The Trailhead × Leatherius Woodman – a Billings, Montana leather collection

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

An August study.

Billings is the town where the prairie runs up against the sandstone Rims and the Yellowstone bends past the cottonwoods on its way east. We spent August pressing that country into leather, in miniature, for the smallest people who live under it – a collection we call The Trailhead.

First, the signpost. Billings calls itself Montana's Trailhead, so we planted one and gave it a meadowlark to sit on. Two of its arrows point toward the Rims and the river. The third points home.

The Trailhead signpost stamp points to the Rims, the river and home for a Billings, Montana leather collection.

It stands upright on luggage tags in golden tan and deep green, with a pale rose one for the littlest suitcase. It looks genuinely beautiful.

Three leather luggage tags carry The Trailhead signpost design from Billings, Montana.

Next, the keychains. BIG SKY above, LITTLE BOOTS below, a moon and a handful of stars in between – because out here even the smallest boots stand under the biggest sky.

The Little Boots stamp places a pair of western boots beneath the Big Sky for The Trailhead collection.

One fob in warm tan boot leather, one in pale sea-blue.

Caramel and blue leather keychains carry the Big Sky Little Boots design from The Trailhead collection.

Then the Yellowstone, the longest undammed river in the lower 48. We bent it into a stamp, put a cottonwood on each bank, and split the words across the water: RUNS FREE.

The Runs Free stamp follows the Yellowstone River between cottonwoods for The Trailhead collection.

Pressed into the corner of a journal – one navy like the deep water, one pale greige like the sandstone it cuts through – it makes a decent promise for the pages inside.

Blueberry and gray-sand leather journals carry the Runs Free river design from Billings, Montana.

And finally, the Rims themselves – the long sandstone edge that holds the city in its lap, with a hawk riding the updraft. We stamped the panorama into the corner of a toiletry bag stacked golden tan over chestnut. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The Rims stamp traces the sandstone edge above Billings for The Trailhead collection.

Two leather toiletry bags carry The Rims panorama from The Trailhead collection.

The same rim runs at full stretch across the base of a golden tan catchall tray, so the day's pocket gravel ends up sleeping under the Rims like everyone else in town.

A golden tan leather catchall tray carries The Rims panorama from Billings, Montana.

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