The Long Way – a Seligman, Arizona leather collection

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

An August study.

Seligman, Arizona sits at 5,256 feet in the high desert, at the head of the longest unbroken run of the old two-lane highway – about 160 miles of it, rolling west toward Topock. For the travelers who drive that road on purpose, we designed a small leather collection and named it The Long Way.

First, the mark the collection is named for. Two lanes run straight into a rising sun, and THE LONG WAY stands in the sky above it – for everyone who had a faster option and took this road anyway.

The Long Way road and rising-sun stamp design for the Seligman, Arizona leather collection.

We pressed it on luggage tags in pale sea-blue like the town's sun-faded storefronts and in honeyed russet like the high-desert grass, with a black tag standing between them. The black tag carries the stamp in gold – headlights on night asphalt.

Three leather luggage tags in pale blue, honeyed tan and black stamped for The Long Way collection of Seligman, Arizona.

The same mark rides the toiletry bags, honeyed russet over deep espresso brown, and the golden tan catchall tray where the keys land at the end of a driving day. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with The Long Way road design from the Seligman, Arizona collection.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with The Long Way road and sunrise design for Seligman.

Next, the keychains. A key fob collects mileage, so we gave it the instrument that counts it – an odometer rolling past 160, the unbroken miles of two-lane this town keeps open, above the words NO INTERSTATE.

The 00160-mile odometer stamp design from The Long Way Seligman leather collection.

One fob in golden tan, one in black. The black fob takes the numerals in gold, like a dash light at night.

Tan and black leather keychains stamped with the 00160-mile odometer design from The Long Way collection.

Then the passport covers, because so many of the road's travelers cross an ocean to reach it. The town has no border post, so we drew the entry stamp ourselves – SELIGMAN ARIZONA around the ring, and at its heart the collection's two lanes running into the sun.

A Seligman elevation entry-cachet stamp design from The Long Way leather collection.

Pressed on navy and on deep wine, the two colors passports come in.

Navy and wine leather passport covers stamped with the Seligman entry cachet from The Long Way collection.

And finally, the journals, and the one we like the most. THE ROAD CAME BACK, written over a highway centerline that breaks and then resumes – the dashes stop at 1978 and pick up again at 1987, with ten quiet years between. A journal keeps the quiet stretches too.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Road Came Back stamp design with 1978 and 1987 from The Long Way Seligman leather collection.

One journal in warm gray, like sun-faded asphalt, and one in warm desert tan.

Gray and caramel leather journals stamped with The Road Came Back design from The Long Way collection of Seligman.

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're the shop these were made for and you'd like them made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.