Horn Silver – a St. George leather collection

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

An August study.

St. George keeps its treasure underfoot. At Silver Reef, just up the road, miners once pulled silver out of plain sandstone – so we pressed that improbable story into leather, from luggage tags to a catchall tray for the day's pocket change.

First, the luggage tags. We cast a small ingot beside the words HANDLE LIKE BULLION and ran the line lengthwise, so the bag travels with a strongroom's courtesy.

The black tag carries the stamp in gold foil; the navy and the honeyed russet take a blind deboss.

The black-and-white HANDLE LIKE BULLION stamp artwork for the Horn Silver leather collection of St. George, Utah.

Three leather luggage tags stamped HANDLE LIKE BULLION, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

Next, we struck a coin for the keys – ONE TROY OUNCE around a reeded rim, ST GEORGE UTAH answering from below. Keys deserve to be weighed like everything else worth carrying.

The black fob takes the coin in gold foil and the ore-gray fob takes it blind – a gold piece and a silver piece for the same ring. They look just awesome.

The black-and-white troy-ounce coin stamp artwork for the Horn Silver leather collection of St. George, Utah.

Two leather keychains stamped like one-troy-ounce coins, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

Then the catchall tray, where the change actually lands at the end of the day. We let a run of coins tumble across the golden tan leather toward the words EMPTY YOUR POCKETS.

The black-and-white EMPTY YOUR POCKETS stamp artwork for the Horn Silver leather collection of St. George, Utah.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped EMPTY YOUR POCKETS, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

Then the journals. Four reefs carried the silver under Silver Reef – Buckeye, Butte, White and East – and we stacked them on the cover the way a surveyor would, Buckeye pressed solid for the seven of every ten ounces it gave up. One journal is navy, the other warm tan.

The black-and-white Silver Reef stratigraphic stamp artwork for the Horn Silver leather collection of St. George, Utah.

Two leather journals stamped with the four Silver Reef strata, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

And finally, the design the collection is named for. Horn silver could sit in sandstone and barely show, so we ruled the bedding planes and let one solid seam run through them, HORN SILVER written beneath. The stamp sits low on the corner of each kit, ore-gray over chestnut.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The black-and-white horn-silver seam stamp artwork for the Horn Silver leather collection of St. George, Utah.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with a horn-silver seam in sandstone, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

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 this is your corner of St. George and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

A black leather luggage tag stamped HANDLE LIKE BULLION in gold, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

A navy leather luggage tag blind-stamped HANDLE LIKE BULLION, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

A honeyed russet leather luggage tag blind-stamped HANDLE LIKE BULLION, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

A black leather keychain stamped as a gold troy-ounce coin, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

An ore-gray leather keychain blind-stamped as a troy-ounce coin, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

A navy leather journal stamped with the four Silver Reef strata, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.

A warm tan leather journal stamped with the four Silver Reef strata, from the Horn Silver collection of St. George, Utah.