Waterline – a mermaid collection in leather

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

A September study.

Waterline is a small collection of original leather stamps about mermaids – more precisely, about the line a mermaid lives on, where the water ends and the dry world begins. Each design keeps a straight face about the arrangement.

First, we set an autoreply on a luggage tag. OUT OF OFFICE runs along a calm waterline, and just past the last letter a tail is caught mid-dive – two rings on the surface, gone till further notice. The black tag takes the design in gold. On pale sea-blue and on navy it is a blind deboss, pressed straight into the leather.

Black-and-white OUT OF OFFICE stamp artwork with a diving mermaid tail for the Waterline leather collection, Volume I-B.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with OUT OF OFFICE and a diving mermaid tail from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-stamped with OUT OF OFFICE and a diving mermaid tail from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

A blueberry leather luggage tag blind-stamped with OUT OF OFFICE and a diving mermaid tail from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

Next, the practical problem the songs never mention: MERMAIDS HAVE NO POCKETS. So the keychain holds her keys, in pale sea-blue or pale rose, and the golden tan tray holds everything else she cannot carry.

Black-and-white MERMAIDS HAVE NO POCKETS stamp artwork with a curling tail for the Waterline leather collection, Volume I-B.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A pale sea-blue leather keychain blind-stamped with MERMAIDS HAVE NO POCKETS and a curling tail from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

A blush leather keychain blind-stamped with MERMAIDS HAVE NO POCKETS and a curling tail from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

An Arizona-tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with MERMAIDS HAVE NO POCKETS and a curling tail from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

Then, the toiletry bags. We crossed the two instruments a mermaid has always owned – the comb and the hand glass – under the words SHORE LEAVE, and set the stamp small in the lower right corner, navy over deep brown.

Black-and-white SHORE LEAVE stamp artwork with a crossed hand mirror and comb for the Waterline leather collection, Volume I-B.

Blueberry and dark-espresso leather dopp kits blind-stamped with SHORE LEAVE, a hand mirror, and a comb from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A figure sits on the waterline; above the line she could be anybody, and below it the tail begins. PART TIME MERMAID – on the corner of a journal, where the other life gets written down. We pressed it in deep green and in dusty lavender.

Black-and-white PART TIME MERMAID stamp artwork with a seated mermaid at the waterline for the Waterline leather collection, Volume I-B.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A forest-green leather journal blind-stamped with PART TIME MERMAID and a seated mermaid from the Waterline collection, Volume I-B.

A lilac leather journal blind-stamped with PART TIME MERMAID and a seated mermaid from the Waterline 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 collection 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.