The Dog-Eared Collection – a Fayetteville, Arkansas leather stamping study

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

An August study.

Fayetteville, Arkansas is a reading town, and one block off the Square it shows – the state's oldest farmers' market on Saturday mornings, book clubs and writers' nights the rest of the week. We pressed a small leather collection for the readers of the Ozarks and named it the Dog-Eared Collection.

First, we drew an open book whose lines of text are Ozark ridgelines. Read it one way and it is a paragraph; read it the other and it is the view over the hills that hold the town, with FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS set beneath. It went onto luggage tags in forest green and honeyed russet, and once more in warm caramel.

The black-and-white Ozark Pages stamp plate from The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A forest-green leather luggage tag stamped with Ozark Pages for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

An Indian Summer leather luggage tag stamped with Ozark Pages for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A caramel leather luggage tag stamped with Ozark Pages for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Next, the namesake. A dog-eared book is a book loved past carefulness, folded where the reader means to return – and in a town where the dogs pad into the shops like regulars, the name earns itself twice. We folded the corner of a single page and pressed it onto keychains in poppy red and golden tan.

The black-and-white Dog Ear stamp plate from The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A poppy-red leather keychain stamped Dog Eared for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

An Arizona leather keychain stamped Dog Eared for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Then a paperback left face-down, the way a book waits when its reader steps away – a small tent pitched wherever the chapter got good – under the words GONE READING. We stamped it into the corner of a toiletry bag for the weekend the book comes along.

The black-and-white Gone Reading stamp plate from The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Caramel and Sicilian leather dopp kits stamped Gone Reading for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It wanted to travel, so we gave it a navy luggage tag as well.

A blueberry leather luggage tag stamped Gone Reading for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

After that, the Saturday ritual: flowers from the market on the Square, carried home between the pages of a book where a bookmark would ride. We pressed SATURDAY IN FAYETTEVILLE at generous size across the golden tan tray – the dish where the day empties its pockets.

The black-and-white Saturday Market stamp plate from The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped Saturday in Fayetteville for The Dog-Eared Collection.

And finally, for the writers' nights – FIRST DRAFT, with a proofreader's caret waiting under the gap between the words, because around here even a title is still being edited. We stamped it into the corner of journals in gray sand, the color of the empty page, and in forest green.

The black-and-white First Draft stamp plate from The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A gray-sand leather journal stamped First Draft for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A forest-green leather journal stamped First Draft for The Dog-Eared Collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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 here changed – say hello through our contact page.