The Boca Ratone Collection – a Boca Raton leather stamping study

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

A September study.

Volume I-B · Commercial-Fit Independent Study

This is The Boca Ratone Collection – five leather stamps drawn from Boca Raton's first hundred years, pressed into luggage tags and journals, keychains and a catchall tray.

First, the name as the land boom printed it. The 1920s town-site maps spelled it BOCA RATONE, so we letterspaced that spelling over the shoreline itself and ran it lengthwise along the luggage tags.

The black tag carries the design in gold foil.

Black-and-white BOCA RATONE town-site artwork for leather stamping in The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with BOCA RATONE for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

A blueberry navy leather luggage tag blind-stamped with BOCA RATONE for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

An arizona tan leather luggage tag blind-stamped with BOCA RATONE for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

Next, the pineapple. Boca Raton grew pineapples before it grew anything else, so we laced one in a diamond lattice under the city's name and wrote FIRST CROP beneath – small enough to leave the house on a keychain every day.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white FIRST CROP pineapple artwork for leather stamping in The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

An arizona tan leather keychain blind-stamped with the FIRST CROP pineapple for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-stamped with the FIRST CROP pineapple for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

Then the Barefoot Mailman, who walked the mail along this beach in the years before the railroad. We set him mid-stride in the journal's corner, surf behind and palm ahead – a fair patron for anything written by hand. He walks here on pale greige sand and on navy.

Black-and-white Barefoot Mailman beach-route artwork for leather stamping in The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

A gray-sand leather journal blind-stamped with the Barefoot Mailman for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

A blueberry navy leather journal blind-stamped with the Barefoot Mailman for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

Then the first drawing of the town. The 1896 survey set Lake Boca Raton inside the shoreline with the new rail line ticking past, and we pressed that geometry into the catchall tray – the day's keys now land on the map that started everything.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white BOCA RATON 1896 survey artwork for leather stamping in The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

An arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with the 1896 survey for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

And finally, the one we liked the most. In 1942 the Army Air Field here trained radar operators, so the toiletry bag carries a scope mid-sweep, ringed BOCA RATON RADAR SCHOOL – the right badge for a bag whose whole job is going somewhere and finding the way. It sits in navy over deep espresso brown.

Black-and-white RADAR SCHOOL 1942 scope artwork for leather stamping in The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

A blueberry navy and dark-espresso leather dopp-kit stack blind-stamped with RADAR SCHOOL 1942 for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

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 the Boca Raton collection made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

An alternate black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with BOCA RATONE for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

An alternate blueberry navy leather luggage tag blind-stamped with BOCA RATONE for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.

An alternate arizona tan leather luggage tag blind-stamped with BOCA RATONE for The Boca Ratone Collection of Boca Raton, Florida.