Creatures of Habit × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

A September study – Volume I-D.

Creatures of Habit is a small exhibition of five animals who keep faith with one daily ritual – and of the people they remind us of. We drew each in the old naturalist manner and matched it to the leather object that shares its habit.

First, the swallow, who leaves every autumn and finds her way back to the same eave every spring. We set her in level flight over the words ALWAYS RETURNS and ran the design lengthwise along the luggage tag – a send-off gift for the traveler who always comes home. The black tag carries the gold.

Black-and-white die artwork of a returning swallow above ALWAYS RETURNS for the Creatures of Habit leather gift study, Volume I-D.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed lengthwise with the ALWAYS RETURNS swallow design.

A poppy-red leather luggage tag blind-debossed lengthwise with the ALWAYS RETURNS swallow design.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped lengthwise with the ALWAYS RETURNS swallow design.

Next, the homing pigeon, flying HOME BY DARK under one early star. Keys are the coming-home object, so she lives on the fob – for the one whose porch light stays on. The black fob carries the gold, like a lit window at dusk.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white die artwork of a homing pigeon and one star above HOME BY DARK for the Creatures of Habit study.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with the HOME BY DARK pigeon design.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with the HOME BY DARK pigeon design.

Then the heron, who stands still long enough to see what everyone else missed. NOTICES EVERYTHING sits in the lower right corner of the journal, the way a margin note would – for the watcher who writes things down. One journal in deep green, one in pale greige.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white die artwork of a watchful heron above NOTICES EVERYTHING for the Creatures of Habit study.

A forest-green leather wrap journal blind-debossed with the NOTICES EVERYTHING heron design.

A gray-sand leather wrap journal blind-debossed with the NOTICES EVERYTHING heron design.

The toiletry bags went to the cat, mid-wash above SAME TIME EVERY MORNING, because every house has one ceremonious groomer who keeps that appointment without fail. We stacked honeyed russet over dark espresso and pressed her blind into the lower right corner of both bags.

Black-and-white die artwork of a grooming cat above SAME TIME EVERY MORNING for the Creatures of Habit study.

Indian Summer and dark-espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with the SAME TIME EVERY MORNING cat design.

And finally, the one we liked the most. The magpie, patron bird of the catchall tray, holds a ring in her beak over the words EVERYTHING SHINY ENDS UP HERE – and by evening, on the golden tan tray, that will simply be true.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white circular die artwork of a magpie and key reading EVERYTHING SHINY ENDS UP HERE for the Creatures of Habit study.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the EVERYTHING SHINY ENDS UP HERE magpie design.

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.