Little Northport, Volume III – a leather study of the village at toy scale

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

An August study. Volume III.

Northport is nearly small enough to pick up – two square miles of Victorian porches, with one Main Street running downhill until it turns into a harbor. A village already built at toy scale. So this time we drew it the way a child would find it on a shelf, and called the collection LITTLE NORTHPORT.

First, we wound the harbor up. A catboat with a tin toy's key in its stern glides along one long ripple, and the sentence sails in behind it – WIND UP AT THE HARBOR, which is where every Northport afternoon winds up anyway. It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags, on harbor navy and pale sea-blue, with a warm caramel tan standing in for toy-shelf wood.

Black and white wind-up catboat stamp artwork for the Little Northport leather collection of Northport, New York.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the Wind Up at the Harbor catboat design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

Next, the smallest door on Main. Every Victorian on the street has a front door worth slowing down for, so we built one at dollhouse scale – pediment and all, with a doorknob the size of a poppy seed – for the fob that already carries your keys. One keychain in painted-toy red, one in harbor navy.

Black and white Victorian door stamp artwork for the Little Northport leather collection of Northport, New York.

Keychains with the smallest door on them look just awesome.

Poppy red and navy leather keychains stamped with the Smallest Door on Main design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

Then we moved the harbor indoors. A claw-foot tub with one small sail riding its waterline – GREAT BATH HARBOR, the deepest port in the house – pressed into the corner of the toiletry bags, navy over dark espresso.

Black and white claw-foot bathtub harbor stamp artwork for the Little Northport leather collection of Northport, New York.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with the Great Bath Harbor design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A catchall tray is a toy box for grown-ups. So the golden tan tray says BACK IN THE BOX – a marble and a jack caught mid-drop with the rest of the day's small cargo, the lid already open to receive them.

Black and white toy chest stamp artwork for the Little Northport leather collection of Northport, New York.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Back in the Box design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

And finally, the words every bedtime in the village ends on. TELL IT AGAIN sits under a crescent moon in the corner of the journals – deep green and pale rose – where a story gets written down so it can be. It turned out to be the one we liked the most.

Black and white bedtime book stamp artwork for the Little Northport leather collection of Northport, New York.

Forest green and blush leather journals stamped with the Tell It Again design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

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 Northport and you'd like any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped with the Wind Up at the Harbor catboat from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag stamped with the Wind Up at the Harbor catboat from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A caramel leather luggage tag stamped with the Wind Up at the Harbor catboat from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

Three leather luggage tags in an alternate arrangement for the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A poppy red leather keychain stamped with the Smallest Door on Main design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A navy leather keychain stamped with the Smallest Door on Main design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A forest green leather journal stamped with the Tell It Again design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.

A blush leather journal stamped with the Tell It Again design from the Little Northport collection of Northport, New York.