Timber & Ties × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

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

An August study.

For Timber & Ties.

We made a small collection for the people who shop at Timber & Ties, and the village had already named it. Before it was Port Jefferson, the downtown was Drowned Meadow – a salt meadow the tide covered twice a day – so this is the Drowned Meadow collection.

First, the anchor die. A row of salt-meadow grass stands on its waterline, and the tide holds the reflection beneath it.

DROWNED MEADOW black-and-white stamp design from the Drowned Meadow collection for Timber & Ties

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather. On the luggage tags it runs the long way, in deep Sound navy and golden tan. The black tag carries the meadow in gold.

Drowned Meadow tide-grass design rendered on blueberry, arizona and black leather luggage tags

The same die presses the dopp kits, low in the corner, on a stack of Sound navy over chestnut.

Drowned Meadow tide-grass design rendered on blueberry and sicilian leather toiletry bags

Next, the older name still. Suwassett came before Drowned Meadow, and the Historical Society reads it two ways – place of small pines, and where water opens. We put both readings on one die: two pine headlands part, and the harbor opens between them.

WHERE WATER OPENS pine-headland stamp design from the Drowned Meadow collection

It looks genuinely beautiful. One journal wears it in pale sea-blue for the water, one in deep pine green for the trees – a cover made for a thing that opens.

Where Water Opens design rendered on pale sea-blue and forest-green leather journals

Then, the shipyards. In the schooner years, four of every ten ships built in Suffolk County came down the ways of this harbor, and the shipwrights kept their record as half-hull models on the workshop wall. We drew the hull as its stacked lifts and gave it the number.

FOUR OF EVERY TEN half-hull stamp design from the Drowned Meadow collection

On the golden-tan catchall tray it waits under the day's keys and pocket brass.

Four of Every Ten half-hull design rendered on an arizona leather catchall tray

And finally, the word locals keep for the harborfront – Down Port. We drew a dock cleat with the line made fast around its horns, the turn you take when you mean to stay a while.

DOWN PORT dock-cleat stamp design from the Drowned Meadow collection

The Sound-navy fob presses it blind. The black fob takes the cleat in gold, the way harbor hardware runs to brass.

Down Port dock-cleat design rendered on black and blueberry leather keychains

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're Timber & Ties and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.