The Mended Heart - a Creve Coeur, Missouri leather collection

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

An August study.

The Mended Heart – a collection in leather for Creve Coeur, Missouri.

First, the name. Creve Coeur is French for broken heart, so we drew the heart and sewed it back together with a saddle stitch – CREVE COEUR arced above, MISSOURI beneath. It looks genuinely beautiful. The black tag carries the stitching in gold.

The stitched heart stamp artwork from The Mended Heart leather collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Black, blush and gray-sand leather luggage tags stamped with the stitched heart from The Mended Heart collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Next, we forged a key whose bow is a heart, and set THE KEY TO CREVE COEUR beneath it – the key to the broken heart, riding along on your keys. On the black fob the key is pressed in gold.

The heart-key stamp artwork from The Mended Heart leather collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Black and blush leather keychains stamped with a heart-shaped key from The Mended Heart collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Then the toiletry bags. Creve Coeur runs along Olive Boulevard, so we handed the boulevard an olive branch – a single sprig over the street's name, pressed into the corner of each bag.

The Olive Boulevard sprig stamp artwork from The Mended Heart leather collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Gray and chestnut leather toiletry bags stamped Olive Boulevard for The Mended Heart collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

For the catchall tray, we engraved the historic Lake School House – bell, gable and all – and pressed it at full size into the golden tan of the tray.

The Lake School House stamp artwork from The Mended Heart leather collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Lake School House for The Mended Heart collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

And finally, the one we liked the most. On the journals, an open book whose pages curve into the two lobes of a heart, over the words A COEUR OUVERT – French for with an open heart, which is how a journal listens.

The open-book heart stamp artwork from The Mended Heart leather collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Wine-red and gray-sand leather journals stamped with an open-book heart from The Mended Heart collection of Creve Coeur, Missouri.

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.