Thirteen Miles Out – a Block Island leather collection
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
An August study.
Thirteen Miles Out is a small leather collection rooted in Block Island, Rhode Island – five stamps across five objects, from luggage tags to journals, each pressing a piece of the island into the leather.
First, the crossing. Block Island stands thirteen miles off the mainland, and every island day begins with that water – so we lettered THIRTEEN MILES OUT above one long wake, the mainland letting go at the left edge and the island waiting low at the right, ferry almost home.
It looks genuinely beautiful. It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags, from deep Atlantic navy to pale beach sand; the third tag wears the red the ferries do.
Next, the wall that made the town. Old Harbor exists because islanders sank granite into open ocean until a harbor held – the breakwater went down between 1870 and 1873, and the Victorian waterfront grew up behind it. We drew the wall stone by stone, the storm kept outside and one catboat riding quiet inside, and arched HOLD FAST over the calm.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather – low in the corner of the toiletry bags, granite gray over dark espresso.
Then the boldest line anyone ever drew on this map. Until 1895 the Great Salt Pond was landlocked; one cut through the barrier beach let the sea in, and the pond became New Harbor. We drew it as a chart – land solid black, pond open white, the single man-made slit, moorings dotted where the boats now swing – and set it generous in the golden tan of the catchall tray, where the day's pocket cargo drops anchor each evening.
After that, the island's favorite rescue. When the Mohegan Bluffs eroded toward the Southeast Light, the island moved the lighthouse – the whole brick tower and its keeper's house walked inland to safe ground in 1993. We drew the tower twice, a dashed ghost at the cliff edge and the solid building standing safe, with WE MOVED THE LIGHT beneath. It goes on the keychains. The black fob carries the stamp in gold – it is a light, after all – and the chestnut one presses it blind, brick on brick.
And finally, the half that was never built. Nearly half of Block Island is preserved open space, moor and hollow left to the wind – so we drew one tuft of beach grass bent in a single gust, its longest blade scribing the arc such grass really draws in the sand, and set KEEP HALF WILD beneath the dune.
Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – pressed into the corner of the wrap journals, deep green and warm tan. A journal holds open space the same way, blank pages waiting for weather.
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.