Good Order × Leatherius Woodman – a mining world leather stamping study

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

A September study.

Good Order is Volume II from the mining world – a small collection about the care that kept a mine running: fuse coiled and tools racked, crates jointed and every miner counted. Leather keeps the same habits, so each piece here takes up one of them.

First, the luggage tags. Powder traveled underground in finger-jointed wooden crates, so we drew the long side of one and stenciled HANDLE WITH CARE across its planks – the order every crate earned, and every suitcase keeps asking for.

Black-and-white HANDLE WITH CARE powder-crate die artwork from the Good Order Volume II leather collection.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – golden tan first, then deep brown.

An Arizona tan leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the HANDLE WITH CARE crate design.

A dark espresso leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the HANDLE WITH CARE crate design.

The black tag carries the stencil in gold.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the HANDLE WITH CARE crate design.

Next, the keychains. A miner's brass check hung on the board going down and came off it coming up – the tag that said its owner was accounted for. We cut the check as an octagon for the one object nobody is allowed to lose, with ACCOUNTED FOR struck where the number would go.

Black-and-white ACCOUNTED FOR octagonal miner's check-tag die artwork from the Good Order collection.

On the black fob the check presses in gold – brass, give or take.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with the ACCOUNTED FOR miner's check-tag design.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with the ACCOUNTED FOR miner's check-tag design.

Then the toiletry bags, warm tan stacked over deep brown. We coiled a length of safety fuse into the lower corner and tied it twice, with ALL IN GOOD ORDER beneath – the storeroom's standard, adopted by a traveling kit.

Black-and-white ALL IN GOOD ORDER coiled-fuse die artwork from the Good Order collection.

Caramel and dark espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with the ALL IN GOOD ORDER coiled-fuse design.

For the journals, we chalked a tally on the corner and left the last gate open, with MAKE IT COUNT beneath – underground, the count was always kept by hand. The pages are for the rest.

Black-and-white MAKE IT COUNT hand-tally die artwork from the Good Order collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful – one journal in true black, the old day-book binding, and one in pale warm greige, the color of ledger paper.

A black leather journal blind-debossed with the MAKE IT COUNT hand-tally design.

A Gray Sand leather journal blind-debossed with the MAKE IT COUNT hand-tally design.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A good workshop paints a shadow for every tool, so the wall shows at a glance what is still out. We hung the board with tools and left the hammer's shadow empty, under BACK WHERE IT BELONGS – a catchall tray does exactly this, nightly, for keys and pocket change.

Black-and-white BACK WHERE IT BELONGS workshop shadow-board die artwork from the Good Order collection.

Pressed at generous size into the golden tan tray, it looks absolutely gorgeous.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the BACK WHERE IT BELONGS workshop shadow-board design.

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.