The Boca Ratone Collection – a Boca Raton leather stamping study

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

A September study.

Waterfall Volume I-D.

The Boca Ratone Collection is a set of leather pieces rooted in Boca Raton, Florida – the town as it was when its name still carried a final E. We pressed five small moments from the city's early record into leather, luggage tags and journals among them.

First, the name itself. When the town incorporated in 1924 it signed the papers as BOCA RATONE, final E and all, so we set the old spelling in period block capitals over TOWN SITE 1924, the way the twenties map carries it. The stamp runs lengthwise along the tag, in golden tan and in pale sea-blue. The black tag carries it in gold.

Black and white BOCA RATONE TOWN SITE 1924 leather stamp die plate

BOCA RATONE TOWN SITE 1924 gold stamped on a black leather luggage tag

BOCA RATONE TOWN SITE 1924 blind stamped on a golden tan leather luggage tag

BOCA RATONE TOWN SITE 1924 blind stamped on a pale sea-blue leather luggage tag

Next, we redrew the old DIXIE HIGHWAY sign that once pointed motorists through town – the scalloped border and the hand-painted capitals – and pressed it generously into the base of the golden tan tray, so the day's keys still end their drive on the old road.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black and white scalloped DIXIE HIGHWAY leather stamp die plate

DIXIE HIGHWAY design blind stamped in a golden tan leather catchall tray

Then, the inlet. When sand sealed it shut, residents took shovels and dug it open by hand, so the journal cover carries a single shovel planted between the opened banks beneath DUG BY HAND – the right words to face anyone about to fill blank pages. One journal in pale warm greige, the other in navy.

Black and white DUG BY HAND Boca Raton inlet leather stamp die plate

DUG BY HAND inlet design blind stamped on a pale warm greige leather journal

DUG BY HAND inlet design blind stamped on a navy leather journal

For the traveler's kit, we borrowed a line from a 1956 Boca Raton newspaper advertisement, printed in the years when a complete phone number was the town's name and four digits. PHONE BOCA RATON 8280, stacked in the ad's own exuberant type, sits small in the corner of the toiletry bag – warm caramel over chestnut.

Black and white PHONE BOCA RATON 8280 leather stamp die plate

PHONE BOCA RATON 8280 blind stamped on caramel and chestnut leather toiletry bags

And finally, the one we liked the most. In 1937 the whole town ran on two traffic signals, and it ran them only in winter. So one small signal hangs over a long empty road above the words WINTER ONLY – a light that waits, on the keys that always come home. The black fob takes the stamp in gold, and the signal reads lit; the warm tan fob carries it blind.

They look just awesome in the hand.

Black and white WINTER ONLY Boca Raton traffic signal leather stamp die plate

WINTER ONLY traffic signal design gold stamped on a black leather keychain

WINTER ONLY traffic signal design blind stamped on a warm tan leather keychain

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.