The Little City · a Ballard collection in leather

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

A August study.

Ballard was its own city from 1890 to 1907, and it never really stopped. We spent August pressing the little city into leather, from luggage tags to the tray by the door. We call the collection The Little City.

First, the seal. Seattle annexed Ballard in 1907, and the little city has been quietly ignoring the fact ever since · so we cut it a proper municipal seal, a mill smokestack and two gable roofs over harbor water, ringed by its name and its year. Two tags wear poppy red and pale sea-blue; the black tag carries the seal in gold.

The Little City circular stamp design for a Ballard leather collection.

Black, poppy red and pale blue leather luggage tags stamped with The Little City seal of Ballard.

Next, the locks. Salt water sits low on the sound side while fresh water rides high on the canal side; the gate holds the difference, so the two words hang at their own water levels. We pressed it into the corner of the toiletry bags, which meet both kinds of water daily, on a navy over dark espresso stack.

The Salt Fresh lock-gate stamp design from The Little City leather collection of Ballard.

Blueberry and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with the Salt Fresh lock design from The Little City collection of Ballard.

Then the hitching rings. The granite curbs of Ballard Avenue still hold the iron rings horses were once tied to. We set one in stone and wrote TIE UP HERE above it · keys have to tie up somewhere every night. One fob in warm granite gray, one in poppy red.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The Tie Up Here hitching-ring stamp design from The Little City leather collection of Ballard.

Gray and poppy red leather keychains stamped Tie Up Here for The Little City collection of Ballard.

Then Shingletown. At its peak Ballard's mills cut around three million cedar shingles a day, which puts a journal's page a day into perspective. The cover wears a shingled gable with the old nickname across its face · one journal in honeyed russet, one in deep pine green.

The Shingletown gable stamp design from The Little City leather collection of Ballard.

Honeyed russet and forest green leather journals stamped Shingletown for The Little City collection of Ballard.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Salmon Bay is still home port to a working fleet, and the tray by the door is home port to everything your pockets carried all day. A troller rides at the center of the golden tan tray.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Home Port fishing-boat stamp design from The Little City leather collection of Ballard.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped Home Port for The Little City collection of Ballard.

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 Ballard is your little city and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed · say hello through our contact page.