Field Marks – a Volume I-C leather stamping study for birders and nature journalers
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.
A September study. Volume I-C.
Field Marks is a small collection for people who watch birds and write things down – the ones who know an owl by its call and keep count of what the season brings.
First, we hid a great horned owl inside a pair of binocular circles. Its ear tufts pass for snapped branch stubs against the bark, and the solid black eye gives it away on the second pass – so beneath the circles we set the two words that make a naturalist: LOOK AGAIN.
It sits in the lower corner of the journals, one in pale gray sand like an unmarked page, one in deep forest green. It looks genuinely beautiful.
Next, we drew the oldest instrument in field science – four strokes and a fifth across – and set IT ALL COUNTS beneath. A feeder count from a kitchen window ends up in real research, and the phrase means exactly what it says.
On the keychains, warm caramel and dark espresso, it becomes a small daily reminder.
Then, the kettle – the birder's word for hawks spiraling up a thermal in migration, dozens becoming one climbing column. We set the flock rising up the tag, largest at the bottom, specks at the top, THE KETTLE beneath.
The tags run upright, the way a kettle climbs. Blueberry gives it a clear-sky navy; forest green and golden arizona give it the ridge and the warm light the hawks rise from.
Then, the barred owl and its one great question. We perched it above WHO COOKS FOR YOU – the words birders use to write down its eight-note call – with all eight notes rising off the phrase.
Centered on the golden arizona catchall tray, it waits by the door for keys and binoculars. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
And finally, the bag that gets packed the night before. A wren throws its song over a half-risen sun beneath THE DAWN CHORUS – because the best birding starts in the dark, and so does the drive.
The kit comes as a stacked pair – honeyed russet over dark espresso, first light over the night it rose from.
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.
P.S.
