The Gulf Gate Collection – a South Sarasota, Florida leather study

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

An August study.

This one is for South Sarasota – the low-slung streets of Gulf Gate and the everyday drive down the Trail toward the south bridge. We designed five stamps for that stretch of mainland and pressed them into leather: the Gulf Gate Collection.

First, the crossing everyone here knows by heart. We drew the drawbridge at Stickney Point with its leaves just parting, and let the pilings keep going below the waterline, down into roots.

The South Bridge stamp design for the Gulf Gate Collection, a South Sarasota leather study.

It runs lengthwise along a trio of luggage tags: pale sea-blue for the Gulf and pale greige for the quartz sand, with a deep mangrove green between them.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the South Bridge design from the Gulf Gate Collection of South Sarasota, Florida.

Next, the keychains. Visit Sarasota calls Gulf Gate the neighborhood where locals hang, so we hung the phrase from a peg, the way keys hang by the door. Golden tan and deep green.

The Where Locals Hang stamp design for the Gulf Gate Collection, a South Sarasota leather study.

Arizona and forest green leather keychains stamped with Where Locals Hang from the Gulf Gate Collection of South Sarasota.

Then, one for the toiletry bags, because the bathroom mirror is where a morning actually starts. A single unbroken line rises and settles, the shape of one slow breath, with TAKE A DEEP BREATH beneath it. We pressed it low in the corner of a navy kit on a dark espresso base – storm water over the dark line of palms.

The Take a Deep Breath stamp design for the Gulf Gate Collection, a South Sarasota leather study.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with Take a Deep Breath from the Gulf Gate Collection of South Sarasota, Florida.

A journal made the fourth one easy. A cutting in a propagation jar, roots ending in small stars, STILL GROWING underneath – a fair description of anyone's notebook. The duo comes in deep green and pale rose.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The Still Growing propagation-jar stamp design for the Gulf Gate Collection, a South Sarasota leather study.

Forest green and blush leather journals stamped with Still Growing from the Gulf Gate Collection of South Sarasota.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Siesta sand is famously about ninety nine percent pure quartz, so we took a single grain and enlarged it until the facets showed. It sits at the center of the golden tan catchall tray – the dish that ends up holding a little beach sand anyway.

The Pure Quartz stamp design for the Gulf Gate Collection, a South Sarasota leather study.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with Pure Quartz from the Gulf Gate Collection of South Sarasota, Florida.

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.