer signs say, so we grew two elms until their canopies met over the words, the way they meet over the midtown streets in July.

Black-and-white CITY OF TREES stamp artwork for the Changed Hands leather collection of Sacramento, California.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – one journal in deep green, one in pale greige.

A deep green leather journal blind-stamped with CITY OF TREES from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

A pale warm greige leather journal blind-stamped with CITY OF TREES from the Changed Hands collection of Sacramento, California.

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