The Making – a leather stamping collection for bead and crystal makers

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

Volume II.

A September study.

The Making – a small collection about how a piece of jewelry actually happens. A strand is planned before it is strung, and the planning is half the pleasure.

First, the luggage tags. Before any cord commits a strand, the beads audition in the curved channel of a beading board, where every choice is still reversible. We drew the board mid-decision – the run half laid, one bead hovering over the empty groove – and wrote the board's real function underneath: CHANGE YOUR MIND HERE.

Black-and-white CHANGE YOUR MIND HERE beading-board artwork for The Making leather collection.

The black tag carries the board in gold.

A black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with CHANGE YOUR MIND HERE from The Making beadwork collection.

The other two tags come in deep green and in dusty rose, pressed blind.

A deep green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a beading board and CHANGE YOUR MIND HERE from The Making collection.

A dusty rose leather luggage tag blind-stamped with CHANGE YOUR MIND HERE from The Making beadwork collection.

Next, the keychains. A finished bracelet is a circle with a claim in the middle, so we closed a ring of beads around the words every maker earns at the final knot: I MADE THIS.

Black-and-white I MADE THIS bracelet artwork for The Making leather collection for bead and jewelry makers.

On the black fob the claim presses in gold, which is what a claim of this kind deserves.

A black leather keychain stamped in gold with a bead bracelet and I MADE THIS from The Making collection.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – the second fob comes in pale sea-blue.

A pale sea-blue leather keychain blind-stamped with I MADE THIS from The Making beadwork collection.

Then, the toiletry bags. A star stone carries its star on the inside: tiny parallel needles within the stone catch the light and marshal it into rays, so the effect is a fact of internal order. We drew the cabochon with its six-rayed star and stacked the explanation beneath it in two words – LIGHT ORGANIZED – then pressed it blind into the corner of a true black bag resting on a deep brown one, the dark stone over its darker ground.

Black-and-white LIGHT ORGANIZED star-cabochon artwork for The Making leather collection.

Black and deep brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with the LIGHT ORGANIZED star-cabochon design from The Making collection.

Then the catchall tray. Makers keep bowls of sorted beads, small possibilities waiting for an order to belong to, and a dresser-top tray does the same nightly work for rings and pocket stones. We drew a bowl from above, beads settled along its lower curve, and set the tray's quiet promise in the open white: LOOSE FOR NOW.

Black-and-white LOOSE FOR NOW sorting-bowl artwork for The Making leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful in the golden tan.

A golden tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with the LOOSE FOR NOW bead bowl from The Making collection.

And finally, the journals. Every necklace was a drawing before it was a thing. On the cover the plan sits above the piece – a dashed arc of open beads, and under it the same arc strung solid – over the two words that begin every good commission: SKETCH FIRST. One journal comes in warm tan, the other in dusty lavender.

Black-and-white SKETCH FIRST strand-planning artwork for The Making leather collection.

A warm tan leather journal blind-stamped with the SKETCH FIRST bead plan from The Making collection.

A dusty lavender leather journal blind-stamped with SKETCH FIRST from The Making collection for jewelry makers.

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