The Town Called Leather – a Cuero, Texas leather collection

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

A September study – Waterfall Volume I-B.

For Cuero, Texas.

Cuero is the Spanish word for hide, for leather – the town is named for the material we work in. That felt like an invitation, so we made The Town Called Leather: five original stamps for five things made of it.

First, the design the collection is named for. We set the town's name like a dictionary headword – CUERO over a thin rule, SPANISH FOR LEATHER beneath – and pressed the word into the material it means. In the lower corner of a journal cover, the book defines its own binding.

Black-and-white stamp artwork for the Spanish for leather design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

It looks genuinely beautiful – once on warm tan, once on deep wine.

A warm tan leather journal stamped with the Spanish for leather design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

A deep wine leather journal stamped with the Spanish for leather design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

Next, the departure. On April 1, 1866, a herd walked off Cardwell's Flat near Cuero and turned north, years before the trail had a famous name. A luggage tag is the one piece of leather that still leaves town for a living, so it carries GONE TO KANSAS over the date, with a longhorn stepping off the edge and his hoofprints trailing the whole width behind him.

Black-and-white stamp artwork for the Gone to Kansas design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – here on warm tan and on deep brown. The black tag carries the words in gold.

A warm tan leather luggage tag stamped with the Gone to Kansas design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

A deep brown leather luggage tag stamped with the Gone to Kansas design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Gone to Kansas design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

Then the other famous drive. Since 1912 Cuero has trotted turkeys down its own main street, and it calls itself the Turkey Capital of the World with a straight face it has earned. The keychain gets a tom in full strut under TURKEY TROT, the year at his feet.

Black-and-white stamp artwork for the Turkey Trot design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

The strutting tom on warm red might be our favorite small thing in the study; golden tan suits him too.

A warm red leather keychain stamped with the Turkey Trot design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

A golden tan leather keychain stamped with the Turkey Trot design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

Then we drew a Texas spur and let the Lone Star do the spinning – the rowel is the star. On the toiletry bags it sits small in the lower corner, the way a spur sits low on a boot, with CUERO TEXAS in small capitals underneath. The stack is warm tan over chestnut, straight out of the tack room.

Black-and-white stamp artwork for the Texas spur design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

Two brown leather toiletry bags stamped with the Texas spur design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

And finally, the homecoming. Every drive ends somewhere, and most days it ends on a dresser – so the golden tan tray closes a coiled lariat around END OF THE TRAIL, and keys and pocket change bed down inside the loop.

Black-and-white stamp artwork for the End of the Trail design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

It came out just right.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the End of the Trail design from The Town Called Leather collection of Cuero, Texas.

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.