The Wool Village Collection – a leather stamping study from Guild, New Hampshire

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

An August study. Waterfall Volume I-D.

Guild, New Hampshire is a wool village on the Sugar River, one syllable long, and locals say that syllable with a long I. This month we pressed the village into leather – luggage tags and journals among the blanks – and named the shelf it makes the Wool Village Collection.

First, we drew the Sugar River as one continuous line. It comes in from the left in easy bends, passes beneath the mill, and leaves the picture as a row of hooked wool loops – the water that drove the village, becoming what the village made.

The black-and-white Sugar River stamp plate for the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags: navy for the river and honeyed russet for the wool. The third tag is deep forest green, for the hills the water comes down through.

A navy leather luggage tag stamped with the Sugar River design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A honeyed russet leather luggage tag stamped with the Sugar River design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A forest green leather luggage tag stamped with the Sugar River design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

On the toiletry bag the same die sits small in the lower right corner, honeyed russet over deep espresso – wool-bundle colors on old mill timber. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Honeyed russet and deep espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with the Sugar River design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

Next, the one a rug hooker will read from across the room. A wool strip rides beneath the backing while the hook pulls the next loop up through the weave – LOOP BY LOOP, which is how a rug happens and how a journal fills.

The black-and-white Loop by Loop stamp plate for the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

The journals wear it in the lower right corner of the cover, in charcoal-heather gray and in deep cranberry wine – two colors straight off the wool shelf.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A warm gray leather journal stamped with the Loop by Loop design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A deep wine leather journal stamped with the Loop by Loop design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

The catchall tray takes the same stamp at a generous size in golden tan – somewhere for hooks and scissors to land at the end of the night.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Loop by Loop design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

And finally, the local handshake. GUILD above the rule and RHYMES WITH WILD below it – the long I that tells a native from a visitor inside one syllable.

The black-and-white Guild long-I stamp plate for the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

We stamped it on keychains in deep wine and in pale greige – an easy gift to hand around at a hook-in, and a hard one to explain anywhere else.

A deep wine leather keychain stamped with the Guild long-I design from the Wool Village Collection of Guild, New Hampshire.

A pale greige leather keychain stamped with the Guild long-I design from the Wool Village 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.