Still Growing – a leather stamping collection for gardeners

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

A September study.

Still Growing is a small leather collection for the people who garden – who check on new growth before breakfast and keep a running list of what to move come fall. Every design here is an original stamp, pressed deep.

First, we planted a hand trowel blade-down like a sapling and let a seedling wind up its handle – PERENNIAL OPTIMIST arched around the pair. It is the gardener's whole creed in two words: this year, everything comes up.

Black-and-white die artwork of a trowel planted like a sapling, with a seedling and PERENNIAL OPTIMIST, for the Still Growing leather collection, Volume I-B.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A Forest Green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the PERENNIAL OPTIMIST trowel and seedling from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

A Sangria red leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the PERENNIAL OPTIMIST trowel and seedling from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

A pale Gray Sand leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the PERENNIAL OPTIMIST trowel and seedling from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

The keychains take the same press – a small recognition gift for the gardener who is otherwise impossible to shop for.

A Caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with the PERENNIAL OPTIMIST trowel and seedling from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

A Forest Green leather keychain blind-debossed with the PERENNIAL OPTIMIST trowel and seedling from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

Next, the journal. We held a magnifying glass over a leaf, and inside the lens the plain outline gives way to its whole hidden network of veins – LOOK CLOSER, says the line beneath. A journal is where what you noticed gets written down, so we pressed this one on deep forest green and on a honeyed russet the color of late September.

Black-and-white die artwork of a magnifying glass revealing veins inside a leaf above LOOK CLOSER for the Still Growing leather collection, Volume I-B.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A Forest Green leather journal blind-debossed with the LOOK CLOSER leaf and magnifying glass from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

An Indian Summer honey-russet leather journal blind-debossed with the LOOK CLOSER leaf and magnifying glass from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

And finally, the design the collection is named for. An old bonsai with a trunk bent by decades of training and a canopy clipped into clouds, STILL GROWING set beneath the pot – true of the tree, and of its keeper.

Black-and-white die artwork of an old trained bonsai above STILL GROWING for the Still Growing leather collection, Volume I-B.

It sits small on the corner of the toiletry bags, honeyed russet over deep espresso, and at generous size in the golden tan tray that catches pocket seeds and stray plant labels at the end of the day.

Indian Summer and Dark Espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with the STILL GROWING bonsai from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

An Arizona golden-tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the STILL GROWING bonsai from the Still Growing collection, Volume I-B.

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 any of this made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.