Refuge by the Sea – a Pacific Grove, California leather collection

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

An August study.

Refuge by the Sea is a small leather collection rooted in Pacific Grove, California. We drew five stamps from the town at the edge of the water and pressed each into leather – luggage tags and journals among them.

First, we let an envelope open into a monarch. The flap becomes the wing, and beneath it runs FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLIES – the line this town has used since 1939. The trio wears the monarch's own golden tan and the grove's deep pine green; the black tag carries the gold.

The FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLIES stamp artwork for Refuge by the Sea, a Pacific Grove leather collection.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with an envelope opening into monarch wings, from Refuge by the Sea in Pacific Grove.

Next, Asilomar. The name means refuge by the sea, and Julia Morgan built it that way – so we set one of her board-and-batten gables in the dune grass above a single line of surf. It presses onto the toiletry bags in warm granite gray over chestnut, because a kit is a refuge you carry.

The REFUGE BY THE SEA gable stamp artwork for a Pacific Grove leather collection.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with an Asilomar gable, from Refuge by the Sea in Pacific Grove.

Then the keychains. Monarchs pass the winter hanging in the pines here, wings folded shut, so we hung one from a pine sprig and wrote WINTERS HERE beneath – a good promise for a set of keys. One fob runs golden tan; the black fob takes the gold.

The WINTERS HERE monarch stamp artwork for Refuge by the Sea, a Pacific Grove leather collection.

Two leather keychains stamped with a wintering monarch, from Refuge by the Sea in Pacific Grove.

After that, the catchall tray. A tray holds what the day washes up, the way a tide pool holds what the sea leaves behind – so the golden tan base carries a rocky pool with a sea star inside, and LOW TIDE written in the open water.

The LOW TIDE pool stamp artwork for Refuge by the Sea, a Pacific Grove leather collection.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with a Pacific Grove tide pool, from Refuge by the Sea.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Point Pinos has kept its light since the 1850s, and on a journal cover the beam becomes the first ruled line of the page – the lighthouse starts the line and the writer continues it. The duo comes in night navy and pale sand.

The POINT PINOS lighthouse stamp artwork for Refuge by the Sea, a Pacific Grove leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Two leather journals stamped with the Point Pinos lighthouse and ruled light, from Refuge by the Sea in Pacific Grove.

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