Tell It Again – a leather collection for the stories families pass down

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

A September study – Volume II.

Tell It Again is a small leather collection about how a story survives. It comes home with somebody, it gets a keepsake to live in, it gets written down, and sooner or later somebody asks for it one more time. We gave each of those moments its own stamp.

First, the coming home. Sailors wore a swallow as the promise of safe return, so we set one flying ahead of the words COME HOME WITH A STORY – the half of any trip a family actually waits for. It runs lengthwise on warm tan and on navy.

Black-and-white COME HOME WITH A STORY swallow die artwork from the Tell It Again Volume II leather collection.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the COME HOME WITH A STORY swallow design.

A blueberry navy leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the COME HOME WITH A STORY swallow design.

The black tag carries the swallow in gold, after the gilt spines on a good history shelf.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the COME HOME WITH A STORY swallow design.

Next, the keepsake. A thing you keep to remember it by – since that is already the phrase, we pressed it whole, under a string bow tied the way one used to be knotted around a finger. On warm red the leather itself plays the string; warm tan takes it quieter.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white TO REMEMBER IT BY string-bow die artwork from the Tell It Again Volume II leather collection.

A poppy-red leather keychain blind-debossed with the TO REMEMBER IT BY string-bow design.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with the TO REMEMBER IT BY string-bow design.

Then, the writing down. Most family stories live out loud until somebody sits down with the teller, so the journal's corner carries a pair of oversized quotation marks above AS TOLD TO ME, with a short line left blank for the teller's name. Hand it across the kitchen table and start asking. One journal comes in pale sand greige, close to book paper; the other in deep wine, the color a family history tends to arrive in.

Black-and-white AS TOLD TO ME oral-history credit-line die artwork from the Tell It Again Volume II collection.

A gray-sand leather journal blind-debossed with the AS TOLD TO ME oral-history design.

A sangria leather journal blind-debossed with the AS TOLD TO ME oral-history design.

After that, the handing down. A toiletry bag is the one kit famous for outliving its first owner, so its corner takes PASSED DOWN beneath a short file of diamonds, each a step smaller than the last – one for every pair of hands. Deep brown over chestnut, the two most senior leathers we keep.

Black-and-white PASSED DOWN descending-diamond die artwork from the Tell It Again Volume II leather collection.

Dark espresso and Sicilian brown leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with the PASSED DOWN design.

And finally, the telling. We drew two rocking chairs squared up to each other on porch boards, the space where a story goes left open between them, and arched TELL IT AGAIN overhead. On the golden tan tray, the day's pockets empty out right between the chairs.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white TELL IT AGAIN rocking-chair die artwork from the Tell It Again Volume II leather collection.

An arizona leather catchall tray blind-debossed with two facing rocking chairs and TELL IT AGAIN.

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