Room for Color – a Dupont Circle leather collection

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

An August study.

Room for Color is a small leather collection rooted in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC – a neighborhood where a marble fountain holds the middle of the map and the houses keep paintings the way other houses keep books. We pressed the circle and its fountain into leather, and let the leather do the coloring.

First, we drew the circle the way a map remembers it – the fountain at dead center, with the park's ring around it and the avenues radiating out to the rest of the city. MEET ME AT THE CIRCLE arcs around the edge, because that is what the place is for.

The Meet Me at the Circle map stamp design from the Room for Color leather collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

The three luggage tags wear the circle's own colors. Pale warm greige for the fountain's marble and deep green for the tree canopy, with a warm red between them for rowhouse brick and the red line that carries everyone in.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with Meet Me at the Circle from the Room for Color collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

The keychains take the same circle in warm red and black. The black fob carries the stamp in gold foil – the circle after dark, lit.

Two leather keychains stamped with Meet Me at the Circle from the Room for Color collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

Next, the fountain that holds the center. We drew the whole of it into one elevation and set its three names beneath the basin. Wavelets ride the waterline and wind strokes bow the falling water. The stars hang above the bowl, where they belong.

The Sea Stars Wind fountain stamp design from the Room for Color leather collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

We pressed it small into the corner of the toiletry bags, navy over dark espresso – a fountain on the bag that carries your water.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with Sea Stars Wind from the Room for Color collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

On the golden tan tray, one basin serves another – the marble one catches water, the leather one catches keys. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with Sea Stars Wind from the Room for Color collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

And finally, the design the collection is named for. An empty frame, a bench to sit on, ROOM FOR COLOR underneath. The stamp is blind – no ink, no foil – so the frame fills with whatever leather it is pressed into.

The Room for Color frame and bench stamp design from the namesake leather collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

On the journals the frame fills with deep navy on one cover and honeyed russet on the other – a blue and a warm amber hung facing each other, the way paintings talk in a small room. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Two leather journals stamped with Room for Color from the namesake collection of Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

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