Halfway to Everywhere – a Princeton leather collection

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

An August study.

Five stamps for Princeton, New Jersey. We named the collection Halfway to Everywhere – after the coaching days, when this town was the overnight stop midway between New York and Philadelphia.

First, the milestone. The King's Highway ran straight through town, and its coach stones counted the miles both ways – so we carved our own. New York one way, Philadelphia the other. The collection's name arches over the stone.

The Halfway to Everywhere milestone stamp design for the Princeton leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The black tag carries the gold.

Three leather luggage tags carry the milestone design from the Halfway to Everywhere collection of Princeton, New Jersey.

Next, the Dinky – the single little car that shuttles from town to Junction and back, a line so short Princeton long ago gave up on ceremony and named it that. We drew it toy-sized and put it on the smallest thing we make.

The Dinky rail-car stamp design from the Halfway to Everywhere Princeton leather collection.

The Dinky on the keychains looks just awesome.

Two leather keychains carry the Dinky design from the Halfway to Everywhere collection of Princeton, New Jersey.

Then the road itself. Nassau Street began as a Lenape trail and spent its middle life as the King's Highway – the same line, renamed by each age that walked it. On a journal cover, the strata leave room for whoever writes next.

The layered Nassau Street stamp design for the Halfway to Everywhere Princeton leather collection.

Two leather journals carry the Nassau Street design from the Halfway to Everywhere collection of Princeton, New Jersey.

Then Stony Brook, the older water at the town's edge, parting around its stones and rejoining on the far side. Water belongs on a wash bag – we pressed it into the corner of a navy and chestnut stack.

The Stony Brook current-and-stone stamp design for the Halfway to Everywhere Princeton leather collection.

Two leather toiletry bags carry the Stony Brook design from the Halfway to Everywhere collection of Princeton, New Jersey.

And finally, the tray where pockets empty at the end of the day. Princeton's tiger, recast as a tin wind-up toy with the key still in its back and WIND DOWN beneath – pressed into golden tan leather, which is to say, tiger-colored already.

The wind-up tiger stamp design for the Halfway to Everywhere Princeton leather collection.

An arizona leather catchall tray carries the wind-up tiger from the Halfway to Everywhere collection of Princeton, New Jersey.

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 these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.