The Button City Collection – Easthampton, Massachusetts, in leather

An August study.

A small collection for Easthampton, Massachusetts – five designs drawn from the pond, the ridge, the rails and the button mills, then pressed into leather as luggage tags, keychains, journals and the rest. We call it the Button City Collection.

First, the view the town keeps for itself: Mount Tom's long ridge standing over Nashawannuck Pond. We drew the ridge as one unbroken line and let the water repeat it in ripples, with NASHAWANNUCK set on the waterline. It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags – pale sea-blue for the water, deep green for the ridge. The black tag carries the gold.

Black-and-white pond and ridge stamp art from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Blue, green, and black leather luggage tags stamped with Nashawannuck Pond and Mount Tom from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Next, the namesake. Easthampton made buttons before it made almost anything else, so we struck a four-hole button, thread still crossed, ringed by BUTTON CITY and EASTHAMPTON. It sits in the corner of the toiletry bags, warm gray over dark espresso. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white Button City stamp art from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Gray and espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with the Button City design from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Then the Manhan Rail Trail, for the keys that ride along. The rails climb the fob, bend together and leaf out into a single branch – the line the trains left to the walkers. One fob in deep green for the woods, one in warm tan for the path.

Black-and-white Manhan Rail Trail stamp art from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Green and tan leather keychains stamped with the Manhan Rail Trail design from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

After that, the journals. A journal keeps a printer's arithmetic simple: whatever is written in it exists in a single pull. So the front panel takes a registration mark over AN EDITION OF ONE, low in the corner – one journal black as ink, the other a pale greige, like paper.

Black-and-white Edition of One stamp art from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Black and pale leather journals stamped An Edition of One from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A catchall is the household's mill pond – whatever the day carried ends up in it. A button drops dead center and the ripples widen, with EVERYTHING ENDS UP IN THE POND ringing the rim of the golden tan tray. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white mill pond stamp art from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the mill pond design from the Button City Collection of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

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