The Understory, Volume I-B – a leather stamping study from the forest floor

From the Practice Log – Volume I-B of an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.

A September study.

The Understory – a small collection from the forest's low green layer, drawn one living thing at a time and stamped into leather, from luggage tags to journals. Everything here lives below the big trees.

First, we laid a single sword-fern frond along the whole length of the luggage tag, its tip still tightly curled, above INTO THE GREEN – the tag for the bag that gets packed on a Friday afternoon.

Black-and-white die artwork of a sword-fern frond above INTO THE GREEN for The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

The black tag carries the fern in gold; forest green and caramel take a blind press.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A black luggage tag stamped with a sword-fern frond above INTO THE GREEN, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

A forest green luggage tag stamped with a sword-fern frond above INTO THE GREEN, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

A caramel luggage tag stamped with a sword-fern frond above INTO THE GREEN, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

Next, the keychains. We drew a dark-eyed junco, the round little bird that spends the whole winter in the yard, standing over HOME BIRD. A keychain's one job is getting somebody home; the junco already knows the way.

Black-and-white die artwork of an Oregon-type dark-eyed junco above HOME BIRD for The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

Keychains with the junco look just awesome – in country gray, and in caramel, the warm brown of the bird's own back.

A country gray keychain stamped with an Oregon-type dark-eyed junco above HOME BIRD, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

A caramel keychain stamped with an Oregon-type dark-eyed junco above HOME BIRD, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

Then, the toiletry bag. A Douglas-fir cone tucks three-pointed bracts between its scales, and the old story says those are the tails of mice sheltering inside. We hung one cone above SAFE INSIDE and pressed it low in the corner of the dark espresso and sicilian brown stack – a kit that makes the cone's promise about your own small things.

Black-and-white die artwork of a Douglas-fir cone above SAFE INSIDE for The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

A dark espresso sicilian toiletry bag stack stamped with a Douglas-fir cone above SAFE INSIDE, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

After that, the tray where pockets empty in the evening. We set a sprig of Oregon grape – toothed evergreen leaves, a hanging cluster of berries – over SMALL HARVEST, pressed into the golden tan tray. That is what a day leaves behind: keys and a little loose change.

Black-and-white die artwork of an Oregon-grape sprig above SMALL HARVEST for The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

A arizona catchall tray stamped with an Oregon-grape sprig above SMALL HARVEST, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

And finally, the journal. Nobody who finds chanterelles tells anybody where, so we set two golden chanterelles above TELL NO ONE – the right cover for the book the good finds get written into. In golden tan, and in forest green, the woods the chanterelle hides in.

Black-and-white die artwork of two chanterelles above TELL NO ONE for The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A arizona leather journal stamped with two chanterelles above TELL NO ONE, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

A forest green leather journal stamped with two chanterelles above TELL NO ONE, from The Understory leather collection, Volume I-B.

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