One Working River – a leather collection for Cumberland, Rhode Island

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

An August study.

Cumberland, Rhode Island is a chain of mill villages held together by one working river. We took that for the collection's name – One Working River – and spent August pressing the Blackstone's world into leather, from luggage tags down to a pair of journals.

First, we let the river run the whole length of a luggage tag. Four bends, four villages in the order the water meets them – Albion, Ashton, Lonsdale, Valley Falls – each with a small mill on its bank, and after the last name the line steps down, because at Valley Falls it does.

An original Blackstone River stamping die maps Albion, Ashton, Lonsdale and Valley Falls for the One Working River Cumberland leather collection.

The trio runs navy for the water and deep green for the towpath. The black tag takes the river in gold.

Black, navy and forest green leather luggage tags carry the Blackstone River through four Cumberland mill villages.

Next, the toiletry bags. Ashton still keeps a stone lock on the Blackstone Canal, a chamber built for one job, so we drew it in plan – gates shut, water riding inside – and gave the bags its plain-faced motto: HOLDS WATER.

An original Blackstone Canal lock stamping die carries the words Holds Water for a Cumberland leather study.

The stack is navy over Sicilian brown, water over gate timber.

Navy and warm brown leather toiletry bags are blind debossed with the Blackstone Canal lock design.

Then the keychains. The smallest thing a pocket carries deserved the smallest treasure – a faceted stone under HIDDEN GEM, with CUMBERLAND set beneath, for every find worth passing along.

An original faceted Hidden Gem of Cumberland stamping die forms a small jeweler-like mark.

One fob comes in soft blush. The black fob carries the gem in gold.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black and blush leather keychains carry the Hidden Gem of Cumberland in gold foil and blind deboss.

After that, the catchall tray, which lives by the day's last ritual – pockets emptied, keys down. It wears a tall mill window with END OF SHIFT beneath the sill, and in one lower pane a small key already rests.

An original arched mill-window stamping die hides a small key above the words End of Shift.

Pressed into the golden tan tray, it looks absolutely gorgeous.

A golden tan leather catchall tray is blind debossed with a Cumberland mill window and End of Shift design.

And finally, the journals. Text and textile come down from the same Latin verb, texere, to weave; Cumberland's cotton mills knew the kinship in their hands. So a shuttle crosses ruled lines that read as warp and as page at once, TEXT & TEXTILE beneath, and the thread it trails runs back into the top rule.

An original weaving-shuttle stamping die crosses ruled lines above the words Text and Textile.

One journal comes in pale warm greige, close to loom-state cotton; the other in honeyed russet.

Pale greige and honeyed russet leather journals carry a woven Text and Textile shuttle 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 these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.