Finders Keepers – a leather collection about finding and keeping good things

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

A September study.

Finders Keepers is a small leather collection about the pleasure of finding things and the older habit of keeping them. Five stamps, one for each stage of a good find.

First, we hung GONE LOOKING under a long brass spyglass at full extension, one small glint waiting just past the lens. A luggage tag is the sign you hang on ordinary life when you leave to go find something, so the design runs lengthwise, the way the glass points.

The GONE LOOKING spyglass design from the Finders Keepers leather collection, rendered as black die art on white.

The black tag carries the spyglass in gold – brass, after all.

A black leather luggage tag from Finders Keepers, gold-stamped with a long spyglass and GONE LOOKING.

On deep green and golden tan, the same glass presses blind.

A forest-green leather luggage tag from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a long spyglass and GONE LOOKING.

A warm tan leather luggage tag from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a long spyglass and GONE LOOKING.

Next, we gave the magpie its due. The bird with the famous weakness for shiny things carries off a ring above the words FINDERS KEEPERS – pressed onto the object that spends its whole life being found at the bottom of a bag.

The FINDERS KEEPERS magpie and ring design for leather stamping, rendered as black die art on white.

On the black fob the magpie's prize presses in gold, which is exactly how the bird would want it.

A black leather keychain from Finders Keepers, gold-stamped with a magpie carrying a ring.

The warm red fob takes it as a blind press. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A warm red leather keychain from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a magpie carrying a ring.

Then a four-leaf clover over LUCKY FIND, pressed small in the corner of the toiletry bags – warm tan stacked on deep espresso. The kit goes along on every trip; now a little luck goes with it.

The LUCKY FIND four-leaf-clover design for leather stamping, rendered as black die art on white.

Warm tan and dark espresso leather toiletry bags from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a four-leaf clover and LUCKY FIND.

Then we gave the catchall tray its official title: LOST AND FOUND DEPARTMENT, ringed like an office stamp around one house key. Everything mislaid in the house eventually checks in here. It looks genuinely beautiful in the golden tan.

The LOST AND FOUND DEPARTMENT key seal for leather stamping, rendered as black die art on white.

A golden tan leather catchall tray from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a LOST AND FOUND DEPARTMENT key seal.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A firefly jar with the lid on and three small lights still going, above CAUGHT AND KEPT. A journal does the same work – the good idea flickers once, and the page keeps it glowing.

The CAUGHT AND KEPT firefly-jar design for leather stamping, rendered as black die art on white.

One journal in navy for the dusk the fireflies rise into, one in deep green for the backyard they rise out of.

A navy leather journal from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a firefly jar and CAUGHT AND KEPT.

A deep green leather journal from Finders Keepers, blind-stamped with a firefly jar and CAUGHT AND KEPT.

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