Everyday Best – household wisdom stamped in leather

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies. Shops Waterfall, Volume I-C.

A September study.

A small exhibition of household wisdom, stamped in leather. Each design in the EVERYDAY BEST collection presses an old saying about keeping and using good things onto an object built for exactly that.

First, a packing rule borrowed from William Morris, who asked his readers to keep only what they know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. We drew a traveling case inside a ring, set USEFUL along the top arc and BEAUTIFUL along the bottom – a luggage tag that quietly audits the luggage.

Black die artwork of a suitcase inside a Useful and Beautiful roundel for the Everyday Best collection

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Useful and Beautiful suitcase roundel blind stamped on a caramel leather luggage tag

Useful and Beautiful suitcase roundel blind stamped on a forest-green leather luggage tag

Useful and Beautiful suitcase roundel blind stamped on a blueberry leather luggage tag

Next, we cut a skeleton key whose bit is a little gabled house – the metal that turns the lock is the home it opens. HOME AGAIN sits underneath.

Black die artwork of a skeleton key with a house-shaped bit above the words Home Again

The keychains look great in chestnut and in pale sea-blue.

Home Again key-and-house design blind stamped on a Sicilian-brown leather keychain

Home Again key-and-house design blind stamped on a pale sea-blue leather keychain

Then the morning. We raised a sun over FIRST THINGS FIRST and stamped it small in the corner of the kit where every day begins – honeyed russet stacked over deep espresso.

Black die artwork of a rising sun above the words First Things First

First Things First sunrise design blind stamped on Indian Summer and dark-espresso leather dopp kits

Then a maxim for the entryway. We set A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING inside a drawn drawer-label frame, screw heads and all, with AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE answering beneath – pressed into the base of a golden tan tray that is, of course, the place.

Black drawer-label die artwork reading A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place

A Place for Everything maxim blind stamped in an Arizona leather catchall tray

And finally, the journal for the recipes and remedies that survive because somebody wrote them down. A wooden spoon crossed with a pen, over WRITTEN DOWN, HANDED DOWN.

Black die artwork of a spoon crossed with a pen above the words Written Down Handed Down

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Written Down Handed Down spoon-and-pen design blind stamped on a dark-espresso leather journal

Written Down Handed Down spoon-and-pen design blind stamped on a gray-sand leather journal

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.