The Ore Ledge Collection – Lead, South Dakota – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.
A September study.
The Ore Ledge Collection – Volume I-B of the Practice Log – for Lead, South Dakota. The town is named for the ledge of ore it stands on, and the name is pronounced leed. Gold has been coming out of this hill since 1876.
First, the name itself. We set LEAD in heavy capitals and ran a seam of ore straight through the letters – the ledge the town was named for – with the correction every visitor needs beneath it: PRONOUNCED LEED.
The black tag carries the seam in gold. The golden tan and deep brown tags take it as a blind stamp.
Next, the lamp. A miner's cap lamp throws its whole fan of light inside a ring that reads LIGHT GOES FIRST – because underground, it always did.
Pressed in gold on the black fob, the little flame looks lit. It also comes blind stamped on golden tan.
Then, the journals. We heaped a wooden ore cart past its brim and set PAY DIRT over it – because that is what a journal is for. You keep digging until you hit it. One in chestnut, one in warm gray – timber and rock.
Then, the catchall tray. Above the ground line, a headframe; below it, we filled the whole underground with stars – FIRST GOLD THEN STARS, for a mile of rock that gave up its gold and now listens for the universe.
It looks genuinely beautiful.
And finally, the toiletry bags. The little compressed-air locomotive that once hauled ore through the dark, with its motto beneath: RUNS ON AIR. A fine thing to say on a bag that travels.
Each bag takes the stamp blind in the lower corner – one golden tan, one deep espresso brown.
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 anything here made real, or anything changed – say hello through our contact page.
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