Kept – a leather collection of small promises

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies. Shops Waterfall, Volume I-C.

A September study.

KEPT is a small collection about promises of the modest kind. Each design presses one of them into leather – the sort a person makes quietly and then actually keeps.

First, we set a low sun into a ragged line of firs and lettered BACK BY DARK beneath it. It is the promise every good day outdoors is built on – go as far as you like, provided you keep it.

The black-and-white BACK BY DARK stamp plate for the Kept leather collection, drawn as a setting half-sun in a conifer treeline.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped BACK BY DARK with a sunset treeline.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-stamped BACK BY DARK with a sunset treeline.

The black tag carries the treeline in gold.

A black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with BACK BY DARK and a sunset treeline.

The same promise rides in the corner of the toiletry bags – navy over deep espresso brown, dusk over dark ground.

Blueberry and dark espresso leather toiletry bags blind-stamped BACK BY DARK with a sunset treeline.

Next, we drew one river cobble twice: whole and plain, then split open with rings running through the cut face. Beneath the pair we set WORTH A SECOND LOOK. Anyone who has ever cracked an ordinary rock open knows the argument.

The black-and-white WORTH A SECOND LOOK stamp plate for the Kept leather collection, drawn as a whole cobble and a split banded stone.

The keychains came out just right – pale greige for the stone as found, honeyed russet for the banding inside.

A pale gray-sand leather keychain blind-stamped WORTH A SECOND LOOK with two river cobbles.

A honeyed-russet leather keychain blind-stamped WORTH A SECOND LOOK with two river cobbles.

And finally, we put a hand plane in mid-stroke, one long shaving curling out of its throat, above the words ONE MORE PASS. It is what a maker says when a piece is nearly right, and the reason it ends up right.

The black-and-white ONE MORE PASS stamp plate for the Kept leather collection, drawn as a hand plane making a curled shaving.

It looks genuinely beautiful on the journals – one in warm tan, one in deep espresso.

A caramel leather journal blind-stamped ONE MORE PASS with a hand plane and curled shaving.

A dark espresso leather journal blind-stamped ONE MORE PASS with a hand plane and curled shaving.

On the golden tan catchall tray the plane presses at a generous size – a place for pocket things to land when the day's work is done.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped ONE MORE PASS with a hand plane and curled shaving.

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.