Just Because – a leather gift collection for no occasion at all (Volume I-D)

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies. Volume I-D.

A September study.

Just Because is a small leather collection for the gift with no occasion. Every design carries the sentence a giver wants to say at the handoff, pressed into a luggage tag or a journal so it keeps being said long after the wrapping is gone.

First, a luggage tag for the one who is always leaving. We sent a swallow ahead and kept its thread tied in a bow at home, with MISSED ALREADY beneath – the tag says it before the suitcase reaches the door.

The black tag carries the words in gold; the caramel and the pale sea-blue take a blind press.

Black die artwork showing a bow tied to a flying swallow above the words MISSED ALREADY, from the Just Because leather collection.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with a bow, swallow, and the words MISSED ALREADY.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a bow, swallow, and the words MISSED ALREADY.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a bow, swallow, and the words MISSED ALREADY.

Next, the keychain for a first home or a first car. We set a door ajar with the light already coming through the gap, and FIRST OF MANY DOORS around it – a key is the rare gift that arrives with its occasion built in.

It looks genuinely beautiful, once in deep forest green and once in pale sand.

Black die artwork showing an open door with the words FIRST OF MANY DOORS, from the Just Because leather collection.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-stamped with an open door and the words FIRST OF MANY DOORS.

A pale gray-sand leather keychain blind-stamped with an open door and the words FIRST OF MANY DOORS.

Then, in the lower corner of the toiletry bags, a match at the exact moment it catches, over the words YOU ARE READY – a send-off for the graduate or the groom, tucked where only the owner keeps finding it. It sits in the corner of a caramel bag and a dark espresso one.

Black die artwork showing a struck match above the words YOU ARE READY, from the Just Because leather collection.

A caramel leather toiletry bag blind-stamped with a struck match and the words YOU ARE READY.

A dark espresso leather toiletry bag blind-stamped with a struck match and the words YOU ARE READY.

For the catchall tray in golden tan, we let a small sun set on the horizon line above THE DAY ENDS HERE. Keys and coins land in it every night, and every night the tray gets to be right.

Black die artwork showing a setting sun above the words THE DAY ENDS HERE, from the Just Because leather collection.

An Arizona leather catchall tray blind-stamped with a setting sun and the words THE DAY ENDS HERE.

And finally, the journals, for the one who writes everything down. We tied a string around a raised finger – the oldest memory trick there is – and set BEFORE YOU FORGET beneath it.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather, one journal in pale rose and one in deep espresso brown.

Black die artwork showing a string tied around a raised finger above the words BEFORE YOU FORGET, from the Just Because leather collection.

A blush leather journal blind-stamped with a reminder string and the words BEFORE YOU FORGET.

A dark espresso leather journal blind-stamped with a reminder string and the words BEFORE YOU FORGET.

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.