The Water Stays – four leather stamps from Reno, Nevada

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on original leather stamp collections.

An August study.

In the Great Basin no river reaches the sea – the water runs down from the Sierra and stays. The Water Stays is a small collection of original leather stamps we designed around that fact and its home ground, Reno and the high desert that holds it. From luggage tags to journals, every design below was drawn for this place.

First, the seal that names the collection. The ancient lakes of this desert left their shorelines on the hills like rings in a bathtub, and we drew the basin exactly so – terrace rings around one small lake, a single river entering at the top with nowhere further to go, GREAT BASIN above, THE WATER STAYS below.

The Water Stays circular stamp design for an original leather collection rooted in Reno, Nevada.

A catchall tray is a closed basin of its own – whatever you drop in it stays. The seal sits at the center of the golden tan tray, at generous size.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with The Water Stays basin seal from Reno, Nevada.

The same seal presses into the lower corner of the toiletry bags, warm gray over deep espresso – playa over basalt.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with The Water Stays basin seal from Reno, Nevada.

Next, the Truckee – one of the few rivers on earth that begins in a lake and ends in one. Tahoe on the left and Pyramid on the right, with Reno's small grid where the line crosses between them. All 114 miles run the long way down the luggage tags.

The Lake to Lake stamp design tracing the Truckee River for The Water Stays leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

Pale sea-blue for the water and warm tan for the desert it crosses. The black tag carries the design in gold.

Three leather luggage tags carrying the Lake to Lake river design from The Water Stays collection of Reno, Nevada.

Then, the snow. On Mount Rose, above Reno, the year's water is read before it ever becomes a river – a graduated stake in the drifts, telling how much the winter has banked. The keychain stamp is that stake beside its peak, and under it the plain order of things: FIRST THE SNOW.

The First the Snow mountain survey design for The Water Stays leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

One fob in Sierra pine green, the other in pale granite sand.

Two leather keychains stamped First the Snow for The Water Stays collection of Reno, Nevada.

And finally, the journals. The high desert's real luxury is space – a horizon low enough to leave the whole sky empty. The cover carries a thin frame, a low ridgeline along the bottom, and ROOM TO THINK set small in all that white. The rest is yours.

The Room to Think high-desert horizon design for The Water Stays leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

One journal in pale gray sand, the other in ink-dark navy.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather journals stamped Room to Think for The Water Stays collection of Reno, Nevada.

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 The Water Stays belongs somewhere in your Reno, or you'd like anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.