The Oxbow Collection – a Northampton, Massachusetts leather study

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

An August study.

Northampton has answered to Paradise City for the better part of two centuries, and the Connecticut River has been taking the long way around it for longer still. This month we pressed the valley into leather – luggage tags and journals, among other things – and called it the Oxbow Collection.

First, the river. Just south of town the Connecticut very nearly meets itself, in the bend Thomas Cole painted in 1836. We drew that loop as one continuous line and set THE LONG WAY AROUND beneath it – a fair motto for anyone's luggage. The water wears pale sea-blue; the painting's two halves, wild and tilled, wear deep forest green and warm caramel tan.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Long Way Around river-bend die from the Oxbow Collection, a Northampton, Massachusetts leather study.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with The Long Way Around river bend, from the Oxbow Collection of Northampton, Massachusetts.

Next, the nickname. A touring Swedish soprano looked around and called the place paradise, and Northampton has kept the title ever since. So the keychains carry a wrought garden gate standing slightly ajar, with KEYS TO PARADISE arched beneath – which is, more or less literally, what a Northampton key ring holds.

The black fob takes the words in gold; the poppy red one presses them blind.

The Keys to Paradise gate die from the Oxbow Collection, a Northampton, Massachusetts leather study.

Black and poppy-red leather keychains stamped Keys to Paradise, from the Oxbow Collection of Northampton, Massachusetts.

Then, autumn. Every October a maple leaf goes between the pages of some book in this valley and stays there for years. We put a pressed sugar maple in the journal's lower corner with PRESSED AND KEPT beneath it – the cover admitting what the pages are for. One journal in honeyed russet, the other in deep forest green.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The Pressed and Kept maple-leaf die from the Oxbow Collection, a Northampton, Massachusetts leather study.

Honeyed-russet and forest-green leather journals stamped Pressed and Kept, from the Oxbow Collection of Northampton, Massachusetts.

For the dopp kits we cut a seal of the whole valley: the Holyoke Range across the middle and the river's loop beneath it, with PIONEER VALLEY arched over the top and NORTHAMPTON closing the ring. The stack runs navy over chestnut – river over valley soil.

The Pioneer Valley and Northampton roundel die from the Oxbow Collection leather study.

A navy leather dopp kit stamped with the Pioneer Valley roundel above a chestnut bag, from the Oxbow Collection of Northampton, Massachusetts.

And finally, the catchall, in golden tan. Long before the galleries, the mills on the Mill River cut buttons and spun silk, and every pocket in the county carried their work. So the tray's ring is an emptied pocket – buttons of every size and spools of thread, one house key among them – circling THE END OF THE DAY, which is exactly when a catchall earns its keep.

The End of the Day buttons, spools and key die from the Oxbow Collection leather study.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray stamped The End of the Day, from the Oxbow Collection of Northampton, Massachusetts.

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