The Sun Porch – a Boca Raton, Florida leather stamping collection

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies. Volume I-C.

A September study.

The Sun Porch is a leather collection for Boca Raton, Florida – what the city said of itself in 1927, and what it went on to build, stamped into leather goods from luggage tags to journals.

First, the introduction. A 1927 poster announced I AM THE SUN PORCH OF AMERICA over Florida mapped in white on a black sea. We kept the map and moved the sun onto the town – its rays leave the coast exactly where Boca Raton stands.

The Sun Porch Florida medallion, a leather stamping die concept for Boca Raton

The tags run from true black through pale sea-blue to golden tan. The black tag carries the design in gold.

The Sun Porch medallion in gold on a black Leatherius luggage tag

The Sun Porch medallion blind-debossed on a turquoise Leatherius luggage tag

The Sun Porch medallion blind-debossed on an Arizona leather Leatherius luggage tag

On the toiletry bags the same sun sits quietly in the corner, navy over chestnut.

The Sun Porch medallion on blueberry and Sicilian brown Leatherius Dopp kits

Next, the 1927 Town Hall – the domed tower the young city raised on Federal Highway, drawn with its arched door and its palms, BOCA RATON above and 1927 beneath.

The 1927 Boca Raton Town Hall, a leather stamping die concept

On the pale warm greige fob the stamp reads like the stucco itself; on dark espresso it turns formal. It looks genuinely beautiful.

The 1927 Boca Raton Town Hall blind-debossed on a gray-sand Leatherius keychain

The 1927 Boca Raton Town Hall blind-debossed on a dark-espresso Leatherius keychain

Then, the Camino Real as a period painter saw it – water running straight between double rows of royal palms toward one vanishing point. We recut the view as a woodcut and gave it the whole floor of the golden tan tray.

The palm-lined Camino Real, a leather stamping die concept for Boca Raton

The Camino Real design blind-debossed on an Arizona leather Leatherius catchall tray

And finally, the one we liked the most. Mizner Industries rolled its own roof tiles and forged its own grilles because nothing suitable could be bought nearby. WHAT WE COULD NOT FIND WE MADE – a maker's sentence under a forged scroll, pressed into the corner of a journal.

What We Could Not Find We Made, a leather stamping die concept inspired by Mizner Industries

One journal in true black for the iron itself, one in warm stone gray for the cast stone those same yards poured. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

What We Could Not Find We Made blind-debossed on a black Leatherius journal

What We Could Not Find We Made blind-debossed on a country-gray Leatherius journal

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 in The Sun Porch made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.