The Return – a Hinckley, Ohio leather collection

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

An August study.

Hinckley, Ohio is the town where spring has an official spotter: every March fifteenth the turkey vultures come back to the ledges above Hinckley Reservation, and the year turns on it. We designed a small leather collection around that promise, from luggage tags to journals, and named it The Return.

First, the bird. We drew a turkey vulture banking over its thermal, wings in that shallow V the whole town scans the sky for, and set the date beneath – a calendar you can hold.

The Return turkey vulture and March Fifteenth stamp design for a Hinckley, Ohio leather collection.

On the luggage tags the design does honest work, because a tag's one job is the return. We pressed it into deep pine green and warm stone gray. The black tag carries the stamp in gold.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with The Return turkey vulture design from Hinckley, Ohio.

The keychains take the same bird, one in golden tan and one in black with the gold. Keychains with the buzzard look just awesome.

Two leather keychains stamped with The Return turkey vulture design from Hinckley, Ohio.

Then, the ledges. Whipp's Ledges have stood over the lake for two hundred fifty million years; we stacked their strata into a small plinth and let a seedling break ground on top. OLDER THAN SPRING, it says underneath, because it is.

The Older Than Spring seedling and ledges stamp design for a Hinckley, Ohio leather collection.

A journal makes the same bet as the stone – down at Worden's Ledges, faces carved into the rock in the 1940s are still looking out of it. We pressed the corner of one journal in pale warm greige and one in deep green. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather journals stamped with the Older Than Spring ledges design from Hinckley, Ohio.

The toiletry bags were born for this one – the stack is strata already, honeyed russet over deep espresso.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with the Older Than Spring ledges design from Hinckley, Ohio.

And finally, the lake. Ninety acres of quiet, drawn as one raindrop's rings.

The Ninety Rings lake stamp design for The Return leather collection of Hinckley, Ohio.

On the golden tan tray it sits by the door and gathers the day's own small returns, keys and pocket change. It looks absolutely gorgeous pressed at full size.

A leather catchall tray stamped with Ninety Rings from The Return collection of Hinckley, Ohio.

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.