Well Tended – a leather collection for gardeners and gatherers

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

A September study.

Well Tended is a small leather collection about tending – the garden kind and the everyday kind. Five designs, each grown from a deed a gardener would recognize.

First, the luggage tags. We pressed a cosmos flat and taped it down at the stem, the way a traveler mounts a specimen. The ruled label underneath reads GATHERED ALONG THE WAY – some trips come home heavier than they left, and the best of the extra weight is botanical.

The black-and-white GATHERED ALONG THE WAY cosmos stamp plate prepared for Well Tended leather luggage tags.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A pale warm greige leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the GATHERED ALONG THE WAY cosmos from the Well Tended collection.

A deep-wine leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the GATHERED ALONG THE WAY cosmos from the Well Tended collection.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the GATHERED ALONG THE WAY cosmos from the Well Tended collection.

Next, we closed a pair of secateurs over the words WELL TENDED and set the stamp low in the corner of the toiletry bags. The same care that shapes a rose, carried to the mirror each morning – warm tan over deep brown, like a beech handle on an oiled bench.

The black-and-white WELL TENDED secateurs stamp plate prepared for Well Tended leather toiletry bags.

Warm-tan and deep-brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with WELL TENDED secateurs from the Well Tended collection.

Then, the keychains. A stem cut clean on the diagonal, and one new shoot already climbing past the cut – BEGIN AGAIN, the way a garden means it every spring. The dusty lavender fob is for the autumn crocus, which opens after the rest of the garden has been cut back; the warm tan is for every day in between.

The black-and-white BEGIN AGAIN pruned-shoot stamp plate prepared for Well Tended leather keychains.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A warm-tan leather keychain blind-stamped with the BEGIN AGAIN pruned shoot from the Well Tended collection.

A dusty-lavender leather keychain blind-stamped with the BEGIN AGAIN pruned shoot from the Well Tended collection.

After that, the catchall tray. We drew a parterre in plan, four hedged beds around a single topiary, and wrote EVERYTHING IN ITS BED around the border. Keys and coins get put to bed here at the end of the day, in golden tan.

The black-and-white EVERYTHING IN ITS BED parterre stamp plate prepared for a Well Tended leather catchall tray.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with the EVERYTHING IN ITS BED parterre from the Well Tended collection.

And finally, the journals – the one we liked the most. A sprig finished at the base and still bare construction line at the tip, above the words DRAWN FROM LIFE. Every drawing made from observation lives for a while in that interval, and a journal is where the interval belongs. One journal in warm gray for graphite, one in navy for ink.

The black-and-white DRAWN FROM LIFE botanical stamp plate prepared for Well Tended leather journals.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A warm-gray leather journal blind-stamped with the DRAWN FROM LIFE botanical sketch from the Well Tended collection.

A navy leather journal blind-stamped with the DRAWN FROM LIFE botanical sketch from the Well Tended 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 anything here made real, or anything changed – say hello through our contact page.