The Santiam Playground, Volume I-A – a leather stamping study of Sweet Home's river and lake life

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies. This one is Volume I-A, a geographic study.

A September study.

The Santiam Playground – a small leather collection drawn from Sweet Home's outdoor life, where the South Santiam runs past town and Foster Lake opens up behind the dam. Five original stamps follow.

First, the homecoming fish. Every spring the Chinook climb the South Santiam back to the water they started from, so we drew one – hooked jaw, mottled back bent against the current – swimming hard toward the words SWEET HOME. A luggage tag makes the same promise on every trip.

Black-and-white HOME WATER Chinook stamp artwork from The Santiam Playground leather collection of Sweet Home, Oregon.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – lengthwise on deep forest green, on pale sea-blue, and on a honeyed russet the color of the riverbed itself.

A forest-green leather luggage tag stamped with a Chinook swimming toward SWEET HOME in The Santiam Playground collection.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag stamped with a Chinook swimming toward SWEET HOME in The Santiam Playground collection.

A honeyed-russet leather luggage tag stamped with a Chinook swimming toward SWEET HOME in The Santiam Playground collection.

Next, the town's own phrase. Sweet Home calls itself the "Gateway to the Santiam Playground", and a gateway wants a key – so the fob carries a keyhole, with fir tops and open water showing through the bore. A key ring is the one place a gate belongs.

Black-and-white keyhole and fir-tree stamp artwork reading GATEWAY TO THE SANTIAM PLAYGROUND for a leather keychain.

A forest-green leather keychain stamped with a keyhole view and GATEWAY TO THE SANTIAM PLAYGROUND.

A caramel leather keychain stamped with a keyhole view and GATEWAY TO THE SANTIAM PLAYGROUND.

Then a journal for keeping score. ODFW counts the South Santiam among Oregon's best summer steelhead rivers, and an angler's memory is a leaky thing – which fly worked, and which fish got away. We set a single dry fly in the lower corner above the words RIVER NOTES, on deep navy and on a warm river-stone gray.

Black-and-white dry-fly stamp artwork reading RIVER NOTES for The Santiam Playground leather journals.

A deep navy leather journal blind-stamped with a dry fly and RIVER NOTES for the South Santiam.

A warm gray leather journal blind-stamped with a dry fly and RIVER NOTES for the South Santiam.

For the toiletry bags, crossed paddles under the single word SANTIAM, pressed small into the corner – honeyed russet over deep brown, the kit that gets packed before sunrise on a lake morning.

Black-and-white crossed-paddles stamp artwork reading SANTIAM for a leather toiletry bag.

Honeyed-russet and dark-brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with crossed paddles and SANTIAM.

And finally, the one we liked the most. At the left edge the river crowds between the gates of Foster Dam; across the tray the current slows and widens until it goes still, and FOSTER LAKE stands spaced out in the calm. A catchall works the same way – whatever the day carried settles here.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white Foster Dam and lake stamp artwork reading FOSTER LAKE for a leather catchall tray.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray stamped with Foster Dam current opening into the calm of Foster Lake.

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 changed – say hello through our contact page.