The Seven Thousand – a Flagstaff, Arizona leather collection

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

An August study.

Flagstaff sits at seven thousand feet, under the first night sky any city agreed to keep dark. We pressed the place into leather, from luggage tags to journals, and named the collection The Seven Thousand.

First, the benchmark. When surveyors prove an elevation they set a brass disk in the rock, so we cut one for the city – FLAGSTAFF ARIZONA and ELEVATION 7000 FEET around the rim, the station triangle at the center. It rides the keychains in golden tan and warm gray, the brass and the stone it is set into, and sits at generous size in the golden tan catchall tray – a fixed point to empty your pockets onto.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white benchmark stamp art for The Seven Thousand leather collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Golden tan and warm gray leather keychains stamped with the elevation benchmark from The Seven Thousand collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the elevation benchmark from The Seven Thousand collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Next, the sky. In 1930, on a hill above town, a faint dot moved between two photographs of the same stars – Pluto, found from Flagstaff. We drew the star chart with a finder's reticle around one modest star, and under the field it says so plainly: PLUTO WAS FOUND FROM HERE. The tags run navy and golden tan, the hour before full dark and the amber of the town's dark-sky lamps.

The black tag carries the stars in gold. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white Pluto star-chart stamp art for The Seven Thousand leather collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Black, navy and golden tan leather luggage tags stamped with Pluto's sky from The Seven Thousand collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Then, the name. Before the town had one, somebody stripped a ponderosa pine to a bare pole and flew a flag from it – the flagstaff the city is called after. We drew the pole with its branch stubs and its pennant still flying, and pressed it into the corner of the toiletry bags, honeyed russet over dark espresso, the two tones of ponderosa bark – russet plates split by dark furrows.

Black-and-white flagstaff naming-story stamp art for The Seven Thousand leather collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Honeyed russet and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with the flagstaff naming story from The Seven Thousand collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

And finally, deep time. The plateau has been keeping a journal for the better part of two billion years, one stratum per entry, and a canyon is where it lets you read. So the journals carry a stratigraphic block with a canyon stepped down through it, and DEEP TIME beneath – one cover in deep wine for the redrock, one in pale greige for the limestone.

Black-and-white deep-time strata stamp art for The Seven Thousand leather collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Deep wine and pale greige leather journals stamped with canyon strata from The Seven Thousand collection of Flagstaff, Arizona.

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