Terrarium – reptiles and tropical leaves, a stamped leather collection
From the Practice Log – Volume I-A of the Shops series, a small exhibition of original stamping studies.
A September study.
Terrarium is a small leather collection from the world where reptiles live under tropical leaves. A giant tortoise walks through it and a rattlesnake stands guard; a caladium and a bromeliad grow around them.
First, we set a giant tortoise walking the length of a luggage tag and gave the traveler the only advice he ever gives anyone – GO SLOW.
The black tag carries the words in gold.
On golden tan and deep green it presses as a blind deboss. It looks genuinely beautiful.
Next, a western diamondback coiled itself around the keychain's job and raised its rattle – KEY KEEPER, says the line underneath. Nobody wanders off with keys guarded like this.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather, in warm caramel and in warning red.
Then we looked at a caladium leaf until it became a ruled page. Its veins spring from the midrib the way lines wait for handwriting, so FIELD NOTES went beneath the stem, in the corner of the journal where the notes will actually go.
Then came the catchall tray. We drew a giant tortoise from straight above – the one animal that keeps everything he owns in a single place – and arced ALL IN GOOD TIME over his shell. On the golden tan tray it looks absolutely gorgeous.
And finally, the one design in the collection that keeps silent. A bromeliad in bloom, seen from directly above, sits small in the corner of the toiletry bags – a flower that can grow without soil, for a bag that lives out of a suitcase. The stack pairs honeyed russet over deep brown.
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 changed – say hello through our contact page.
P.S.
