Railhead & Range – a Battle Mountain, Nevada leather collection

Railhead & Range – Volume I-A. A September study.

Battle Mountain grew where the railhead met the range – a supply town on Interstate 80 between Reno and Elko, mines on one side of the ledger and ranches on the other. Railhead & Range is a small leather collection cut from that country: five designs, one for each object.

First, we drew Interstate 80 as one long line – RENO at one end, ELKO at the other – and set a mountain on the line where Battle Mountain stands. It runs lengthwise along the luggage tag, the way a road runs.

Golden tan and honeyed russet take the blind press. The black tag carries the line in gold – the metal this ground is dug for.

Black-and-white Interstate 80 railhead and mountain die artwork for Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Arizona leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Battle Mountain route design from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Indian Summer leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Battle Mountain route design from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Battle Mountain route design from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Next, the keychains. We drove a claim stake and set one word beneath it – CLAIMED. A key does for a truck or a front door what the stake does for ground.

On the black fob the word goes down in gold. A gold claim, properly.

Black-and-white claim-stake and CLAIMED die artwork for Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Sicilian Brown leather keychain blind-stamped with the CLAIMED stake from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Black leather keychain gold-stamped with the CLAIMED stake from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Then the journals became tally books – four strokes and a fifth across, the count a shirt pocket keeps while the herd files past. TALLY BOOK sits small in the lower right corner.

Black-and-white five-stroke TALLY BOOK die artwork for Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Sicilian Brown leather journal blind-stamped with the TALLY BOOK mark from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Country Gray leather journal blind-stamped with the TALLY BOOK mark from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

After the journals, Black Bridge – the old steel truss drawn from photographs into open latticework, pressed in the corner of the toiletry bags. The honeyed russet leather sits close to the bridge's own rusted paint; deep espresso is its evening shade.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white Black Bridge truss die artwork for Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Individual Indian Summer leather dopp kit blind-stamped with Black Bridge artwork from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Individual Dark Espresso leather dopp kit blind-stamped with Black Bridge artwork from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A saddle bronc mid-buck against the bare folds of the range, ringed like a medallion, BATTLE MOUNTAIN NEVADA along the rim. It lands at a generous size in the middle of the golden tan tray, where pockets empty at the end of the day.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white Battle Mountain bronc medallion die artwork for Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

Arizona leather catchall tray blind-stamped with the Battle Mountain bronc medallion from Railhead & Range, Volume I-A.

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.