The Valley Keeps the Weather – a North Conway leather stamping study

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world logos.

An August study.

This one is for North Conway. Five original stamps for the Mount Washington Valley, pressed into leather from luggage tags to a catchall tray. We call the set THE VALLEY KEEPS THE WEATHER.

First, we printed the valley a railroad ticket. NORTH CONWAY is set in station lettering, and the conductor's punch marks climb across the ticket in the shape of the Presidential ridgeline – the tallest punch is Mount Washington. Along the bottom it reads GOOD FOR ONE RETURN, because everyone comes back.

The black tag takes the ticket in gold foil; the red and the caramel take a blind press.

The punched railroad ticket stamp design from The Valley Keeps the Weather leather collection of North Conway.

Black, poppy red, and caramel leather luggage tags stamped as North Conway railroad tickets in The Valley Keeps the Weather collection.

Next, a medallion for the home of the world's worst weather. Mount Washington wears its cloud cap while two wind barbs stream off the summit – the forecaster's own shorthand for a gale. It sits small in the corner of the toiletry bags, granite gray over dark espresso.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The cloud-capped Mount Washington stamp design from The Valley Keeps the Weather leather collection of North Conway.

Country gray and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with Mount Washington weather medallions in The Valley Keeps the Weather collection.

Then, the Skimobile. For half a century little cars climbed Cranmore in single file, so we set four of them on the trestle and wrote the moral underneath – ONE CAR AT A TIME. Keychains in poppy red and gray sand: a red car over snow.

The Cranmore Skimobile stamp design from The Valley Keeps the Weather leather collection of North Conway.

Poppy red and gray sand leather keychains stamped with the Skimobile in The Valley Keeps the Weather collection of North Conway.

After that, the Saco. The river makes its slow bend through the intervale under a ridge holding one cap of cloud, and beneath it all runs a line of type: THE VALLEY KEEPS THE WEATHER. The mountains make the weather; the valley remembers it. We pressed the plate at generous size into the golden tan catchall tray – the dish where a day outside gets emptied out at night.

The Saco River and mountain ridge stamp design from The Valley Keeps the Weather leather collection of North Conway.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Saco River valley in The Valley Keeps the Weather collection of North Conway.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Cathedral Ledge and White Horse Ledge face each other across the Saco like a pair of granite bookends – and a journal is what happens between bookends. On forest green and on country gray: spruce and granite.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Cathedral Ledge and White Horse Ledge stamp design from The Valley Keeps the Weather leather collection of North Conway.

Forest green and country gray leather journals stamped with the ledges in The Valley Keeps the Weather collection of North Conway.

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 the valley in these pages is yours and you'd like any of it made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.