Open Studio – a Volume I-D leather gift collection for people who make things

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

A September study.

Open Studio is a small leather collection for people who make things, and for the people who give them gifts. Five original stamps, each a scene from the working creative life, pressed onto everyday leather – from a luggage tag to a journal.

First, we wrote a luggage tag the way a gallery writes a wall label – MIXED MEDIA above, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE below, inside a thin label frame. An artist's suitcase is exactly that.

The black tag carries the label in gold foil, the way a frame shop gilds. Warm tan and pale sea-blue take a blind deboss.

Black-and-white stamp artwork for MIXED MEDIA and DIMENSIONS VARIABLE in the Open Studio leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

A black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with MIXED MEDIA and DIMENSIONS VARIABLE from the Open Studio gift collection.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a gallery-style MIXED MEDIA label from the Open Studio gift collection.

A pale turquoise leather luggage tag blind-debossed with MIXED MEDIA and DIMENSIONS VARIABLE from the Open Studio gift collection.

Next, a door plate for the key that matters. We set STUDIO in a double rule, like the enamel sign on a workshop door – a gift for a first studio, or for the spare room where the work actually happens.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

On the black fob the plate goes down in gold.

Black-and-white STUDIO door-plaque stamp artwork for the Open Studio leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

A black leather keychain stamped in gold with a STUDIO door plaque from the Open Studio gift collection.

An Arizona tan leather keychain blind-debossed with a STUDIO door plaque from the Open Studio gift collection.

Then the toiletry bag. In its lower corner we pressed EVERYTHING IS MATERIAL above a single drawn pencil – the maker's oldest conviction, packed in beside the toothbrush. One bag in warm gray, one in deep espresso brown.

Black-and-white EVERYTHING IS MATERIAL stamp artwork with a pencil for the Open Studio leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

A country-gray leather dopp kit blind-debossed with EVERYTHING IS MATERIAL and a pencil from the Open Studio gift collection.

A dark-espresso leather dopp kit blind-debossed with EVERYTHING IS MATERIAL and a pencil from the Open Studio gift collection.

For the tray, we etched a small still life across the golden tan base – keys on their ring, a pencil stub and so on – with STILL LIFE WITH KEYS engraved beneath, like the title plate on a frame. Empty, it is a picture. Emptying your pockets completes it every evening.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white STILL LIFE WITH KEYS stamp artwork with small studio tools for the Open Studio leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with STILL LIFE WITH KEYS from the Open Studio gift collection.

And finally, the journal – the one we like most. Printmakers pull one impression outside the numbered edition and mark it A/P, the artist's proof, the copy the artist keeps. We set that mark in the journal's corner, because a notebook is the proof an artist keeps of everything else. One journal in pale greige, like proof paper, and one in dark espresso.

Black-and-white A/P and ARTIST'S PROOF stamp artwork for the Open Studio leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

A gray-sand leather journal blind-debossed with A/P and ARTIST'S PROOF from the Open Studio gift collection.

A dark-espresso leather journal blind-debossed with the A/P artist's proof design from the Open Studio gift collection.

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.

P.S.

An alternate dark-espresso leather journal render with the A/P artist's proof design from the Open Studio gift collection.