The Raised City × Leatherius Woodman – a Sacramento, California leather stamping study

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

An August study.

Five stamps for Sacramento, California – the city that raised its own streets above the floods – pressed into leather that means to grow old the honest way. We call the collection The Raised City.

First, the luggage tags. Sacramento stood at the western end of the first transcontinental railroad, so we laid a track along the tag, running clean into its buffer stop, and wrote WESTERN TERMINUS above the rails – a tag for the bag whose journey ends at home. The black tag takes the press in gold; the navy and golden tan tags carry it blind.

Black-and-white Western Terminus railroad stamp artwork for The Raised City leather collection of Sacramento, California.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the Western Terminus railroad design from The Raised City collection of Sacramento, California.

Next, a maker's mark for the keychains. Camellias arrived in Sacramento in 1852 and the city has kept them ever since, so we punched the bloom into a ring with the year, the way a silversmith signs the underside of old plate. One fob in deep wine, one in pale warm greige.

Black-and-white camellia hallmark stamp artwork for The Raised City leather collection of Sacramento, California.

Two leather keychains stamped with the Sacramento camellia hallmark from The Raised City collection of Sacramento, California.

Then the toiletry bags. Two rivers meet at Sacramento and leave as one, so the corner of each bag carries the American and the Sacramento merging into a single current. The stack runs navy over chestnut – river over riverbank.

Black-and-white Two Rivers confluence stamp artwork for The Raised City leather collection of Sacramento, California.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with the Two Rivers design from The Raised City collection of Sacramento, California.

For the catchall tray, HIGH GROUND. After the great floods the city lifted its streets above the water, and the old first floors are still down there under the sidewalks. On the tray the words stand clear above the waterline – which is exactly what a tray does for the pocketful it keeps.

Black-and-white High Ground flood-line stamp artwork for The Raised City leather collection of Sacramento, California.

It looks genuinely beautiful pressed into the golden tan.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the High Ground design from The Raised City collection of Sacramento, California.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Every object worth keeping trails a record of where it has been, so the journal corner carries an old stringed lot tag reading PROVENANCE, with one blank rule waiting beneath it – the pages are where that line gets filled in. One journal in deep brown, one in warm tan.

Black-and-white Provenance inventory-tag stamp artwork for The Raised City leather collection of Sacramento, California.

Two leather journals stamped with the Provenance lot-tag design from The Raised City collection of Sacramento, California.

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 here changed – say hello through our contact page.