MILL STREET – a Reno leather stamping study

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

An August study.

For Reno. MILL STREET is a leather collection named for the street where an old laundry became a home for art – five original stamps, pressed into the everyday carry.

First, HANG IT HERE. When artists took over the old Mill Street laundry in the sixties, they hung their first shows from bent shirt hangers – so we drew the hanger doing what it learned to do there, carrying a small framed view of the Sierra. It went onto the luggage tags, the one piece of leather that spends its whole life hanging.

Black-and-white HANG IT HERE stamp artwork from the MILL STREET leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

The black tag takes the design in gold foil; the pale warm greige and chestnut tags take a blind press.

Three leather luggage tags carry the HANG IT HERE design from the MILL STREET collection of Reno, Nevada.

Next, FIRST RUN. Mill Street lore says the laundry ran Reno's first Model A delivery truck. A truck should live near its keys, so this one rides the keychains, in golden tan and true black.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white FIRST RUN delivery truck stamp artwork from the MILL STREET leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

Golden-tan and black leather keychains carry the FIRST RUN design from the MILL STREET collection of Reno, Nevada.

Then, MADE TO WORK. The laundry's machines ran on flat leather belts spun from an overhead reel – leather was earning its keep in that building a century ago. We drew the crossed belt with its two wheels still turning, and set the stamp low in the corner of each bag, on a stack of honeyed russet over deep espresso brown.

Black-and-white MADE TO WORK belt-drive stamp artwork from the MILL STREET leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

Two leather toiletry bags carry the MADE TO WORK belt-drive design from the MILL STREET collection of Reno, Nevada.

After that, the wide view. Historians call everyday Reno the tough little town on the Truckee, so we ringed those words around a medallion of the river bending through the meadows under the Sierra. It sits at full size in the base of the golden tan catchall tray – the place where the day's pockets empty out.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white TOUGH LITTLE TOWN river roundel from the MILL STREET leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray carries the TOUGH LITTLE TOWN design from the MILL STREET collection of Reno, Nevada.

And finally, the one we liked the most. SHOW YOUR WORK – an empty frame hanging from its nail and wire, holding only the words until you supply the rest. On a journal, the blank page is the wall space. The duo comes in pale warm greige and deep wine.

Black-and-white SHOW YOUR WORK hanging-frame stamp artwork from the MILL STREET leather collection of Reno, Nevada.

Pale greige and deep-wine leather journals carry the SHOW YOUR WORK design from the MILL STREET collection of Reno, Nevada.

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're in Reno and you'd like MILL STREET made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.