The Garden City Collection – Beverly, Massachusetts, in leather

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

An August study.

We designed a small collection of leather goods for Beverly, Massachusetts, and named it for the city's old nickname – the Garden City Collection. Four stamps mined from Beverly's own history, pressed across luggage tags, keychains, journals, toiletry bags and a catchall tray.

First, the namesake. We set GARDEN CITY into the arch of a wrought-iron park gate, with a single rose at the crown and BEVERLY on the plaque below.

The wrought iron Garden City gate die for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts, drawn for leather stamping.

The black keychain takes the letters in gold, like gilt on old gate ironwork. Its partner is a deep garden green.

Two leather keychains stamped with a wrought iron gate for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts.

The journals carry the gate in the lower corner – a garden city needs somewhere to plant things. Deep green and warm tan.

Two leather journals stamped with a Garden City gate for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts.

Next, the shoemakers. Before the factories rose along Rantoul Street, Beverly made its shoes in ten-foot shops out in the yard. We drew one, ran a saddle stitch around it, and said the plain thing: BUILT ON LEATHER.

The ten-footer shoe workshop die for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts, drawn for leather stamping.

It sits in the corner of the toiletry bags, pressed into two old shoe-leather browns – deep espresso over chestnut. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with a ten-footer shoe workshop for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts.

Then, the railroad, which reached Beverly in 1839. The die is a pasteboard ticket, BEVERLY DEPOT set in old depot type, good for one passage – which is what a luggage tag is.

The Beverly Depot railway ticket die for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts, drawn for leather stamping.

We pressed it on the tags in warm red for the Rantoul Street brick and navy for the harbor. The black tag carries the ticket in gold.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with a Beverly Depot ticket for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A corner of the chart of Salem Sound, soundings scattered over the water and the Beverly shore hatched along the edge, pressed at full size into the golden tan of the catchall tray – where everything in your pockets comes ashore at the end of the day.

The Salem Sound coast chart die for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts, drawn for leather stamping.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with a Salem Sound chart for The Garden City Collection of Beverly, Massachusetts.

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.