The City Light Works – a Fort Wayne power-plant leather stamping study, Volume I-A

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

A September study – Volume I-A.

The City Light Works is a small leather collection drawn from Fort Wayne's first public power plant – City Light and Power, switched on in 1908 and still standing over the river in its 1929 brick, five stacks and all. We pressed the story of coal becoming light into leather, from luggage tags to a catchall tray.

First, we drew the plant the way the river sees it: the long banded brick block under its five unequal stacks, windows picked out in white, a broken reflection in the water. Beneath the waterline runs CITY LIGHT AND POWER. The design travels lengthwise along the tag, the way the building runs along the bank. Two tags take the poles of the stacks' evening lighting – a warm red and a deep navy. The black tag carries the plant in gold, lamplight against a soot-dark night.

Black-and-white die artwork of the five-stack City Light and Power riverfront elevation for a leather luggage tag in The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A poppy-red leather luggage tag stamped with the five-stack City Light and Power riverfront design from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A blueberry leather luggage tag stamped with the five-stack City Light and Power riverfront design from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with the five-stack City Light and Power riverfront design from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Next, the moment the whole story starts. In 1908 the plant's two coal-fired generators lit 420 arc streetlights – Fort Wayne's first public electricity. The fob keeps that evening: an arc lamp mid-blaze, LIGHTS ON above, SINCE 1908 below. The golden tan fob is the color of the glow itself; the black fob strikes the rays in gold.

Black-and-white die artwork of an arc streetlamp marked LIGHTS ON SINCE 1908 for a leather keychain in The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

They turned out just awesome.

An Arizona tan leather keychain stamped with an arc streetlamp marked LIGHTS ON SINCE 1908 from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A black leather keychain stamped in gold with an arc streetlamp marked LIGHTS ON SINCE 1908 from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Then, the word the plant and a journal share. GENERATING arches over a dynamo drawn face on – a bolted ring and eight spokes around a keyed hub – and sits small in the journal's lower corner, where the work begins. One journal wears the deep machine green of the preserved exhibits; the other a brick-brown chestnut.

Black-and-white GENERATING dynamo die artwork prepared for a leather journal in The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A forest-green leather journal stamped with a GENERATING dynamo rosette from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A Sicilian-brown leather journal stamped with a GENERATING dynamo rosette from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

After that, a machine plate for the toiletry bag. Every rated machine in a plant wore one, so we engraved our own – UNIT NO 1, 500 KW 1908, the rating of those first generators – and set it in the bag's lower corner. One bag is soot black, the other deep espresso, and the blind deboss reads as a quiet shadow relief.

Black-and-white machine-plate die artwork marked CITY LIGHT AND POWER UNIT NO 1 500 KW 1908 for a leather toiletry bag in The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A black leather toiletry bag blind stamped with a CITY LIGHT AND POWER machine plate from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A dark-espresso leather toiletry bag blind stamped with a CITY LIGHT AND POWER machine plate from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

And finally, the building's whole lesson in one line. Inside, the pipes are color coded so a visitor can follow a shovel of coal all the way to a lit lamp; we pressed the same journey into the golden tan tray, hopper to lamp, because the day ends where the flow does – with keys and coins arriving in the tray.

Black-and-white coal-to-light flow-diagram die artwork prepared for a leather catchall tray in The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray stamped with the coal, water, steam and light process from The City Light Works collection of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.