The Land of the Sky Collection – Asheville, North Carolina, in stamped leather

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world logos.

An August study.

Asheville sits a little over two thousand feet up, behind ridges that stack in blue layers and a river that was old before the mountains rose. This August we pressed that country into leather – luggage tags and journals, with keychains and a catchall tray alongside. We call it the Land of the Sky collection, after the name the city has carried since the 1870s.

First, the name itself. We stacked four ridgelines the way they recede from a downtown rooftop – the nearest solid black, each one behind it drawn finer, until the farthest is a single line – and set LAND OF THE SKY in the white air above them.

The LAND OF THE SKY ridgeline stamp design from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

It looks genuinely beautiful. One tag wears the haze in navy, one the valley in warm tan. The black tag takes the stamp in gold.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with layered Blue Ridge horizons from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

Next, the shorthand. Locals trim the city to AVL, so we set the letters in the Deco capitals downtown's 1920s facades still wear, opened a sunburst fan above them, and ran a chevron row beneath.

The AVL Art Deco fan stamp design from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

On the keychains it presses in gold on the black fob, and blind into a honeyed russet the color of downtown brick.

Two leather keychains stamped with the AVL Art Deco fan from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

The same fan sits low in the corner of the toiletry bags, warm gray over dark espresso.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with the AVL Art Deco fan from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

Then the river. The French Broad is older than the mountains it cuts through, so on the medallion it crosses the solid black peaks as a single white meander, and OLDER THAN THE MOUNTAINS rides the rim.

The French Broad River medallion stamp design from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

Pressed deep into the golden tan of the catchall tray, where keys and change spend the night.

A leather catchall tray stamped with the French Broad River medallion from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

And finally, the rhododendron that turns the high balds pink each June, circled by BLOOMS AT FIVE THOUSAND FEET. For the journals – one cover in pale rose for the petal, one in deep green for the leaf.

The high-bald rhododendron stamp design from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather journals stamped with rhododendron blooms from the Land of the Sky Collection of Asheville, North Carolina.

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.