On the Brow – a Mentone, Alabama leather collection

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

An August study.

For Mentone, Alabama – ON THE BROW, a small collection stamped into leather for the town on top of Lookout Mountain.

First, the title stamp. We drew the brow itself – the level edge with its pines, the cliff falling away into valley haze – and set ON THE BROW in the sky above. It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags. The trio wears deep forest green and honeyed russet; a pale greige tag stands between them for the sandstone.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The ON THE BROW black-and-white stamp design from the On the Brow leather collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Forest green, honeyed russet and gray-sand leather luggage tags stamped ON THE BROW for the On the Brow collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Next, the fact visitors refuse to believe until they stand beside it: the Little River runs nearly its whole course along the top of the mountain. We cut the mountain solid and let the river wander across the summit as bare leather, then pressed it into journals in deep navy and warm tan – a fitting cover for anything written up here.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The LITTLE RIVER stamp design shows water crossing a mountaintop in the On the Brow leather collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Blueberry and caramel leather journals stamped LITTLE RIVER for the On the Brow collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Then DeSoto Falls, a short drive up the river. The drop is 104 feet, and on the die the water is simply the white the stamp leaves untouched, falling through solid black rock. The keychains wear pale sea-blue and deep forest green.

Keychains with the falls stamp look just awesome too.

The 104 FEET waterfall stamp design from the On the Brow leather collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Pale sea-blue and forest-green leather keychains stamped 104 FEET for the On the Brow collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Mentone took its name in 1884, borrowed from Menton in France, and the town has read it ever since as musical mountain spring. So we wrote the spring as music – a staff whose lines ripple like water, with the notes riding the current – and pressed it into the corner of the toiletry bags, deep navy over chestnut.

The MUSICAL MOUNTAIN SPRING stamp design from the On the Brow leather collection of Mentone, Alabama.

Blueberry and chestnut leather toiletry bags stamped MUSICAL MOUNTAIN SPRING for the On the Brow collection of Mentone, Alabama.

And finally, the way everyone arrives. Highway 117 climbs the mountain in switchbacks, so we bent the road the same way – pines in the hairpins, the overlook at the top – and gave it the whole base of the golden tan catchall tray. It is where the keys land once the drive is done.

The winding HIGHWAY 117 stamp design from the On the Brow leather collection of Mentone, Alabama.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped HIGHWAY 117 for the On the Brow collection of Mentone, Alabama.

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.