MADE LAND – a leather collection from Old Town Alexandria
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
A September study. Volume I-A.
MADE LAND is a small leather collection rooted in Old Town Alexandria: luggage tags and keychains, journals and a catchall tray, each stamped with a design cut from the town's own story.
First, the design the collection is named for. Old Town stands partly on ground it built itself – the first shoreline curved in near Lee Street, and by 1784 fill had carried the riverfront out to Union Street. We drew both shorelines, the old curve and the new straight line, and hatched the made ground between them.
It presses into the corner of the journals, one in warm tan and one in dusty rose – a good cover for anyone about to draw a new shoreline of their own.
Next, we set a sloop under full sail on a long waterline and wrote ARRIVED BY RIVER beneath it – for a town whose every good thing once came up the Potomac. The design runs lengthwise along the luggage tags.
On the black tag the sloop is pressed in gold; the navy and the honeyed russet carry it blind.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
The same sloop sails small in the corner of the toiletry bags, one in navy and one in deep brown.
Then, the narrow blue house squeezed between its taller neighbors. We drew the facade shutter for shutter, cornice and all, and set SMALL WONDER beneath it – a keychain is exactly the right scale for it.
One fob is navy, after the house's painted brick; the other is pale greige, after the quiet plaster it leans on.
Keychains with the little blue house look just awesome.
And finally, the one we liked the most. A single ring above the words ONE OF ONE, pressed at generous size into the golden tan catchall tray – the tray where a one-of-a-kind piece comes to rest each night.
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'd like anything here made real, or anything changed – say hello through our contact page.
P.S.
