The Town That Glass Built – a Sandwich, Massachusetts leather collection

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world logos.

An August study.

Sandwich, Massachusetts has stood at the head of Cape Cod since 1637, the oldest town on the Cape. We pressed five of its places into leather and named the small collection after the town's own boast: The Town That Glass Built.

First, the Boardwalk. It crosses the salt marsh to Cape Cod Bay, so we sent it up the luggage tag the same way – planks underfoot, and the bay waiting at the top under the word SANDWICH.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the Sandwich Boardwalk design, from The Town That Glass Built collection of Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Next, we forged a key – the key to the oldest town on Cape Cod, dated 1639. Looks great when stamped onto the leather. The black fob carries it in gold; the golden tan fob takes it blind.

Black and golden tan leather keychains stamped with a 1639 antique key design, from The Town That Glass Built collection of Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Then the Cape Cod Canal, which has kept Sandwich at sea level since 1914. A bridge over the current with a small ship passing beneath, stamped into the corner of the toiletry bags – navy over espresso brown.

Navy and deep brown leather toiletry bags stamped with the Cape Cod Canal design, from The Town That Glass Built collection of Sandwich, Massachusetts.

The catchall tray wanted to be Sandwich glass. We drew a lacy pressed dish, a rosette at its center and THE TOWN THAT GLASS BUILT around the rim, and pressed it into the golden tan leather – pressing being the one trade a stamp and the old glassworks share. It looks genuinely beautiful.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped like a lacy Sandwich glass dish, from The Town That Glass Built collection of Sandwich, Massachusetts.

And finally, the journals. Seen from above, a marsh creek wanders the way handwriting does, so the cover corner carries one creek written in cursive with the line THE MARSH WRITES IN CREEKS – one journal in deep green, one in pale greige.

Deep green and pale greige leather journals stamped with a salt-marsh creek design, from The Town That Glass Built collection of Sandwich, 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 these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.