The Flat Hill – a leather stamping collection from Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

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

A August study.

The Flat Hill is a small leather collection rooted in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, where a neighborhood named for a hill lies perfectly level and Atlantic Avenue holds its long line straight through it. Five stamps, pressed into small leather goods – luggage tags and journals among them.

First, the paradox in the name. Boerum Hill is famously flat – part of it rests on old Gowanus marshland – so we drew a carpenter's spirit level with its bubble sitting dead center, FLAT on one side of the vial and HILL on the other, and ran it lengthwise along the luggage tags.

The trio takes its colors from the street: honeyed russet for the brownstone courses and pale sea-blue for a faded storefront. The black tag carries the gold.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Flat Hill spirit-level stamp design from The Flat Hill leather collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Honeyed russet, black and pale sea-blue leather luggage tags stamped with Flat Hill, from The Flat Hill collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Next, the keys. House keys spend half the year out on the stoop, so the fob carries a stoop in profile – five steps under a rail that curls down into its iron volute, with STOOP SEASON beneath. We pressed it blind into forest green and caramel, for the street trees and the old wood.

The Stoop Season stamp design from The Flat Hill leather collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Forest green and caramel leather keychains stamped with Stoop Season, from The Flat Hill collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Then, the oldest joke in the neighborhood. Long before the name Boerum Hill was revived, this corner of northwestern Brooklyn answered to South Brooklyn – so the toiletry bags wear a compass whose needle points hard north above the words SOUTH BROOKLYN. It sits small in the lower corner of a caramel and dark espresso stack.

The South Brooklyn compass stamp design from The Flat Hill leather collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Caramel and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with South Brooklyn, from The Flat Hill collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

The avenue gets the tray. ATLANTIC stands on one unbroken line, and over its last five letters hangs a string of pennants – once a year the Atlantic Antic turns that mile of asphalt into a street fair, and the ANTIC was hiding in the name all along. It presses into a golden tan tray that catches whatever the avenue sends home in your pockets.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The Atlantic Antic stamp design from The Flat Hill leather collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with Atlantic Antic, from The Flat Hill collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

And finally, the fanlight. Over the arched doors of the rowhouses, a half-circle transom spreads its spokes like a small sunrise; we set it above BOERUM HILL and pressed it into the corner of the journals – one in deep wine, one in pale greige.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

The Boerum Hill fanlight stamp design from The Flat Hill leather collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Sangria and gray-sand leather journals stamped with Boerum Hill, from The Flat Hill collection of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

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 live on the flat hill, or anywhere near the avenue, and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.