Tideline – a leather gift collection with sea wit, Volume I-D

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

A September study – Volume I-D.

Tideline is a small collection of leather gifts with sea wit – five original stamps, one for each piece on the bench, from luggage tags to a catchall tray. Every design is a sentence you can hand to someone in particular.

First, we ran a waterline the whole length of the tag and let a tail break it mid-dive – NEVER QUITE ON LAND rides the air above. For the friend who is only ever half ashore.

Black-and-white NEVER QUITE ON LAND mermaid-tail horizon die artwork for the Tideline leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

The black tag carries the design in gold; the pale sea-blue and the pale warm greige take a blind press.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with NEVER QUITE ON LAND and a rising mermaid tail, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

A pale sea-blue turquoise leather luggage tag blind-stamped with NEVER QUITE ON LAND and a rising mermaid tail, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

A gray-sand leather luggage tag blind-stamped with NEVER QUITE ON LAND and a rising mermaid tail, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

Next, POCKET OCEAN – we folded the open sea into a scallop's fan, for whoever carries one small emblem on their keys.

Black-and-white POCKET OCEAN scallop-and-waves die artwork for the Tideline leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

Keychains with the Pocket Ocean stamp look just awesome – here on navy and on pale sea-blue.

A navy blueberry leather keychain blind-stamped with the POCKET OCEAN scallop-and-waves design, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

A pale sea-blue turquoise leather keychain blind-stamped with the POCKET OCEAN scallop-and-waves design, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

Then the toiletry bag, whose corner seal states the plain truth about its owner – MOSTLY WATER, a round mark filled a little past half. We pressed it into the corner of the navy kit over deep brown.

Black-and-white MOSTLY WATER circular waterline seal die artwork for the Tideline leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

Blueberry and dark-espresso leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with the MOSTLY WATER seal, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

Then SWORN SIGHTINGS for the journal's corner – the last curve of a tail slipping under, one beat before anyone else turned around. Whatever gets written inside was seen, and is hereby sworn to.

Black-and-white SWORN SIGHTINGS disappearing mermaid-tail die artwork for the Tideline leather gift collection, Volume I-D.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – once in deep green, once in dusty lavender.

A forest-green leather journal blind-stamped with SWORN SIGHTINGS and a disappearing mermaid tail, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

A dusty lilac leather journal blind-stamped with SWORN SIGHTINGS and a disappearing mermaid tail, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

And finally, the design the collection is named for. WHAT THE TIDE BROUGHT IN circles the finds a receding wave left behind – among the shells and the starfish sits an ordinary house key, because that is the tray's whole job. Everything the day washes up lands here.

Black-and-white WHAT THE TIDE BROUGHT IN shell, starfish and key still-life die artwork for Tideline, Volume I-D.

It looks genuinely beautiful on the golden tan.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with WHAT THE TIDE BROUGHT IN, shells, a starfish and a house key, from Tideline, Volume I-D.

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.