Felloe & Spoke – a leather collection from the age of carriage craft

Volume I-A of the shop studies – an original leather collection, hung here as a small exhibition.

A September study.

Before the engine, the finest machine most people would ever touch was a carriage – bent timber and forged iron, finished like furniture and worked like a tool. Felloe & Spoke is a small leather collection in honor of that craft. A felloe, if the word is new to you, is one curved section of a wooden wheel's rim.

First, we drew a Western Concord stagecoach in full broadside and set CARRIED ON LEATHER beneath it. The great coaches rode on thoroughbraces, thick leather straps slung beneath the body to swallow the shocks of the road; Mark Twain crossed the plains in one and called it “an imposing cradle on wheels.”

Black-and-white CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach die artwork for the Felloe & Spoke leather collection.

A coach that traveled on leather, traveling on leather again – as a luggage tag in deep wine and in warm tan, blind debossed. The black tag carries the gold, the way the coaches carried their scrollwork on black lacquer.

A true-black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with the CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach design.

A sangria leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach design.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach design.

Next, the wheel itself, drawn the way the bench teaches it – hub and spoke, felloe and tire, each part named on the die. A wheel that leaves the bench perfectly round is said to run true, and we know no better words to drop your keys on.

Black-and-white RUN TRUE wheel chart die artwork for the Felloe & Spoke leather collection.

Pressed at generous size into the golden tan tray. It looks genuinely beautiful.

An Arizona leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the RUN TRUE wheel chart design.

Then, a drawknife crossed over a spokeshave, the two blades that carved square oak into round spokes, above the whole method in four words – BY HAND AND EYE.

Black-and-white BY HAND AND EYE wheelwright tool die artwork for the Felloe & Spoke leather collection.

We stamped it small in the lower corner, where a maker's mark belongs – on the warm tan and chestnut travel kit, and on two journals. On the black journal the unfoiled press reads as a quiet shadow relief; the deep green one matches the gallery walls such machines stand against.

A caramel and Sicilian-brown leather dopp kit blind-debossed with the BY HAND AND EYE wheelwright tool design.

A true-black leather journal blind-debossed with the BY HAND AND EYE wheelwright tool design.

A forest-green leather journal blind-debossed with the BY HAND AND EYE wheelwright tool design.

And finally, one for the pocket. Two heads in harness above the only rating the whole age required – 2 HP.

Black-and-white 2 HP paired-horse die artwork for the Felloe & Spoke leather collection.

Blind on golden tan, gold on the black fob. Keychains with this stamp look just awesome.

A true-black leather keychain stamped in gold with the 2 HP paired-horse design.

An Arizona leather keychain blind-debossed with the 2 HP paired-horse design.

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.

P.S.

An alternate true-black leather luggage tag stamped in gold with the CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach design.

An alternate sangria leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach design.

An alternate caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the CARRIED ON LEATHER Concord stagecoach design.