The Needles – a leather collection from the Black Hills' granite spires and climbing culture (Volume I-A)

Volume I-A – a September study.

In the granite heart of the Black Hills, above Custer, South Dakota, stand the Needles – hundreds of narrow stone spires set so close together that the park's own trail guide compares them to cathedral organ pipes. Climbers have been finding their way up them for generations. The Needles is a small leather collection about that rock and the people who climb it.

First, the place itself. We drew the Cathedral Spires the way the trail guide describes them – granite organ pipes above a hidden valley – and pressed them, name and all, into the center of the golden tan catchall tray, where keys and chalk land at the end of the day.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

Black-and-white Cathedral Spires stamp artwork for The Needles leather collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

An Arizona-tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with Cathedral Spires for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

Next, the luggage tags. We cut the spire country's skyline into a long tooth-line with the sun just clearing it, and set EARLY START in the sky – because in the Black Hills the good days begin in the dark, and the afternoon thunderstorms belong to somebody else. The tags come in warm tan caramel and deep forest green. The black tag carries the sunrise in gold foil, which seemed only fair.

Black-and-white Early Start skyline stamp artwork for The Needles leather collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Early Start skyline for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Early Start skyline for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Early Start skyline for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

Then the toiletry bags – a warm gray kit stacked on a chestnut one – took a single spire in the corner, a route line running up it to a small climber near the top, and CLIMB ON underneath. It is the call that comes up the rope when everything is ready, and it is roughly what a packed kit says on the morning you leave.

Black-and-white Climb On spire stamp artwork for The Needles leather collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

Country-gray and Sicilian-brown leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with Climb On for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

For the keychains we drew the locking carabiner – the one piece of gear that keeps a climber attached to everything that matters – and set CLIPPED IN beneath it. Keys clip in; on a good day, so does the climber. One fob in rope red, one in deep espresso brown.

Black-and-white Clipped In carabiner stamp artwork for The Needles leather collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A poppy-red leather keychain blind-stamped with Clipped In for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A dark-espresso leather keychain blind-stamped with Clipped In for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

And finally, the one we liked the most. The Needles hold nearly five hundred pinnacles, and their climbing tradition is the bold exploratory lead – so the journal cover carries a dotted route line wandering up a spire to a summit X, with FIRST ASCENT beneath. Every blank page is one. In deep forest green and warm tan caramel.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white First Ascent route stamp artwork for The Needles leather collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A forest-green leather journal blind-stamped with First Ascent for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

A caramel leather journal blind-stamped with First Ascent for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

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

P.S.

An alternate black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Early Start skyline for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

An alternate caramel leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Early Start skyline for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.

An alternate forest-green leather luggage tag blind-stamped with the Early Start skyline for The Needles collection from the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota.