The Little Water Place – a Poughkeepsie leather collection

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

An August study.

We spent August pressing Poughkeepsie into leather – a small collection that runs from luggage tags to journals, and it took the name The Little Water Place, after the phrase Dutchess County's histories use to translate the city's old Wappinger name.

First, the namesake. We drew the little water place itself – a still pool ringed with reeds and cattails, with THE LITTLE WATER PLACE arched above and POUGHKEEPSIE below – and pressed it at generous size into the golden tan catchall tray, where the day's small things come to rest.

The Little Water Place reed-and-ripple stamp design for the Poughkeepsie leather collection.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with reeds and ripples from The Little Water Place collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Next, we ran the Walkway lengthwise down a luggage tag: the old railroad bridge drawn as one unbroken lattice of crossed steel with two small walkers mid-span, the Hudson passing beneath and OVER THE HUDSON set under the water line. The tags come in navy and pale rose. The black tag carries the design in gold foil.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The Walkway steel-truss stamp design for The Little Water Place leather collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the Walkway over the Hudson from The Little Water Place collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Then a sidewheel steamer beating upriver under a long trail of smoke, UP THE RIVER beneath the waves – which is how Poughkeepsie has always been reached from the city. It sits small in the corner of the toiletry bags, navy stacked over deep espresso.

The Up the River sidewheel-steamer stamp design for The Little Water Place leather collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

A navy and deep-brown pair of leather toiletry bags stamped with a Hudson sidewheel steamer from The Little Water Place collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Poughkeepsie's old boast was Queen City of the Hudson, so the keychains got a crown that rides on a river wave. One fob is pale sea-blue. The black fob takes the crown in gold foil.

The Queen City crown-and-wave stamp design for The Little Water Place leather collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Two leather keychains stamped with the Queen City crown from The Little Water Place collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Samuel Morse's Locust Grove is just down South Road, so we put twelve birds on a telegraph wire; read as dots and dashes, they spell LOVE, with SENT WITH LOVE beneath. It sits in the lower corner of the journals, one in pale rose and one in deep green.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Birds on the Wire Morse-code stamp design for The Little Water Place leather collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Two leather journals stamped with birds spelling love in Morse code from The Little Water Place collection of Poughkeepsie, New York.

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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.