Stay a While – a leather collection for Bowling Green, Ohio
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world logos.
An August study.
This one is for Bowling Green, Ohio. We designed a small leather collection for the town and the flat Wood County country around it, from luggage tags to journals, and we call it Stay a While.
First, the title piece. A rule-straight horizon with a lone farmhouse breaking it, and STAY A WHILE set across all that sky. We put it on the luggage tags on purpose – the object built for leaving now carries the flat country's standing invitation.
It looks genuinely beautiful. The wheat gets its golden tan tag; the barns and the fields get warm red and deep green.
Next, the land under the town. All of this was the Great Black Swamp once, until the water was led away and the wild lines were combed straight. On the die, reeds and ripples run above the band and ruled rows run below it; the name sits on the band where one becomes the other.
A journal does the same work, giving lines to whatever arrives unruly – so the stamp sits in the corner of the cover, on deep espresso brown like the famous black soil and on deep green like the reeds.
The same die goes full size across the catchall tray, in golden tan. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
Then, a sheaf of Wood County wheat, tied at the waist with string and a small bow – because around here the harvest is the gift. It sits low in the corner of the toiletry bags, honeyed russet over deep espresso brown, ripe fields over black ground.
And finally, HOMEWARD – a small bird gliding down onto a gabled roof. We pressed it on the keychains, since keys are how every trip ends. One fob in warm tan, one in warm red.
Keychains with the HOMEWARD stamp look just awesome.
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.