Danielle Calma × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

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

An August study.

For Danielle Calma.

First, the ribbon. Your luggage-tag roundup opens with a multicolored one that kept vanishing in transit, so we tied it one last time in solid black and set it above the words LAST SEEN IN TRANSIT – a small missing notice, pressed into the kind of tag that replaced it.

Black and white ribbon stamp reading LAST SEEN IN TRANSIT, created for Danielle Calma.

The trio runs deliberately bright, since the roundup's own verdict was that tag palettes skew too muted to spot across a carousel. A warm red and a vivid magenta flank a pale sea-blue.

Bright red, pale sea-blue and fuchsia leather luggage tags stamped LAST SEEN IN TRANSIT for Danielle Calma.

Next, the field test we admire most – walking the length of Manhattan to prove a pair of sneakers. We stood the island the full height of the die and knocked a white footpath through it, tip to tip, with TESTED ON FOOT beneath.

Black and white Manhattan route stamp reading TESTED ON FOOT, created for Danielle Calma.

On the keychains it rides in the pocket, golden tan beside the warm gray of pavement. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Golden tan and warm gray leather keychains stamped TESTED ON FOOT for Danielle Calma.

The same walk lands in the golden tan catchall tray at full size – where the keys go once the day's mileage is done.

Golden tan leather catchall tray stamped TESTED ON FOOT for Danielle Calma.

Then, the shortest verdict in the testing trade – a checked box beside HOLDS UP. Pressed into leather, the stamp makes a quiet wager, because it has to last at least as long as the thing it praises.

Black and white checked-box stamp reading HOLDS UP, created for Danielle Calma.

It sits in the corner of the toiletry bags, caramel over dark espresso.

Caramel and dark espresso leather toiletry bags blind stamped HOLDS UP for Danielle Calma.

And in the corner of the journals where verdicts get drafted – one in navy, one in the blush pink the roundup singled out.

Navy and blush leather journals blind stamped HOLDS UP for Danielle Calma.

And finally, the annual route. JFK to MNL across open water – the little plane at the top of the arc pointed home, with HOME ONCE A YEAR beneath the waves.

Black and white JFK to MNL route stamp reading HOME ONCE A YEAR, created for Danielle Calma.

The covers pair deep wine with navy, the colors those two shores bind their passports in. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Deep wine and navy leather passport covers stamped with the annual JFK to MNL route for Danielle Calma.

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