EASTERNMOST – a Lubec, Maine leather collection
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies. Volume I-A.
A September study.
EASTERNMOST is a small leather collection about Lubec, Maine – the easternmost town in the contiguous United States, where the day comes up over the water of the Narrows. We drew the town's own things, first light and tide among them, and pressed them into leather, from luggage tags to passport covers.
First, the sunrise itself. We put the sun on the horizon, just clearing the water, and set the old wharf pilings against it with their broken reflections, the village roofline small at the far end – the scene runs lengthwise along the luggage tag, with FIRST LIGHT beneath it.
On navy the scene reads as the last of the night; on honeyed russet, as the warmth arriving.
The black tag carries the first light in gold foil.
Next, the compass that names the collection. We built a compass rose whose east ray outgrows the other three and pierces the ring to land on a big E, with EASTERNMOST written beneath – Lubec sits farther east than any other town in the contiguous United States, and the emblem says so plainly.
It presses into the corner of the journals, in deep forest green and in dark espresso brown.
And it sits centered on the passport covers, since Canada is a bridge away – navy for the crossing, pale sea-blue for the morning water. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
Then, one for the keyring. The tide here is enormous, and it keeps its word twice a day. We drew a single wharf piling wearing its high-water rings, a seabird perched on top. THE TIDE COMES BACK is written beneath – for whoever had to leave.
On warm gray the keychain is the piling itself; on navy, the water it stands in.
Then the herring. Lubec smoked herring for the better part of a century, and the last smokehouse still stands down on the water. We hung nine of them from a single smoke stick, the way the sticks were racked, and pressed the row into the corner of the toiletry bag – deep espresso brown over chestnut, close kin to smoke and tarred timber.
And finally, the Bold Coast, for the catchall tray. At Boot Head the shore opens into a cleft – dark spruce on one side and pale fractured rock on the other, cold water running between – and the sunrise arrives at its mouth, over the Grand Manan Channel. We drew the cleft with the wooden steps going down and set it at generous size on the golden tan tray. 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 anything here made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.
P.S.
