First Class – Volume I-B, a leather collection about sending word

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

A September study.

Volume I-B – Commercial-fit study.

First Class – a small leather collection about the lost art of sending word. Every design in it is borrowed from the life of a letter, from the postcard on the road to the parcel at the door.

First, we turned a luggage tag into the back of a postcard – the divider, the empty address lines, a postage stamp with a heart inside, and WISH YOU WERE HERE written where the message goes. The tag says it for you, from wherever it happens to be.

Black-and-white WISH YOU WERE HERE postcard artwork for the First Class leather correspondence collection.

It travels in pale sea-blue and poppy red, and once more in the classic caramel of old luggage. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the WISH YOU WERE HERE postcard from the First Class correspondence collection.

A poppy-red leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the WISH YOU WERE HERE postcard from the First Class correspondence collection.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the WISH YOU WERE HERE postcard from the First Class correspondence collection.

Next, the journals. A fountain pen nib has just finished the line SAY IT IN INK, and the stroke still ties the words to its tip. Ink is where a thought becomes meant – pressed into leather, it stays that way.

Black-and-white SAY IT IN INK fountain-pen artwork for the First Class leather correspondence collection.

One journal wears ink-dark navy, the other pale warm greige – ink and paper, side by side.

A navy blueberry leather journal blind-debossed with the SAY IT IN INK fountain pen from the First Class correspondence collection.

A pale warm-greige leather journal blind-debossed with the SAY IT IN INK fountain pen from the First Class correspondence collection.

Then we poured a wax seal onto the keychains – SEALED WITH LOVE curved above a solid heart, the rim left ragged the way cooled wax breaks.

Black-and-white SEALED WITH LOVE wax-seal artwork for the First Class leather correspondence collection.

Deep wine is the sealing wax itself; pale rose, the envelope it closes. It looks genuinely beautiful.

A deep-wine sangria leather keychain blind-debossed with the SEALED WITH LOVE wax seal from the First Class correspondence collection.

A pale-rose blush leather keychain blind-debossed with the SEALED WITH LOVE wax seal from the First Class correspondence collection.

Then the catchall tray took a big RECEIVED, tilted the way a rubber stamp actually lands, with a blank rule where the date would go. Whatever the day delivers ends up here, and the golden tan tray signs for it.

Black-and-white RECEIVED office-stamp artwork for the First Class leather correspondence collection.

A golden-tan Arizona leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the RECEIVED office stamp from the First Class correspondence collection.

And finally, the toiletry bag, stacked in the browns of parcel paper – caramel over chestnut. In the corner we stamped HANDLE WITH CARE beside the little fragile glass. Fair instructions for a bag full of bottles, and for the person who carries it.

Black-and-white HANDLE WITH CARE freight-stamp artwork for the First Class leather correspondence collection.

Caramel and Sicilian-brown leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with HANDLE WITH CARE from the First Class correspondence collection.

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.