The Peaceful Side – a leather collection for Maryville, Tennessee

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

An August study.

The Peaceful Side is an original leather collection for Maryville, Tennessee – five stamps drawn from the town's everyday landmarks and the mountains that stand past them.

First, the luggage tags. The county's first library stood in downtown Maryville behind white columns, and every book it lent went out with a ruled card promising a return. We pressed that promise onto the object most likely to need it – a lending card for the bag, first stamped 1795, the year the town began.

The Return to Maryville lending-card stamp artwork for The Peaceful Side leather collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

Pressed on forest green and caramel. The black tag carries the gold.

Forest green, black and caramel leather luggage tags stamped Return to Maryville for The Peaceful Side collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

Next, we sent Pistol Creek through the toiletry bags. The creek threads the whole town along the Greenbelt, and a wash bag is the one leather good built for water. The footbridge crosses in the corner, and the name splits the way the creek splits downtown – PISTOL on one bank, CREEK on the other. The stack runs navy over dark espresso, river over bank.

The Pistol Creek bridge stamp artwork for The Peaceful Side leather collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

Navy and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with Pistol Creek for The Peaceful Side collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

Then the keychains. From almost anywhere in town, Chilhowee Mountain shows three rounded summits in a row – the Three Sisters. We set the ridge on the fob, small enough to ride a pocket, with one fob in forest green and one in pale sea-blue, the color the foothills turn by late afternoon.

The Three Sisters ridgeline stamp artwork for The Peaceful Side leather collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

Keychains with the Three Sisters stamp look just awesome.

Pale sea-blue and forest green leather keychains stamped with the Three Sisters for The Peaceful Side collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

A trip over the mountain starts on paper, so the journals carry the phrase itself – OVER THE MOUNTAIN arched clear of the summit, with a dotted trail carrying on where the words land. Around here it is shorthand for everything past the ridge. One journal in deep wine, one in pale gray sand.

The Over the Mountain trail stamp artwork for The Peaceful Side leather collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

Deep wine and pale gray-sand leather journals stamped Over the Mountain for The Peaceful Side collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

And finally, the one that names the collection. This side of the Smokies calls itself the Peaceful Side, and a catchall tray is where a day on it comes to rest – keys and pocket change settling under four ridgelines of receding haze, pressed deep into the golden tan tray.

The layered Smoky foothills stamp artwork that names The Peaceful Side leather collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with layered ridges for The Peaceful Side collection of Maryville, Tennessee.

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.