Home Port – a Gloucester leather collection
An August study.
Five original stamps for Gloucester, pressed into leather. We call the collection Home Port – every design in it belongs to the working harbor at the end of Route 128, and to the habit of coming back to it.
First, the luggage tags. A vessel carries her home port lettered across the stern, so we drew a stern board that reads GLOUCESTER with the harbor's coordinates beneath – wherever the bag ends up, the board says where it belongs. The trio runs deep marine navy and warm rope tan, with a third tag in pale sea-blue.
Next, the keychains. A line hitched round a horn cleat and drawn tight – MADE FAST IN GLOUCESTER, which is what a sailor reports when the line will hold. One fob in buoy red, one in Atlantic navy. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
Then, the toiletry bag – the one piece here that actually goes to sea. We set an eight-spoked ship's wheel inside the oldest Gloucester line there is, THEY THAT GO DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS, and pressed it into the corner of a marine-navy kit over chestnut.
For the tray, a chart. Where the bottom holds an anchor, the chart says GOOD HOLDING GROUND – so we drew Gloucester Harbor chart-fashion, the Dog Bar breakwater curled around a single anchor, and pressed it into the base of the golden-tan tray. Good holding ground for keys and pocket change too.
And finally, the journals. A ship's log gets written every day of the passage, whatever the sky is doing. The cover carries a small schooner heeled into a sea and the line KEPT IN FAIR WEATHER AND FOUL. One journal in warm granite gray, one in deep harbor green. It looks genuinely beautiful.
We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this collection 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 anything here made real, or anything changed – say hello through our contact page.