Out & Back – a leather stamping collection about leaving and coming home

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

A September study.

OUT & BACK is a small collection about the oldest shape a good day takes – you leave, and you come home. Five stamps for people who pack the night before and unpack by the door.

First, we drew the whole day as one continuous line. It leaves the doorstep as a solid stroke and crosses two ridgelines to a cairn at the far end. There it turns, and comes home dashed beneath its own outbound line – the way a map keeps a promise. Underneath it says OUT AND BACK.

Black-and-white Out and Back stamp artwork with a doorstep, two ridgelines, a cairn and a returning trail.

We ran it lengthwise on luggage tags in deep pine green and warm tan. It looks genuinely beautiful.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Out and Back round-trip trail.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Out and Back round-trip trail.

The black tag carries the line in gold – for the days that end by headlamp.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Out and Back round-trip trail.

Next, we tied the keys in. The fob carries a figure-eight on a bight – the knot a climber trusts with everything – above the words ON BELAY, which has always been the formal way of saying I've got you.

Black-and-white On Belay stamp artwork with a figure-eight climbing knot.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – once in warm rope red, once in deep green.

A poppy-red leather keychain blind-stamped with an On Belay figure-eight knot.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-stamped with an On Belay figure-eight knot.

Then, the journal stamp. FIRST THE PLAN, THEN THE WEATHER – and between the two lines, one small cloud already sitting on the summit. Every trip notebook we have ever read agrees. We pressed it low in the corner, in deep green and warm stone gray.

Black-and-white First the Plan, Then the Weather stamp artwork with a cloud over a ridgeline.

A forest-green leather journal blind-stamped First the Plan, Then the Weather.

A country-gray leather journal blind-stamped First the Plan, Then the Weather.

Next, a crest for the wash kit – a toothbrush and a tent stake crossed like ceremonial swords over the word BASECAMP. Civilization, packed to travel. The bags render in honeyed russet over deep espresso.

Black-and-white Basecamp stamp artwork with a crossed toothbrush and tent stake.

Indian Summer and dark espresso leather dopp kits blind-stamped with the Basecamp crest.

And finally, the homecoming. Around the words EVERYTHING CAME HOME we laid the evening ring of emptied pockets – carabiner, house key, folding knife, compass, matchbox, whistle – on the golden tan tray that waits by the door. It looks like the end of a good day.

Black-and-white Everything Came Home stamp artwork encircled by six pocket objects.

An Arizona leather catchall tray blind-stamped Everything Came Home with six pocket objects.

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.