The Wheelwright's Town – leather studies of Raymond, Washington
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
A September study – Volume I-C.
Raymond, Washington calls itself Raymond on the Willapa – a mill town that began on stilts over the tideflats and now keeps more than sixty horse-drawn carriages in careful restoration. We spent September pressing that world into leather, onto luggage tags and keychains, journals and a catchall tray. The collection is called The Wheelwright's Town.
First, we drew a carriage wheel entire and ran the town's own name for itself around the tire: RAYMOND ON THE WILLAPA.
It looks genuinely beautiful pressed at full size into the golden tan of the tray. On the luggage tag it goes navy; the keychain wears sangria, the deep wine the old wheels were painted.
Next, the wicker phaeton, drawn in profile with its big wheel behind, its small wheel ahead and its shafts still waiting for the horse – over the words BUILT BY HAND and DRAWN BY HORSE.
The black tag carries the gold.
On the toiletry bag it presses small into the corner – caramel over sicilian brown, carriage wood over harness leather.
Then, the founding fact. Raymond's first streets stood on pilings over the tideflats, wooden sidewalks and all, so we set the storefronts back up on their posts above the waterline – A TOWN ON STILTS, RAYMOND 1907.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather. Caramel carries the boardwalk register and forest green the riverbanks; the journal wears gray sand, the exact color of a tideflat at low water.
And finally, the one for the workbench. A wheel half-built, every spoke fitted and the last felloes still to come, above GOOD WORK TAKES TIME – a cover for anyone restoring anything.
We pressed it into dark espresso, the color of an old tool chest.
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.
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