Embassy of Guatemala to the United States × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.

An August study.

The Embassy of Guatemala to the United States keeps Guatemala present in Washington from a house at 2220 R Street NW. Its mission fits in one sentence, and a good one: “Nuestra misión es fortalecer las relaciones bilaterales entre ambos países y promover los intereses de Guatemala en el ámbito político, económico y cultural.” To strengthen and to promote – the two working verbs of a friendship between countries.

We came for the seal and stayed for what it holds. A resplendent quetzal perched above a scroll that still reads LIBERTAD 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 1821, with laurel closing gently around them. Few institutions carry a mark this generous. So this study is our letter to the embassy, and to the desk of Beatriz Sánchez Paz, First Secretary, who understands better than we ever will what a well-made object can say between two capitals.

The mark, as found

A circular seal on a white ground. Paired blue rings carry the perimeter text in black serif capitals, EMBAJADA DE GUATEMALA above and ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA below, while a narrow gold rule closes the edge. At the center sit the national arms, the quetzal above the dated scroll with laurel beneath. This mark was built for engraving long before we arrived.

Official seal of the Embassy of Guatemala to the United States

Pressed

The seal goes onto the luggage tags exactly as found, letter for letter around the rings. Blueberry and forest green take it in blind deboss, the navy of the perimeter rings and the green of the laurel pressed quietly into the grain. The black tag carries the seal in gold foil, the same gold the outer rule already wears. Diplomatic luggage travels far, and a tag should say whose it is with some ceremony.

The quetzal corridor

Our first draft perched the quetzal on a branch, and we abandoned it; perched, the bird reads like an aviary plate. In flight it becomes something else. Here it flies the route itself, a shallow arc rising from GUATEMALA and settling toward WASHINGTON, its long tail plumes streaming back along the line it came from. The bird carries the corridor with it, which is roughly what an embassy does.

We pressed it on passport covers, the one object in this study that actually makes the crossing. A pale sea-blue cover beside a gray sand one, the lighter blue the embassy's own pages wear next to the white ground of the seal, both in blind deboss.

Black and white quetzal corridor die design for the Embassy of Guatemala

Quetzal corridor pressed on pale sea-blue and gray sand passport covers for the Embassy of Guatemala

Two capitals

Temple I at Tikal rises in steps; the Capitol rises in a dome. We set them on one horizon, a fine dashed arc linking the roof comb to the lantern, each city named beneath its silhouette. Two very different ideas of a capital, drawn at the same height and given equal weight. The embassy's news pages speak of consolidating strategic alliances with the United States; this is that sentence drawn as a skyline.

On the golden tan catchall tray it sits centered, waiting for keys and cufflinks at the end of a Washington day. It returns at a generous size on the corner of the wrap journals, a forest green one and a caramel one, for the meetings where the alliances actually get written down.

Black and white Tikal and Washington two-capitals die design

Tikal and Washington design pressed on a golden tan leather catchall tray

Tikal and Washington design pressed on forest green and caramel leather journals

Laurel, 1821

The scroll at the seal's heart gave us the third design, a compact maker's mark. LIBERTAD arches over the numerals 1821 inside an open laurel wreath, small enough to sit where a monogram sits, carrying a date every Guatemalan knows by heart.

It presses into the lower corner of the toiletry bags, a blueberry bag over a dark espresso one, in blind deboss as all our toiletry bags are. On the keychain duo the blueberry fob takes it blind, and the black fob takes it in gold, a little of the seal's rule riding along on a ring of brass keys.

Black and white Libertad 1821 laurel die design

Libertad 1821 laurel pressed on blueberry and dark espresso leather toiletry bags

Libertad 1821 laurel pressed on black and blueberry leather keychains

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.