The Comb & Orchard Collection – a leather study for Leominster, Massachusetts
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
An August study.
Five stamps for Leominster, Massachusetts – the Comb & Orchard Collection. One city raised Johnny Appleseed and cut the country's combs; we drew both stories and pressed them into leather.
First, the luggage tags. We drew North Monoosnoc Hill the way a trail map draws it, contour by contour, and set its name beneath the summit ring – a tag for anyone whose hill means home. The trio runs from wooded green down to reservoir navy.
Next, the toiletry bags. Leominster's plastics story began in its comb shops, and a comb still rides in every bag like this one – so we raised a morning sun whose rays are comb teeth, with COMB CITY arched over it.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
Then the keychains, which spend their whole lives riding Route 12 – so we gave them the sign for it, planted beside a road heading for the gap in the hills.
For the catchall tray, a crate label. Orchard run is the grader's word for apples taken exactly as they come off the tree, unsorted – which is how everything lands in the tray by the door. ORCHARD RUN across the top, one apple in the middle, the city and state along the bottom rule, on golden tan leather.
And finally, the journals. Johnny Appleseed was born in Leominster in 1774, and a journal is where something good gets planted first – so the cover carries a single pip breaking into leaf, with an instruction: PLANT SOMETHING GOOD.
It looks genuinely beautiful.
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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.