The Residents – a leather collection of zoo wildlife
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
A September study. Volume I-A – an independent study.
A zoo is a small town of residents, and the residents have habits worth keeping. We watched a few of them – a lemur's raised tail, a tortoise's patient shell – and pressed what we saw into a small leather collection, luggage tags down to journals. We named it The Residents.
First, the ring-tailed lemur. When a troop travels, the striped tail goes up like a flag so nobody gets lost – thirteen bands of it. We raised that flag on a luggage tag over the only travel advice a troop ever needs: FOLLOW THE TAIL.
It looks genuinely beautiful – one tag in warm stone gray, one in golden tan. The black tag carries the flag in gold.
Next, the red fox, who does its best hunting by standing perfectly still. On a keychain the words work twice – the fox is still hunting, and so is everyone who has ever owned keys.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather – one fob in honeyed russet, the fox's own coat. The black fob carries the gold, a fox seen at dusk.
Then the lemur again, at its oldest ritual. Ring-tailed lemurs begin the day sitting upright, arms open, belly turned to the sun to warm through. We set that small sun-worshipper in the corner of the toiletry bags over the words FACE THE MORNING – the bag keeps the same ritual. It sits golden tan over chestnut.
Then the whole collection walks across the catchall tray in single file – the tortoise out front because the tortoise sets the pace, the lemur's flag bringing up the rear. A tray is where pockets empty at the end of a long zoo day, and the residents are there to receive.
It renders in golden tan, generous at the center of the tray.
And finally, the one we liked the most. A sulcata tortoise grows ring after ring inside each plate of its shell – it keeps a journal it cannot lose. Ours walks under the words SLOW WORK, for every record kept the patient way.
Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather. One journal in warm tan, the shell's own sand; one in deep green, the color of its greens.
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 changed – say hello through our contact page.
P.S.
