The Chain of Lakes Collection – a Minneapolis leather stamping study

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

A September study – Volume I-C.

We designed the Chain of Lakes Collection for Minneapolis – a city that keeps room for open water inside its own grid, then leaves for more of it every summer Friday. Original designs, stamped in leather.

First, the namesake. We strung the five lakes into the actual chain their name promises – Brownie small at the top, Harriet round at the bottom – each joined to the next by the dug channels, with a lone canoe crossing Bde Maka Ska toward a channel mouth. The lakes were linked by 1913, and the linking set off a canoeing habit the city never quite got over.

One-color stamping die linking the five Minneapolis Chain of Lakes with a canoe and the words CHAIN OF LAKES.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – deep navy for the water, warm tan for the dock.

A blueberry leather keychain blind-debossed with the five-lake CHAIN OF LAKES design.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with the five-lake CHAIN OF LAKES design.

On the golden tan tray, the whole chain holds whatever came home in your pockets.

An Arizona brown leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the five Minneapolis lakes and CHAIN OF LAKES.

Next, the oldest out-of-office in Minnesota. One pine does double duty as the arrow, and GONE UP NORTH says the rest. We pressed it on luggage tags in deep pine green and in pale sea-blue.

One-color pine and north-arrow stamping die with the exact words GONE UP NORTH.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the GONE UP NORTH pine design.

A turquoise leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the GONE UP NORTH pine design.

The black tag carries the design in gold – the drive north after dark.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the GONE UP NORTH pine design.

The same sign sits low in the corner of the toiletry bags, espresso over chestnut.

Dark espresso and Sicilian brown leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with the same GONE UP NORTH die.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A loon needs a long run across open water before it flies – so we drew the run: splashes trailing behind, wings already working, and LONG RUNWAY beneath the waterline.

One-color stamping die of a loon running across water above the exact words LONG RUNWAY.

It looks genuinely beautiful. We put it on the journals in the loon's own two colors, true black and pale greige – because a journal is the long stretch before anything takes off.

A black leather wrap journal blind-debossed with a running loon and LONG RUNWAY.

A gray-sand leather wrap journal blind-debossed with a running loon and LONG RUNWAY.

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.