Worth Keeping – a leather stamping collection for the people who write things down

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

A September study.

Worth Keeping is Waterfall Volume II – a small collection about keeping. Some people write the day down and keep the letter, and a hundred years later somebody is glad they did. Five stamped designs, one for each way of keeping.

First, the luggage tags. We drew the back of a postcard – stamp corner and address lines on one side – and set the old farewell as the message: WRITE WHEN YOU GET THERE. The tag rides the bag that is leaving; the line belongs to the ones staying behind.

Black-and-white postcard stamp artwork reading WRITE WHEN YOU GET THERE for the Worth Keeping leather collection.

One tag in navy and one in pale greige, the color of the card itself. The third is dusty rose, for the letters kept in a ribboned bundle.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped with a postcard reading WRITE WHEN YOU GET THERE from the Worth Keeping correspondence collection.

A pale greige leather luggage tag stamped with a postcard reading WRITE WHEN YOU GET THERE from the Worth Keeping correspondence collection.

A dusty rose leather luggage tag stamped with a postcard reading WRITE WHEN YOU GET THERE from the Worth Keeping correspondence collection.

Next, the keychains. We hung a single acorn above the words SAVED FOR LATER – the squirrel's whole philosophy, adopted by every coat pocket. In warm tan and deep green.

Black-and-white acorn stamp artwork reading SAVED FOR LATER for the Worth Keeping leather collection.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A warm tan leather keychain stamped with an acorn and SAVED FOR LATER from the Worth Keeping keepsake collection.

A deep green leather keychain stamped with an acorn and SAVED FOR LATER from the Worth Keeping keepsake collection.

Then, the toiletry bags. We pressed a wax seal above the words IN SAFE KEEPING – what a sealed letter promises, the bag performs every morning. It sits small in the lower corner, warm tan over chestnut.

Black-and-white wax-seal stamp artwork reading IN SAFE KEEPING for the Worth Keeping leather collection.

Warm tan and chestnut leather toiletry bags stamped with IN SAFE KEEPING from the Worth Keeping correspondence collection.

After that, the catchall tray. We lettered THE PERMANENT COLLECTION inside a stepped museum label frame and pressed it at generous size into the golden tan tray – the house keys and the coin that never leaves finally get the placard they have earned.

Black-and-white museum placard stamp artwork reading THE PERMANENT COLLECTION for the Worth Keeping leather collection.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped THE PERMANENT COLLECTION from the Worth Keeping keepsake collection.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A dip pen just lifted from its inkwell, one drop still falling, KEPT IN INK beneath. Pencil fades and screens forget; what a family wrote in ink a hundred years ago still reads perfectly well today. A journal keeps whatever you trust it with.

Black-and-white dip-pen and inkwell stamp artwork reading KEPT IN INK for the Worth Keeping leather collection.

One journal in navy, the old blue-black of writing ink, and one in true black. Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A navy leather journal stamped with a dip pen, inkwell and KEPT IN INK from the Worth Keeping record-keeping collection.

A black leather journal stamped with a dip pen, inkwell and KEPT IN INK from the Worth Keeping record-keeping 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.

P.S.

An alternate golden tan leather catchall tray render stamped THE PERMANENT COLLECTION for the Worth Keeping keepsake collection.