Bay After Bay – a leather collection for Minnetonka, Minnesota

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

An August study.

Minnetonka took its name from big water, and this small leather collection takes everything from the same source. Five stamps – for luggage tags and journals, for keychains and kit bags – each carrying a phrase the lake already uses. We call the collection Bay After Bay.

First, the namesake. Seen from above, Lake Minnetonka comes apart into bay after bay, each one opening into the next through a narrow channel. We strung five bays on a single thread and set the phrase beneath them, running lengthwise along the luggage tags. The trio runs lake navy and pale sea-blue, with a third tag in the greige of January ice.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The black-and-white Bay After Bay stamp design links five irregular bays for the Bay After Bay leather collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Three lake-colored leather luggage tags carry the Bay After Bay design from the Bay After Bay collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Next, the keychains. A plank dock recedes toward three strokes of open water, and DOCK OUT stands beneath it – the two words that open the season out here. Keys leave the house the way a boat leaves the shore. One fob in warm tan for the planks, one in lake navy for the water.

The black-and-white Dock Out stamp design turns a receding dock toward open water for the Bay After Bay leather collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Caramel and navy leather keychains carry the Dock Out design from the Bay After Bay collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Then the toiletry bags, stacked warm mid-gray over deep espresso brown. We let the steam off a hot cup climb until the cold caught it and turned it to snow – LAKE EFFECT, the weather a warm lake makes when winter air moves across it.

The black-and-white Lake Effect stamp design turns rising cup steam into snow for the Bay After Bay leather collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Gray and deep brown leather toiletry bags carry the Lake Effect design from the Bay After Bay collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

The journals took the quietest idea. A ruled page holds still the way the lake holds still in January, so halfway across we let each rule break into a wave – OPEN WATER, for whatever gets written once the surface gives. One journal in pale greige like late ice, the other in lake navy.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

The black-and-white Open Water stamp design lets ruled lines thaw into waves for the Bay After Bay leather collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Pale greige and lake-navy leather journals carry the Open Water design from the Bay After Bay collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

And finally, the catchall tray in golden tan. Fieldstone courses under a timber beam, and BUILT FROM WHAT WAS HERE beneath – the west-metro way of making a thing that lasts. A tray earns the motto nightly; it keeps whatever the day carried in.

The black-and-white Built From What Was Here stamp design fits fieldstone beneath a timber beam for the Bay After Bay leather collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

A golden tan leather catchall tray carries the Built From What Was Here design from the Bay After Bay collection of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

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.