The Inman Hand – an Inman Square, Cambridge leather collection

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

An August study.

This month the subject is a place: Inman Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. We drew a small collection in the language of the letterpress and pressed it into leather goods, from luggage tags to journals. It is called The Inman Hand.

First, the mark that names the collection. Printers kept a little pointing hand in the type case – the manicule – and ours aims straight down Cambridge Street, with the square's name set where the finger points.

The pointing-hand artwork for The Inman Hand leather collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

Two of the tags wear paper and brick – pale greige and warm red. The black tag carries the ink, and it carries the gold.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the pointing-hand design from The Inman Hand collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

Keychains with the little hand look just awesome too. The pair is kraft tan and black, and the black fob carries the gold.

Two leather keychains stamped with the pointing-hand design from The Inman Hand collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

Next, the square itself. Six streets arrive at one offset crossing, so we set the intersection the way a compositor would – as an asterisk, each ray a street, with a small solid square at the center where everything lands. It is pressed at generous size into the golden tan catchall tray, which does for keys and coins what the square does for streets.

The six-street crossing artwork for The Inman Hand leather collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Inman Square crossing from The Inman Hand collection of Cambridge.

Then, a postmark of our own devising. INMAN SQUARE and CAMBRIDGE MASS ring the dial around the zip code, and the killer bars trail off the way they do on a much-handled envelope. We pressed it into the corner of the toiletry bags – granite gray over old-brick chestnut, the square's own materials.

The neighborhood postmark artwork for The Inman Hand leather collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with the neighborhood postmark from The Inman Hand collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

And finally, our favorite. PRESS FIRMLY, set in a ruled box like a line lifted from an old carbon form – the letterpress's whole method in two words, and the stamp takes its own advice going into the leather. The journals come as a pair, writing-ink navy and paper greige.

The Press Firmly artwork for The Inman Hand leather collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather journals stamped Press Firmly for The Inman Hand collection of Inman Square, Cambridge.

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.