The High Ground Collection × Leatherius Woodman – a Sacramento leather stamping study, Volume II

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

An August study.

The High Ground Collection – Volume II of our Sacramento studies. Five original stamps rooted at the southern edge of the old city grid, where the streets still go by letters and numbers and one gentle rise carries the grand old houses. Made for people who love old things.

First, we drew a surveyor's plat of the city's 1848 grid – lettered streets crossing numbered ones, a single solid dot at one good corner – and set ON THE GRID beneath it. Everyone else dreams of getting off the grid; Sacramento has been proudly on it from the start.

The ON THE GRID black-and-white stamp plate from The High Ground Collection, a Sacramento leather study.

The black tag carries the grid in gold.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped with ON THE GRID from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

A caramel leather luggage tag stamped with ON THE GRID from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with ON THE GRID from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

Next, we hung an old lever key tip down and wrote IT REMEMBERS THE DOOR beneath it – locks get lost and houses come down, and the key keeps the memory anyway.

The IT REMEMBERS THE DOOR black-and-white stamp plate from The High Ground Collection, a Sacramento leather study.

On the black fob it presses in gold and reads as old brass. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with IT REMEMBERS THE DOOR from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

A dark espresso leather keychain stamped with IT REMEMBERS THE DOOR from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

Then, for the toiletry bags, we stood a double-bell alarm clock at nine sharp over GONE BY NINE – anyone who has hunted a second-Sunday antique faire in the dark knows exactly what it means. Pressed into a stack of honeyed russet over dark espresso.

The GONE BY NINE black-and-white stamp plate from The High Ground Collection, a Sacramento leather study.

Honeyed russet and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with GONE BY NINE from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

After that, the tray. We set WHAT THE DAY FOUND at the center and let the pocket finds orbit it – a tray by the door receives the day's evidence every evening. Golden tan, the color of valley light.

The WHAT THE DAY FOUND black-and-white stamp plate from The High Ground Collection, a Sacramento leather study.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with WHAT THE DAY FOUND from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Sacramento lies flat beside its rivers, and Poverty Ridge is the one gentle rise at the grid's edge, where the fine old houses stand. We put a gabled house on that rise, water at its feet, and HIGH GROUND beneath – a journal is high ground for whatever you mean to keep. It gave the collection its name.

The HIGH GROUND black-and-white stamp plate from The High Ground Collection, a Sacramento leather study.

It looks genuinely beautiful – once in deep green for the canopy, once in navy for the river.

A forest-green leather journal stamped with HIGH GROUND from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

A navy leather journal stamped with HIGH GROUND from The High Ground Collection of Sacramento.

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.