Grit & Glass – a Tacoma leather stamping study

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

An August study.

Grit & Glass is a small collection rooted in Tacoma, Washington – five original stamps drawn from the city's own material and pressed into everyday leather goods, from luggage tags to journals. Each one is something the city actually says.

First, the luggage tags. Tacoma has been the City of Destiny since the railroad chose Commencement Bay for its western terminus, so we set the nickname back where it began – on a rail ticket, punched and good for one arrival.

A punched City of Destiny rail-ticket stamp design for the Grit & Glass leather collection of Tacoma, Washington.

The black tag carries the ticket in gold foil; caramel and poppy red take the blind press.

Black, caramel and red leather luggage tags stamped with a City of Destiny rail ticket, from the Grit & Glass collection of Tacoma.

Next, the toiletry bags, in country gray over dark espresso – mountain stone over dark fir. THE MOUNTAIN IS OUT is how Tacoma announces a clear day, so we drew what the phrase sees: Rainier's summit floating free above a band of cloud.

The Mountain Is Out stamp design with Rainier above cloud for the Grit & Glass leather collection of Tacoma.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Gray and espresso leather toiletry bags stamped The Mountain Is Out, from the Grit & Glass collection of Tacoma.

Then the keychains. Down on the waterway a tilted steel cone keeps glass furnaces burning all year, so we drew the cone with one flame at its mouth and wrote KEEP THE OLD FIRE beneath it.

The Keep the Old Fire hot-shop-cone stamp design for the Grit & Glass leather collection of Tacoma.

On the black fob the flame is pressed in gold; on golden tan it goes in blind.

Black and golden tan leather keychains stamped Keep the Old Fire, from the Grit & Glass collection of Tacoma.

After that, the catchall tray, in golden tan. Tacoma answers to Grit City, and we took the name at its word – grit is how a pearl begins. An open shell with one pearl inside, and the sentence that explains it arched over the top.

The Grit Makes the Pearl shell stamp design for the Grit & Glass leather collection of Tacoma.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped Grit Makes the Pearl, from the Grit & Glass collection of Tacoma.

And finally, the journals – the one we liked the most. The bay this city sits on is named Commencement, so we set the word as the first line of the page and let the rule beneath it run out into a tide. Every entry after that is yours.

One journal in blueberry for the bay, one in gray sand for the flats at low tide.

The Commencement ruled-line-and-wave stamp design for the Grit & Glass leather collection of Tacoma.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Navy and gray-sand leather journals stamped Commencement, from the Grit & Glass collection of Tacoma.

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 in Tacoma and you'd like any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.