The Wool & Water Collection – a Guild, New Hampshire leather study

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of independent leather stamping studies. Volume I-A.

An August study.

Guild is a village on the Sugar River in New Hampshire, where the river's steady drop once turned wool into flannel by the mile. We drew five designs for that story – the Wool & Water collection – and pressed them into leather.

First, the line that tells the whole village in one stroke. It enters from the left as the Sugar River and leaves as a row of hooked wool loops – WOOL & WATER above, GUILD, NEW HAMPSHIRE below.

Black-and-white Wool and Water stamp artwork for the Wool and Water leather collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

The navy tag carries the river and the warm red one carries the flannel. The third is pale greige, the color of undyed fleece. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped with the Wool and Water river-and-wool design from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A warm red leather luggage tag stamped with the Wool and Water river-and-wool design from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A pale warm greige leather luggage tag stamped with the Wool and Water river-and-wool design from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

Next, we froze the moment every rug hooker knows in the hand – one loop pulled proud of the backing grid, the hook still holding its crown, above ONE LOOP AT A TIME.

Black-and-white One Loop stamp artwork for the Wool and Water leather collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

Pressed small on deep green and on warm tan, it keeps its patience. Keychains with the one-loop stamp look just awesome.

A forest-green leather keychain stamped with the rug-hooking loop design from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A caramel leather keychain stamped with the rug-hooking loop design from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

Then we sent a shuttle flying. In 1870 the mill on this river was turning out 800,000 yards of flannel a year, so the shuttle trails its weft into an underline and lets the number speak.

Black-and-white flying shuttle stamp artwork for the Wool and Water leather collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

The bag stacks honeyed russet over deep espresso – mill wood over machine oil.

Honeyed russet and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with a flying shuttle from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

Then the catchall tray, which was always going to be a braided rug seen from above – four rounds of braid circling GUILD and 1768, the year the first mill went up on this stretch of water. Whatever your pockets carry home lands on the rug, here in golden tan.

Black-and-white Guild braided-rug stamp artwork for the Wool and Water leather collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with a braided rug from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Sarah Josepha Hale was born one village over, and her lamb has been following people ever since. We hooked ours together out of wool loops, walking above SURE TO GO – the promise a good journal makes.

Black-and-white loop-fleece lamb stamp artwork for the Wool and Water leather collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – once on pale greige, the shade of undyed fleece, and once on deep pine green.

A pale warm greige leather journal stamped with a loop-fleece lamb from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A forest-green leather journal stamped with a loop-fleece lamb from the Wool and Water collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

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.