Stone & Steam – a leather collection for Calistoga, California

From the Practice Log – Waterfall Volume I-B, an independent commercial study.

A September study.

For Calistoga, California.

Stone & Steam is a small leather collection designed for Calistoga – the town at the top of the Napa Valley where the ground still steams and the redwoods up the road turned to stone. Five original designs, one for each object, pressed the way this place presses things: slowly, and in mineral.

First, the luggage tag. We drew the long ridge of Mount Saint Helena and set one word in the sky above it – UPVALLEY, the top of the valley, which is exactly where Calistoga sits.

The black-and-white UPVALLEY stamp plate from the Stone & Steam leather collection of Calistoga, California.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A forest green leather luggage tag stamped with UPVALLEY from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

A sangria leather luggage tag stamped with UPVALLEY from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

The black tag takes the ridge in gold.

A black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with UPVALLEY from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

Next, the keychain. A crystal pendulum hangs plumb between YES and NO – still making up its mind.

The black-and-white pendulum stamp plate from the Stone & Steam leather collection of Calistoga, California.

Keychains with the pendulum stamp look just awesome.

A lilac leather keychain stamped with a pendulum from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

On the black fob, the pendulum swings in gold.

A black leather keychain stamped in gold with a pendulum from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

Then the dopp kit. Steam lifts off a waterline above the oldest advice this town gives – TAKE THE WATERS – and we pressed it into a stack of warm mid-gray over dark espresso, the colors of a mud bath.

The black-and-white TAKE THE WATERS stamp plate from the Stone & Steam leather collection of Calistoga, California.

Country gray and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with TAKE THE WATERS from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

Then the catchall tray. Its stamp is a slice of petrified redwood – growth rings around an off-center heart, with DEEP TIME along the rim. The petrified forest outside town has been lying there for about 3.4 million years; whatever you empty from your pockets at night lands inside the rings.

The black-and-white petrified redwood DEEP TIME stamp plate from the Stone & Steam leather collection of Calistoga, California.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with petrified redwood rings from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Stone likes to impersonate plants – manganese blooms across rock in fine branching sprays that pass for pressed ferns, the classic trick of the mineral world. We drew one for the journal cover and let the specimen label keep it honest: NOT A FERN.

The black-and-white NOT A FERN dendrite stamp plate from the Stone & Steam leather collection of Calistoga, California.

It looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A gray sand leather journal stamped with a manganese dendrite from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

A black leather journal stamped with a manganese dendrite from the Stone & Steam collection of Calistoga, California.

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 Stone & Steam belongs on a shelf you keep in Calistoga, or you'd like anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.