Earthcast × Paradise Valley, Arizona – a leather stamping collection

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

An August study.

Paradise Valley, Arizona was named in the 1880s, when canal surveyors looked across a valley of spring wildflowers and reached for the only word that fit. We spent August pressing that corner of the desert into leather – five original stamps, together called Earthcast.

First, the stamp that named the collection. Around here concrete is poured over shaped earth, and the earth is dug away to leave a ribbed vault standing in the light. We drew that vault on its ground line, set EARTHCAST beneath it, and pressed it into the corner of the toiletry bags – whose stack tells the same story in leather, warm concrete gray over deep earth brown.

The EARTHCAST black-and-white stamp design for the Earthcast leather collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Country-gray and dark-espresso leather toiletry bags stamped EARTHCAST, from the Earthcast collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Next, the luggage tags, which carry the valley's naming. A meadow of spring wildflowers runs the length of the tag under the words AND CALLED IT PARADISE. One tag wears the pale sea-blue of the ceramic glazes, one the honeyed russet of clay and copper; the third is a pale greige, the color of raw concrete and desert sand.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The AND CALLED IT PARADISE wildflower stamp design for the Earthcast leather collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with desert wildflowers and AND CALLED IT PARADISE, from the Earthcast collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Then the keychains. A windbell asks one thing of its owner – hang it. THE WIND DOES THE REST, so we drew the rest: three strokes of moving air meeting a small bead, and the first ring of sound leaving it. The black fob carries the gold, the way bronze carries light in a dark pour. Its partner is pale sea-blue, straight from the glazes.

The THE WIND DOES THE REST stamp design for the Earthcast leather collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Black and pale sea-blue leather keychains stamped THE WIND DOES THE REST, from the Earthcast collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Then the catchall tray, in golden tan. Keys and change land here at the end of every day, so we gave the tray a prior tenant – a desert quail pausing at the end of its own line of tracks, turned to look back the way it came, above the words WHERE THINGS LAND.

The WHERE THINGS LAND quail stamp design for the Earthcast leather collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with a quail trail and WHERE THINGS LAND, from the Earthcast collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

And finally, the journals. This town wrote its quiet into law – slopes preserved and sky left alone. We drew a long reclining ridge under a sliver of moon, with KEEP THE QUIET beneath: a standing order the mountain and a notebook can share. One journal comes in deep pine green for the preserve, the other in warm stone gray.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

The KEEP THE QUIET mountain stamp design for the Earthcast leather collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Forest-green and warm gray leather journals stamped KEEP THE QUIET, from the Earthcast collection of Paradise Valley, Arizona.

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 anything here made real, or anything changed – say hello through our contact page.