Well Kept, Volume I-B – a leather stamping collection of everyday sayings

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

A September study – Shops Volume I-B.

Well Kept – a small collection about the ordinary day, done well. Five plain sayings, each pressed onto the object whose job it names.

First, we emptied a good pocket into neat museum rows – a house key, a pencil stub and so on – and set EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE underneath. On the golden tan tray, the stamp simply describes the job.

Black-and-white pocket-object stamp artwork for the Well Kept leather collection, with six everyday items and Everything in Its Place.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with six pocket objects and Everything in Its Place from the Well Kept collection.

Next, we let one dashed line wander the full length of a luggage tag, loop twice where the country is pretty, and arrive at a small house – THE LONG WAY HOME. We pressed it lengthwise on navy and warm tan, and once more on pale warm greige.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white winding-route stamp artwork for the Well Kept leather collection, ending at a house above The Long Way Home.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped with a looping route and The Long Way Home from the Well Kept collection.

A warm tan leather luggage tag stamped with a looping route and The Long Way Home from the Well Kept collection.

A pale warm greige leather luggage tag stamped with a looping route and The Long Way Home from the Well Kept collection.

Then, we cut an old skeleton key whose teeth turn out to be a little house, chimney and all, and wrote LET YOURSELF IN beneath it. Keychains in chestnut and in navy carry it.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white key-and-house stamp artwork for the Well Kept leather collection, with Let Yourself In beneath it.

A chestnut leather keychain stamped with a key that becomes a house and Let Yourself In from the Well Kept collection.

A navy leather keychain stamped with a key that becomes a house and Let Yourself In from the Well Kept collection.

After that, the kit that opens before anyone else is awake. A sun just clearing the horizon, FIRST THINGS FIRST beneath it, pressed low in the corner of the warm tan and chestnut stack.

Black-and-white sunrise stamp artwork for the Well Kept leather collection, with five rays and First Things First.

Warm tan and chestnut leather toiletry bags stamped with a five-ray sunrise and First Things First from the Well Kept collection.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A short list with the first two boxes already ticked, and beneath it LISTS AND OTHER MASTERPIECES – every garden begins as one, and so does every trip. Journals in deep green and in dusty rose.

Black-and-white four-row checklist stamp artwork for the Well Kept leather collection, with Lists and Other Masterpieces.

A deep green leather journal stamped with a four-row checklist and Lists and Other Masterpieces from the Well Kept collection.

A dusty rose leather journal stamped with a four-row checklist and Lists and Other Masterpieces from the Well Kept collection.

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.