The Springdale Almanac – a leather collection for Springdale, Arkansas

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

An August study.

Springdale, Arkansas keeps a creek running through the middle of town and a working main street one block over. We drew four stamps for that town and pressed them into leather. The set is called The Springdale Almanac.

First, the evening entry. We hung a swag of round bulbs between two street lamps and wrote the whole invitation beneath it – MEET ME ON EMMA, four words for the avenue where downtown Springdale gathers.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

The MEET ME ON EMMA streetlamp die artwork from The Springdale Almanac leather collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

The design runs lengthwise across the luggage tags. Two of them wear the avenue's own colors, a deep park green and a honeyed brick russet; the third stays pale warm greige.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with MEET ME ON EMMA from The Springdale Almanac collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

The same die lands at the center of the golden tan catchall tray – the bowl by the door where the keys wait until somebody says it out loud.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with MEET ME ON EMMA from The Springdale Almanac collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

Next, the through-line. Spring Creek bends where it pleases and the trail follows, so we drew the meander with its footbridge and set FOLLOW THE CREEK over the water.

The FOLLOW THE CREEK bridge die artwork from The Springdale Almanac leather collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

It went onto the keychains, keys being the one thing that always finds its way back home. One fob is pale sea-blue for the water, the other warm tan for the bank.

Two leather keychains stamped with FOLLOW THE CREEK from The Springdale Almanac collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

Then, the morning entry. Food work in Springdale gets up before the rest of the state, so we drew a rooster mid-crow and gave him the line he has been shouting all along – UP WITH THE BIRDS.

The UP WITH THE BIRDS rooster die artwork from The Springdale Almanac leather collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

He is pressed into the corner of the toiletry bags, warm tan stacked over deep espresso – the one bag in the house that actually sees his hour.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with UP WITH THE BIRDS from The Springdale Almanac collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

And finally, the entry that gets inherited. Ozark quilts travel down through families block by pieced block, and the Shiloh Museum still gives them a fair every year. We pieced a sawtooth star of our own and set HANDED DOWN beneath it.

The HANDED DOWN quilt-block die artwork from The Springdale Almanac leather collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

It belongs on the journals, a journal being a quilt made of days. One cover is calico navy, the other a pale muslin greige. Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather journals stamped with HANDED DOWN from The Springdale Almanac collection of Springdale, Arkansas.

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