Kept Stories, Volume I-C – a leather stamping study of things worth keeping

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

A September study.

Kept Stories, Volume I-C – a small leather collection about the habit that builds every museum: someone keeps a thing, and the thing keeps the day. We pressed that habit into small leather goods, from luggage tags to journals.

First, we made the label a museum ties to a borrowed object, and tied it to a suitcase instead. The parcel tag reads ON LOAN FROM HOME, because that is what a traveler is – and the loan is expected back.

Black-and-white stamp art for leather luggage tags reading ON LOAN FROM HOME, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

On the true black tag the words carry the gold, and it reads like a little brass plaque. The warm tan and deep green tags take a blind deboss.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped ON LOAN FROM HOME, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed ON LOAN FROM HOME, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed ON LOAN FROM HOME, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

Next, we struck a trade token. Country stores once minted coins that read GOOD FOR 5 CENTS IN TRADE; ours is good for one story in trade, and it hangs on a keyring – right where the change used to live. One fob in chestnut, one in pale warm greige.

Black-and-white stamp art for leather keychains reading GOOD FOR ONE STORY IN TRADE, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

A chestnut leather keychain stamped GOOD FOR ONE STORY IN TRADE, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

A pale warm greige leather keychain stamped GOOD FOR ONE STORY IN TRADE, from the Kept Stories collection about everyday objects and memory.

Then, THE PERMANENT COLLECTION. We stood a key and a coin on tiny museum plinths, because whatever the pockets surrender into this tray at the end of the day is, in fact, the collection. The tray comes in golden tan; the same stamp sits low in the corner of the toiletry bags – warm tan stacked over chestnut – as the collection's traveling annex.

Black-and-white stamp art for leather trays and toiletry bags reading THE PERMANENT COLLECTION above a key and coin, from the Kept Stories collection.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped THE PERMANENT COLLECTION above a key and coin, from the Kept Stories collection.

Caramel and chestnut leather toiletry bags stamped THE PERMANENT COLLECTION above a key and coin, from the Kept Stories collection.

And finally, the journals. A specimen label reads FUTURE ARTIFACT, with one blank line and a note beneath it: DESCRIPTION TO FOLLOW. Whatever gets written inside supplies the description. One journal in deep wine, one in pale warm greige.

Black-and-white specimen-label stamp art for leather journals reading FUTURE ARTIFACT, from the Kept Stories collection about memory and writing.

It looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A deep-wine leather journal stamped FUTURE ARTIFACT with a blank description line, from the Kept Stories collection about memory and writing.

A pale warm greige leather journal stamped FUTURE ARTIFACT with a blank description line, from the Kept Stories collection about memory and writing.

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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.