The Greenville Line – a leather stamping collection for Greenville, South Carolina

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

An August study.

Volume I-B.

The Greenville Line is a small leather collection rooted in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Every design follows a line the city already walks, and each one is stamped into leather – luggage tags and journals among the pieces.

First, the Swamp Rabbit Trail leaves downtown along an old rail line and ends in a town whose name already reads like a blessing. We set a swamp rabbit at full stretch above the rail and let TO TRAVELERS REST say where every good trip should end.

Black-and-white Swamp Rabbit and rail-line stamp artwork for The Greenville Line leather collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – deep green and warm tan. The black tag carries the rabbit in gold.

A forest-green leather luggage tag stamped TO TRAVELERS REST for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

A warm tan leather luggage tag stamped TO TRAVELERS REST for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped TO TRAVELERS REST for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

The same rabbit rides the lower corner of the toiletry bags, golden tan over deep espresso brown.

Golden tan and deep brown leather toiletry bags stamped TO TRAVELERS REST for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

Next, everything loose downtown ends up at the falls, and everything loose in your pockets ends up in a tray. We drew the Liberty Bridge as one long curve above the Reedy, water dropping away beneath the deck, and arched MEET ME AT THE FALLS over the crossing.

Black-and-white Liberty Bridge and Reedy falls stamp artwork for The Greenville Line leather collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

It looks genuinely beautiful pressed into the golden tan tray.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped MEET ME AT THE FALLS for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

Then, by 1930 sixteen mills wound thread in a crescent around this city. On the journals, one bobbin pays its thread out into the ruled lines of a page – LINE BY LINE, the way thread was wound here and the way anything worth keeping gets written down.

Black-and-white bobbin and ruled-thread stamp artwork for The Greenville Line leather collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

One journal is pale greige, the old textile word for cloth before it meets the dye. The other is deep wine.

A pale greige leather journal stamped LINE BY LINE for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

A deep wine leather journal stamped LINE BY LINE for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

And finally, nine small bronze mice hide along Main Street, and the whole town knows to hunt for them. The thing most of us hunt for daily is our keys, so we made a tenth mouse and set it on the ring.

Black-and-white original mouse stamp artwork for The Greenville Line leather collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

On warm tan it presses as a quiet shadow. The black fob carries the mouse in gold – a small bronze of its own.

A warm tan leather keychain stamped THE TENTH MOUSE for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped THE TENTH MOUSE for The Greenville Line collection of Greenville, South Carolina.

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.