What They Carry – a leather stamping collection on animal adaptations – Volume I-C

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

Volume I-C. A September study.

What They Carry – a small collection about the equipment an animal always has on it: a shell that keeps growing, a tail the whole troop can follow. We pressed five of those inventions into leather goods made to be carried too.

First, the Canada lynx, which crosses deep snow on outsized paws that spread its weight like snowshoes. We drew it front on, paws resting side by side and honestly too big, and set WALK LIGHTLY beneath – sound advice for anyone tying a tag to a suitcase.

On gray sand the lynx sits in a snowfield; on forest green, among the pines. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white Canada lynx and WALK LIGHTLY die artwork for the What They Carry leather collection.

A gray-sand leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a Canada lynx and WALK LIGHTLY from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with a Canada lynx and WALK LIGHTLY from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

The black tag carries the lynx in gold.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with a Canada lynx and WALK LIGHTLY from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

Next, the ring-tailed lemur, which carries its banded tail high like a flag, a follow-me sign for the rest of the troop. We ran that tail the full height of the fob and set KEEP TOGETHER beside it – the job a keychain was born for. Country gray is the lemur's own coat; caramel picks up its amber eyes.

Black-and-white ring-tailed lemur and KEEP TOGETHER die artwork for the What They Carry leather collection.

A country-gray leather keychain blind-stamped with a ring-tailed lemur and KEEP TOGETHER from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

A caramel leather keychain blind-stamped with a ring-tailed lemur and KEEP TOGETHER from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

Then the porcupine, which never has to pack – everything sharp it owns already rides on its back. ALWAYS PACKED went into the lower corner of the kit, black over dark espresso, where the blind deboss reads as a quiet shadow of quills.

Black-and-white North American porcupine and ALWAYS PACKED die artwork for the What They Carry leather collection.

Black and dark-espresso leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with a porcupine and ALWAYS PACKED from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

The sulcata tortoise keeps its own ledger – every plate of its shell adds growth ridges as the years pass. A journal fills the same way, one page at a time, so the cover says RING BY RING. One journal in honeyed russet, the shell's own tans; one in dark espresso.

Black-and-white sulcata tortoise and RING BY RING die artwork for the What They Carry leather collection.

A honeyed-russet leather journal blind-stamped with a sulcata tortoise and RING BY RING from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

A dark-espresso leather journal blind-stamped with a sulcata tortoise and RING BY RING from the What They Carry animal-adaptations collection.

And finally, the red fox, asleep with its tail swept clear around to its nose. We let this one keep its silence – the circle says enough. Centered on the golden tan tray, it gathers whatever your pockets carried home. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white curled sleeping red fox die artwork for the What They Carry leather collection.

An Arizona-tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with a curled sleeping red fox from the What They Carry animal-adaptations 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.