Shore Lines – a Sarasota leather collection

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

A September study.

Waterfall Volume I-A.

A leather collection rooted in downtown Sarasota, where the street grid still runs down to the bay and the town reads by the water. We call it Shore Lines, and it travels from journals and luggage tags to a wave built of written lines.

First, the design that named the collection. We wrote a stanza of blank ruled lines and let it break into a wave at the shore, with SARASOTA set beneath – shore lines, in both senses.

Black-and-white die artwork turns reading rules into a curling Gulf wave above SARASOTA for the Shore Lines collection of Sarasota, Florida.

It looks genuinely beautiful on the pale sea-blue tag.

A turquoise leather luggage tag blind-debossed with written lines turning into a Gulf wave above SARASOTA.

On the navy journal the wave sits low in the corner, where a poem would end.

A blueberry leather wrap journal blind-debossed with the Shore Lines wave and SARASOTA in its lower corner.

And the golden tray gives it the whole floor.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with written lines turning into a Gulf wave above SARASOTA.

Next, one for the writers. We set FIRST DRAFT in title-page capitals with an editor's caret waiting underneath – everything good begins as one.

Black-and-white editorial die artwork frames FIRST DRAFT with a printer ornament and proofreader caret for the Shore Lines collection of Sarasota, Florida.

We pressed it on a journal in the pale greige of an unwritten page.

A gray-sand leather wrap journal blind-debossed with the framed words FIRST DRAFT and an editor's caret.

Looks great on the warm tan keychain too.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with the framed words FIRST DRAFT and an editor's caret.

Then, an old shop-window promise, relettered for a town of open mics: POETRY SPOKEN HERE, arched the way signwriters once lettered a glass door.

Black-and-white Victorian sign-lettering die artwork reads POETRY SPOKEN HERE for the Shore Lines collection of Sarasota, Florida.

The black tag carries it in gold – window lettering was always gilded.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the exact words POETRY SPOKEN HERE.

So does the black keychain.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with the exact words POETRY SPOKEN HERE.

And finally, the old downtown grid. We stacked the names of three Sarasota streets the way a corner signpost would and set the bay's water lines beneath them – the grid still opens toward the water.

Black-and-white die artwork stacks GULF STREAM, PALM, and PINEAPPLE over wave lines for the Shore Lines collection of Sarasota, Florida.

It stands upright on the deep palm-green tag.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with GULF STREAM, PALM, and PINEAPPLE above two wave lines.

And it rides the corner of the toiletry bags, navy over chestnut.

Blueberry and Sicilian brown leather dopp kits blind-debossed with the same First Streets die in their lower-right corners.

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.