The Understory, Volume I-A – a Felton, California leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.
A September study.
The Understory, Volume I-A – a small collection for Felton, California, drawn under the redwoods and pressed into leather.
First, we raised a doorway of old growth for the luggage tags – two furrowed trunks with the trail winding between them, AMONG GIANTS over the arch and FELTON at the gate. The tag hangs upright, the way the trees do.
The black tag carries the design in gold foil, like late sun reaching the grove floor; the deep green and the warm tan tags take a blind deboss.
Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.
Next, the steelies. A San Lorenzo steelhead runs down to the sea and comes home to the same river to spawn – some manage the round trip more than once. So we bent the fish into a ring chasing its own tail, TO THE SEA AND BACK at its center.
Two keychains, published separately – navy for the river and pale sea-blue for the salt water at the far end of the run.
The same ring rides the lower corner of the navy toiletry bag, blind debossed.
Then we let the road draw its own numeral. The 9 is the highway itself – a hairpin at the crown and switchbacks easing down through the trunks, with THE LONG WAY HOME arched over the loop. It sits at generous size in the golden tan catchall tray, where the keys land at the end of the drive.
It looks genuinely beautiful.
And finally, the design the collection is named for. Under the giants the forest keeps a smaller world of fern and new growth – the understory. A journal is where yours gets written, and the stamp sits low in the corner of the cover, down where the ferns live.
Published in deep green and in pale warm greige, both blind debossed.
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.
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