Open Studio – a leather collection for the working artist

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

A September study.

Open Studio is a small leather collection for the people who make things, and for the people who love them enough to shop for them. Five original stamps, each borrowed from the working life of a studio – its tools and its rituals.

First, the rule every painter learns early and then repeats to every beginner – SQUEEZE FROM THE END. We laid a paint tube lengthwise along the luggage tag, tail crimped flat, the last of the color leaving through the cap.

On the black tag the design carries the gold – a gilded ribbon of paint. The other two take a blind press, one in warm poppy red and one in pale sea-blue.

Black-and-white die artwork of a squeezed paint tube above SQUEEZE FROM THE END for the Open Studio leather collection.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with a paint tube and SQUEEZE FROM THE END.

A poppy-red leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a paint tube and SQUEEZE FROM THE END.

A pale-turquoise leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a paint tube and SQUEEZE FROM THE END.

Next, the keychain that answers the house's standing question. GONE TO THE STUDIO, beneath a small crest of a brush crossed with a palette knife. One fob in deep navy, one in warm tan.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white die artwork of a crossed brush and palette knife above GONE TO THE STUDIO for the Open Studio leather collection.

A blueberry leather keychain blind-debossed with crossed studio tools and GONE TO THE STUDIO.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with crossed studio tools and GONE TO THE STUDIO.

Then the studio's oldest commandment, pressed into the corner of the toiletry bag – WASH YOUR BRUSHES, a round brush standing in its rinse jar. Of everything we make, this is the one bag actually built for washing; the joke keeps working every morning. The stack is warm gray over chestnut.

Black-and-white die artwork of a brush in a rinse jar beneath WASH YOUR BRUSHES for the Open Studio leather collection.

Country-gray and Sicilian-brown leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with a rinse jar and WASH YOUR BRUSHES.

After that we framed the catchall tray. An empty double mat window spans the base, mitered at the corners, with a small title plaque on the bottom rail reading WORTH KEEPING – whatever lands inside is on exhibition. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white die artwork of an empty picture frame with a WORTH KEEPING title plaque for the Open Studio leather collection.

An Arizona leather catchall tray blind-debossed with an empty picture frame and WORTH KEEPING.

And finally, PAGE ONE – a single confident brushstroke above the two words every blank book waits for. The hardest page arrives already begun, in the corner of the cover. One journal is pale warm greige, close to unprimed canvas; on the black journal the press reads as a quiet shadow.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white die artwork of a confident brushstroke above PAGE ONE for the Open Studio leather collection.

A Gray Sand leather journal blind-debossed with a brushstroke and PAGE ONE.

A black leather journal blind-debossed with a brushstroke and PAGE ONE.

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.