The Second Look, Volume I-C – a leather stamping study for mineral collectors

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.

A September study.

Volume I-C.

The Second Look – a small collection for people who pick things up and turn them over. Four stamps about looking closely, pressed into leather on everything from luggage tags to journals.

First, we cut a geode in half. Rough dull rock on the outside, a cavity of crystals within – every collector's favorite argument, and a fair description of most luggage. THE BEST PART IS INSIDE.

The tags come in pale sea-blue and dusty lavender, blind debossed. The black tag carries the design in gold.

It looks genuinely beautiful in the gold.

The black-and-white THE BEST PART IS INSIDE cut-geode stamp plate from The Second Look collection.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with a cut geode and THE BEST PART IS INSIDE.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a cut geode and THE BEST PART IS INSIDE.

A lilac leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a cut geode and THE BEST PART IS INSIDE.

The same stamp rides the lower corner of the toiletry bags – warm gray stone over chestnut earth.

Country-gray and Sicilian-brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with a cut geode and THE BEST PART IS INSIDE.

Next, we set a cut stone under the jeweler's loupe, held magnified inside the lens, and wrote LOOK TWICE beneath it – the habit that tells a keeper from a maybe.

One fob in deep forest green; the black fob takes the loupe in gold.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The black-and-white LOOK TWICE jeweler's-loupe stamp plate from The Second Look collection.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with a jeweler's loupe and LOOK TWICE.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-stamped with a jeweler's loupe and LOOK TWICE.

Then, an ammonite in section for the journals. The animal raised a chamber and sealed it, then moved into the next – a notebook fills the same way. ONE CHAMBER AT A TIME.

One journal in pale warm greige, the quiet color of fossil limestone; the other in honeyed russet.

The black-and-white ONE CHAMBER AT A TIME ammonite stamp plate from The Second Look collection.

A gray-sand leather journal blind-stamped with an ammonite and ONE CHAMBER AT A TIME.

An Indian Summer leather journal blind-stamped with an ammonite and ONE CHAMBER AT A TIME.

And finally, the catchall tray in golden tan. EMPTY YOUR POCKETS, ringed by a scatter of tumbled stones – every good day outdoors ends at a dish like this.

The black-and-white EMPTY YOUR POCKETS tumbled-stone stamp plate from The Second Look collection.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with EMPTY YOUR POCKETS inside a ring of tumbled stones.

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.