Grower's Terms – a leather collection in the language of the garden

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

A September study – Volume II.

The nursery trade keeps a working language of its own – a good plant TAKES ROOT, a tough one TRAVELS WELL – and every phrase in it quietly describes a person too. Grower's Terms presses five of these phrases into leather, each onto the object it was always secretly about.

First, TAKE ROOT – what a cutting does in good soil, and what a housewarming wishes on a new set of keys. We drew a house key planted like a cutting – leaves opening from its bow, roots reaching from its teeth.

Black-and-white TAKE ROOT house-key and roots die artwork for the Grower's Terms leather collection.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – on golden tan the key reads like brass, and on navy like the paint of a good front door.

A golden tan leather keychain blind-stamped with the TAKE ROOT house-key and roots design.

A navy leather keychain blind-stamped with the TAKE ROOT house-key and roots design.

Next, the evergreen's old compliment. KEEPS ITS LEAVES is said of boxwood and holly when everything else stands bare – and a journal is the one book that earns the same words. We set a boxwood sprig over the phrase and pressed it into the cover's corner.

Black-and-white KEEPS ITS LEAVES boxwood die artwork for the Grower's Terms leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful – once in deep green, once in pale greige.

A forest-green leather journal blind-stamped with the KEEPS ITS LEAVES boxwood design.

A pale greige leather journal blind-stamped with the KEEPS ITS LEAVES boxwood design.

Then the tray. A garden is put right when everything is in its bed by nightfall, and a hallway table works the same way. We tucked a row of seedlings into theirs and hung a crescent moon over the whole scene – by evening, the keys and the reading glasses obey the words too.

Black-and-white EVERYTHING IN ITS BED raised-bed die artwork for the Grower's Terms leather collection.

A golden tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with five seedlings and EVERYTHING IN ITS BED.

Then TRAVELS WELL – the grower's verdict on a plant that can be moved without sulking. We wrapped a young cutting's root ball for the road and pressed it small into the bag's corner, warm tan over chestnut.

Black-and-white TRAVELS WELL balled-and-burlapped plant die artwork for the Grower's Terms leather collection.

Caramel and chestnut leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with the TRAVELS WELL plant design.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Every gardener times a trip by what is about to open, so the luggage tag makes its promise in the garden's own calendar: one peony bud, still closed, above BACK BEFORE THE PEONIES.

Black-and-white closed peony bud die artwork reading BACK BEFORE THE PEONIES for the Grower's Terms leather collection.

The black tag carries it in gold.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with BACK BEFORE THE PEONIES and a closed peony bud.

It looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – on peony-pale rose, and again on deep green.

A blush-pink leather luggage tag blind-stamped with BACK BEFORE THE PEONIES and a closed peony bud.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with BACK BEFORE THE PEONIES and a closed peony bud.

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.