High Tide on King – a Charleston leather collection

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

An August study.

A leather collection for Charleston and the Lowcountry, pressed the old way – one steel die per design, luggage tags down to the catchall tray. The tide and the oyster do most of the talking.

First, the oyster's whole argument in three words. We drew a single shell barely open, the pearl at its lip, and set GRIT MAKES PEARLS beneath – the Lowcountry's shortest lecture on how anything good gets made.

The Grit Makes Pearls oyster stamp design from the High Tide on King leather collection of Charleston.

A pearl is the diary an oyster keeps, so the journals wear it first – one in pale warm greige, one in deep harbor navy.

Two leather journals stamped with Grit Makes Pearls from the High Tide on King collection of Charleston.

On the toiletry bags the same stamp sits low in the corner, warm oyster gray stacked over deep espresso brown – shell over pluff mud. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with Grit Makes Pearls from the High Tide on King collection of Charleston.

Next, a clock with no numbers. The dial reads HIGH at noon and LOW at six, EBB falling down one side and FLOOD rising up the other, and the hand sits a hair before HIGH – the best of it still coming. ON LOWCOUNTRY TIME runs beneath.

The On Lowcountry Time tide clock stamp design from the High Tide on King leather collection of Charleston.

We centered it on the golden-tan catchall tray, where keys and pocket change wait out the tide.

An arizona leather catchall tray stamped On Lowcountry Time from the High Tide on King collection of Charleston.

Then, the sailor's oldest homework. Coming in from sea, keep the red markers on your right and the channel carries you home – so the luggage tags say RED RIGHT RETURNING over a number-two daymark on its piling.

The Red Right Returning channel marker stamp design from the High Tide on King leather collection of Charleston.

The trio runs harbor navy for the water and warm red for the marker itself, with a black tag between them. The black tag carries the gold. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Three leather luggage tags stamped Red Right Returning from the High Tide on King collection of Charleston.

And finally, one for the keys. We forged a little wrought-iron sign bracket of the kind lower King still swings, pineapple finial and all, and hung a board from it that reads MEET ME ON KING.

The Meet Me on King wrought-iron sign stamp design from the High Tide on King leather collection of Charleston.

One fob in deep forest green, one in black. The black fob carries the gold, the way sign lettering goes at dusk.

Two leather keychains stamped Meet Me on King from the High Tide on King collection of Charleston.

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.