The Yorks × Leatherius Woodman – a leather collection for York, Maine

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

An August study.

York, Maine is one town wearing four names, and its lighthouse is small enough that locals call it the Nubble. We drew a leather collection for that coast and named it The Yorks.

First, the beam. The Nubble's light was first lit in 1879 and reaches thirteen nautical miles; a luggage tag travels farther and is expected back. So we set the words inside the light, growing as the beam opens, and let the lighthouse do the pointing home.

The 13 NAUTICAL MILES lighthouse-beam stamp design for The Yorks leather collection of York, Maine.

On the tags the design runs the long way, in Atlantic navy and in pale sand greige. The black tag carries the beam in gold.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the Nubble lighthouse beam, from The Yorks collection of York, Maine.

Next, the four names. York Village, York Harbor, York Beach and Cape Neddick share one town line, so we set them like an old broadside beneath a compass star. The plate presses into the corner of the toiletry bags, navy over dark espresso – sea over rock.

The four-community Yorks broadside stamp design for The Yorks leather collection of York, Maine.

Navy and espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with York's four communities, from The Yorks collection of York, Maine.

Then the two beaches, explained entirely by the length of a line. LONG SANDS runs the full width of the fob; SHORT SANDS stops early. One keychain in pale sea-blue for the water, one in sand greige for the beach.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The LONG SANDS and SHORT SANDS wave-line stamp design for The Yorks leather collection of York, Maine.

Sea-blue and pale sand leather keychains stamped LONG SANDS and SHORT SANDS, from The Yorks collection of York, Maine.

For the tray, a tide pool. A catchall does every evening what a tide pool does twice a day, so we rimmed the base with one and let a house key wash in among the periwinkles and the starfish. The words admit it: LEFT BY THE TIDE. Golden tan, an hour before supper on Long Sands.

The LEFT BY THE TIDE pool stamp design for The Yorks leather collection of York, Maine.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with a tide pool and LEFT BY THE TIDE, from The Yorks collection of York, Maine.

And finally, for the recipes. A sprig of lowbush blueberry, each berry wearing its five-pointed crown, above the words FROM SCRATCH. We pressed it into the corner of two journals, one in wild-blueberry navy and one in deep jam wine.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The wild blueberry FROM SCRATCH stamp design for The Yorks leather collection of York, Maine.

Navy and deep wine leather journals stamped with wild blueberries and FROM SCRATCH, from The Yorks collection of York, Maine.

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