The Pocket Museum – a leather collection of exhibit labels for collectors and keepers

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

A September study.

A small exhibition in leather about the things that come home from places full of things – the kind that turn pockets and desk corners into permanent collections of their own. We call it The Pocket Museum: five exhibit labels, each pressed where it belongs.

First, the luggage tags. We lettered ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION the way a wall label would say it, and ran it lengthwise down the tag, so a suitcase travels with an artifact's paperwork. We pressed it on a warm red and a navy, then once more on classic warm tan.

Black-and-white ON LOAN stamp artwork for The Pocket Museum leather luggage tag design.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A warm red leather luggage tag stamped ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.

A warm tan leather luggage tag stamped ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.

Next, the keychains. We set EXHIBIT A on a small ticket with a printer's pointing hand, entering the everyday keyring into the record – once in deep green, once in golden tan.

Black-and-white EXHIBIT A stamp artwork for The Pocket Museum leather keychain design.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A deep green leather keychain stamped EXHIBIT A for The Pocket Museum.

A golden tan leather keychain stamped EXHIBIT A for The Pocket Museum.

Then, a curator's line for the toiletry bag: ARTIFACTS OF DAILY USE. A razor and a comb are exactly that, given a hundred years. The stamp sits quietly in the lower corner of a warm tan bag over deep espresso brown.

Black-and-white ARTIFACTS OF DAILY USE stamp artwork for The Pocket Museum leather toiletry bag design.

Warm tan and deep brown leather toiletry bags stamped ARTIFACTS OF DAILY USE for The Pocket Museum.

The catchall tray is where the label comes true nightly. We circled THE PERMANENT COLLECTION around the small things a pocket surrenders at the end of the day – a skeleton key and an old coin among them – and set it at the center of the golden tan tray.

Black-and-white THE PERMANENT COLLECTION stamp artwork for The Pocket Museum leather catchall tray design.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped THE PERMANENT COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.

And finally, the journals. PRIMARY SOURCE, under a dip pen's nib, above a single ruled line – because a notebook is where history is still in its own handwriting. We pressed it into the corner of a deep espresso brown journal and a pale greige one.

Black-and-white PRIMARY SOURCE stamp artwork for The Pocket Museum leather journal design.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A deep brown leather journal stamped PRIMARY SOURCE for The Pocket Museum.

A pale warm greige leather journal stamped PRIMARY SOURCE for The Pocket Museum.

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 warm red leather luggage tag stamped ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.

An alternate navy leather luggage tag stamped ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.

An alternate warm tan leather luggage tag stamped ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION for The Pocket Museum.