Looking Up – a leather stamping collection from Over-the-Rhine's Italianate blocks

A September study – Volume I-A.

Over-the-Rhine keeps one of the best gatherings of Italianate buildings in America – block after block raised between 1865 and 1890, with the finest work saved for the upper stories, where only a walker who lifts their eyes will find it. We spent the month pressing that habit into leather, and named the small collection Looking Up.

First, the crown of the street. We ran a bracketed cornice down the whole length of the luggage tag – six paired brackets, arched frieze panels with their rosettes between them – and set OVER THE RHINE letterspaced beneath.

Black-and-white OVER THE RHINE bracketed-cornice artwork for the Looking Up leather collection from Cincinnati.

It travels in brick, a honeyed russet, and in pale gray sand, the limestone of the window heads. The black tag carries the cornice in gold, the way the old storefront glass carried its lettering.

An Indian Summer leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the OVER THE RHINE cornice from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

A Gray Sand leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the OVER THE RHINE cornice from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the OVER THE RHINE cornice from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

Next, one tall window under its curved hood, its sill on brackets, and beneath it the instruction the district was built around – LOOK UP.

Black-and-white LOOK UP Italianate window artwork for the Looking Up leather collection from Cincinnati.

Keychains with the tall window look just awesome. The black fob carries it in gold; the chestnut sicilian brown wears it blind, pressed in like a shadow.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with the LOOK UP Italianate window from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

A Sicilian Brown leather keychain blind-stamped with the LOOK UP Italianate window from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

The same window signs the toiletry bags, small in the lower right corner – honeyed russet standing on dark espresso, brick on iron.

Indian Summer and Dark Espresso leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with the LOOK UP window from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

Then the journals. We lifted a single oval attic window – the detail you only catch from the far sidewalk – and set it as a cameo over OTR in the corner of the cover, in deep forest green like the painted storefront woodwork and in warm caramel.

Black-and-white OTR oval attic-window artwork for the Looking Up leather collection from Cincinnati.

A Forest Green leather journal blind-stamped with the OTR oval window from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

A Caramel leather journal blind-stamped with the OTR oval window from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

And finally, the facade those ovals belong to, drawn whole from storefront to cornice and pressed, generously, into the center of the golden tan catchall tray over MAIN STREET. The stamp keeps only the openings and the ornament – the leather does the brickwork.

Black-and-white MAIN STREET Italianate facade artwork for the Looking Up leather collection from Cincinnati.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

An Arizona leather catchall tray blind-stamped with the MAIN STREET facade from the Looking Up collection of Cincinnati.

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 these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.