Feather & Wedge – a Rockport, Massachusetts leather collection

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From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.

An August study.

Feather & Wedge – a leather collection drawn from Rockport, Massachusetts.

First, the namesake. Quarrymen opened Cape Ann granite with a pair of irons called feather and wedge: drill a short row of holes and tap down the line until the stone parts clean. We drew the block at the moment it lets go, and set SPLIT CLEAN beneath – a fair promise for the bag where you go to get exactly that. The stack runs granite gray over deep timber brown.

Black-and-white Split Clean granite stamp art from the Feather & Wedge leather collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Gray and brown leather toiletry bags stamped with Split Clean from the Feather & Wedge collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Next, the luggage tags. Thacher Island keeps its twin lights off the Rockport shore, so we stood one tower at each end of the tag and let the beams cross midair – one light to see you out, one to call you home. The trio wears buoy colors.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white Twin Lights stamp art from the Feather & Wedge leather collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Blue, red, and pale leather luggage tags stamped with Twin Lights from the Feather & Wedge collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Then the keychains. A lobsterman paints his buoys in his own colors so he can pick them out of a crowded harbor at a glance. We gave the fob a single buoy and a single word – MINE. One fob in buoy red, one in Atlantic navy.

Black-and-white Mine buoy stamp art from the Feather & Wedge leather collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Red and navy leather keychains stamped with Mine from the Feather & Wedge collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

After that, the catchall tray. When the pumps went quiet at the Babson Farm quarry on Halibut Point, the pit filled with rain and has held it ever since. We terraced the ledges down to still water and pressed the whole basin into golden tan leather – the tray keeps what falls in.

Black-and-white Halibut Point quarry stamp art from the Feather & Wedge leather collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with Halibut Point from the Feather & Wedge collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

And finally, the journals. Motif No. 1 earned its name as a complaint – every painter who stepped off the train set up an easel and painted the same first subject, again. So the cover carries a blank canvas waiting on its easel and the one word AGAIN, down in the corner where a painter signs. One journal in pale primed-canvas greige, one in warm tan.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white Again easel stamp art from the Feather & Wedge leather collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Pale and caramel leather journals stamped with Again from the Feather & Wedge collection of Rockport, Massachusetts.

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 changed – say hello through our contact page.