The Gold Below – a leather stamping collection for Lead, South Dakota

THE GOLD BELOW – a leather collection for Lead, South Dakota. Volume I-A.

A September study.

Lead is pronounced leed – the town took its name from a miners' word for a ledge of ore. For 125 years the Homestake mine worked the ground beneath its streets, reaching 8,000 feet down before the last ton of ore came up in 2001. This small collection is about that underground world.

First, the fork. Underground the track splits, and two ore cars choose different tunnels – the far one already smaller, already deeper. We set LEAD SOUTH DAKOTA above the switch and ran the scene lengthwise along the luggage tags.

Black-and-white die artwork of two ore cars choosing branches of an underground track

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Ore Fork design blind stamped on an Arizona leather luggage tag

Ore Fork design blind stamped on a dark espresso leather luggage tag

The black tag carries the design in gold foil – gold out of black ground seemed only right here.

Ore Fork design stamped in gold on a black leather luggage tag

Next, the way in. We built a portal of heavy squared timbers and sent a stair of seventeen treads down into the dark, with the words 17 STEPS DOWN beneath it. In Lead the underground has always started a few steps from the street.

Black-and-white die artwork of a timbered mine portal and descending stair

Seventeen Steps design blind stamped on an Arizona leather keychain

On the black fob the stair goes down in gold.

Seventeen Steps design stamped in gold on a black leather keychain

Then, the depth. One plumb line drops from a thin surface line, level by level, to 8000 FT – the whole story of the mine in a single mark. On a journal it sits in the lower corner like an equipment stamp, and the pages fill the way the mine deepened, one level at a time.

Black-and-white die artwork marking the Homestake mine depth of 8000 feet

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Eight Thousand design blind stamped on a dark espresso leather journal

Eight Thousand design blind stamped on a country gray leather journal

The same mark rides the corner of the toiletry bags – golden tan over deep brown, ore over timber.

Eight Thousand design blind stamped on Arizona and dark espresso leather toiletry bags

And finally, the tray for the end of the shift. We hung a loaded ore bucket beneath the words END OF SHIFT – the bucket hauled the day's rock to the surface, and the tray by the door does the same for keys and pocket change. We pressed it at generous size into the golden tan tray.

Black-and-white die artwork of a loaded mining bucket beneath End of Shift

End of Shift mining bucket design blind stamped on an Arizona leather catchall tray

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.