Up Among the Hills – a leather collection for readers in Fayetteville, Arkansas

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

An August study.

Volume I-B.

Up Among the Hills is a small leather collection for readers, rooted in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the shelves and the Ozarks both run deep. Journals and luggage tags lead it, and the rest of the kit follows.

First, the namesake. We laid three books face-down and let them stand for the Boston Mountains – the hills this town sits up among – with UP AMONG THE HILLS beneath the ridge. A face-down book was always a hill; we just finished the thought.

The black-and-white book-hills stamp plate from the UP AMONG THE HILLS leather collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags, in deep forest green and warm caramel. On the black tag the ridge takes the gold.

A forest-green leather luggage tag stamped with the book-hills design from the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A caramel leather luggage tag stamped with the book-hills design from the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the book-hills design from the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Next, the keyring. A dog-eared page that says HOLD MY PLACE – a folded corner keeps your place in a book, and keys keep it in the world.

The black-and-white HOLD MY PLACE stamp plate from the UP AMONG THE HILLS leather collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather, in warm red and forest green.

A warm-red leather keychain stamped HOLD MY PLACE for the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A forest-green leather keychain stamped HOLD MY PLACE for the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Then, the travel kit. We let an open book's ribbon marker slip off the page and wind away like a road into the hills, with READ ON beneath – one instruction the book and the trip can share. It sits low in the corner of the caramel and dark espresso stack.

The black-and-white READ ON book-road stamp plate from the UP AMONG THE HILLS leather collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Caramel and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped READ ON for the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Then the catchall tray, where a day gets emptied out. We drew the room the day empties into – an armchair under a lit lamp, a dog asleep at its foot – and ringed the scene with ONE MORE CHAPTER.

The black-and-white ONE MORE CHAPTER reading-room stamp plate from the UP AMONG THE HILLS leather collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It looks genuinely beautiful pressed into the golden tan.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray stamped ONE MORE CHAPTER for the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

And finally, the journals. The Ozarks told their stories out loud for generations before anyone wrote them down. TELL IT AGAIN puts a singing bird above the words, for every story worth a second telling – and the blank pages underneath finally get to keep it. In deep wine and pale greige, stamped in the lower corner.

The black-and-white TELL IT AGAIN songbird stamp plate from the UP AMONG THE HILLS leather collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A deep-wine leather journal stamped TELL IT AGAIN for the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A pale-greige leather journal stamped TELL IT AGAIN for the UP AMONG THE HILLS collection of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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.