The Keeping Collection, Volume III – a Bellevue, Ohio leather study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
An August study.
For Bellevue, Ohio – The Keeping Collection, Volume III.
First, we set five rooflines shoulder to shoulder on one baseline – a log gable at one end, the tall mansard crown at the other – and put COME BACK AROUND beneath them. A whole century of Bellevue roofs, and the words a luggage tag most wants to say. The barn red one is our favorite.
Next, we drew a long skeleton key and let EVERY DOOR STILL OPENS stand either side of the shank. That is the plain wonder of a village kept alive on Bellevue's south edge – houses nearly two centuries old, and the doors still open every summer. The black fob carries the key in gold, the way brass rides black iron; the warm tan one takes a blind press.
Then, we set KEPT IN GOOD ORDER inside a double ruled label, the way a general store once marked its shelves. Practical words for a toiletry bag, and quietly the whole deed of the place. It stamps into the chestnut corner just right.
After that, we stood the village on a little ring – six buildings upright on its rim, a tiny planet of saved houses – and wrote GATHERED & KEPT below. A catchall tray does the same work every evening. On the golden tan leather it looks genuinely beautiful.
And finally, the one we liked the most. The crown of the mansard tower, cresting and dormer and all, above KEEP THE DAY – pressed into the corner of a journal, which is where days get kept. One in the mansard's own warm gray, one in deep green. Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.
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 in Bellevue and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.