Home Water – a Flathead River fly fishing leather collection

Home Water – a Flathead River collection. Volume I-A.

A September study.

Northwest Montana keeps a river where native cutthroat still rise to a dry fly between gravel bars and conifer walls. We spent September pressing that water into leather – five original designs about the fish and the people who float after it.

First, we laid the words FLATHEAD RIVER flat on the surface film, letterspaced like a long drift, and set a cutthroat rising a breath beneath the final letters, spots crowding toward the tail and the slash dark under its jaw. A tiny dry fly rides the line above, right where the fish is looking. It runs lengthwise across three tags, deep forest green and pale sea-blue first; the third is a caramel the color of a varnished oar.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Black-and-white die artwork of a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER for the Home Water leather collection of the Flathead River, Montana.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER from the Home Water collection.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER from the Home Water collection.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER from the Home Water collection.

Next, the sentence every angler says at dusk. We set ONE MORE CAST on the keychain fob beneath a single dry fly drawn whole, from tail fibers to upright wing – one in warm poppy red, one in deep forest green.

Black-and-white die artwork of a dry fly above ONE MORE CAST for the Home Water leather collection of the Flathead River, Montana.

A poppy-red leather keychain blind-debossed with a dry fly and ONE MORE CAST from the Home Water collection.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-debossed with a dry fly and ONE MORE CAST from the Home Water collection.

Then the toiletry bags, for the trip itself. A drift boat sits broadside on flat water with a half sun just clearing the line behind it, and FIRST LIGHT beneath – the hour the kit zips shut and the boat goes in. The stack renders honeyed russet over dark espresso, a cutbank over timber.

Black-and-white die artwork of anglers in a drift boat at sunrise above FIRST LIGHT for the Home Water leather collection of the Flathead River, Montana.

Honeyed-russet and Dark Espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with a drift boat at sunrise and FIRST LIGHT from the Home Water collection.

Then we gave the journals their purpose in two words. A single mayfly floats above HATCH NOTES, wings up like a small sail – the book where river days get written down. One journal in pale warm greige, one in dark espresso.

Black-and-white die artwork of a mayfly above HATCH NOTES for the Home Water leather collection of the Flathead River, Montana.

A Gray Sand leather wrap journal blind-debossed with a mayfly and HATCH NOTES from the Home Water collection.

A Dark Espresso leather wrap journal blind-debossed with a mayfly and HATCH NOTES from the Home Water collection.

And finally, the one we liked the most. Two forks come down through the letters of their own names, NORTH FORK and MIDDLE FORK, and leave the junction as one word – FLATHEAD. We drew it as a diagram, the way you would sketch your home water on a napkin for a friend, and pressed it at generous size into the golden tan tray where a river day's pockets empty out.

Black-and-white die artwork mapping the North Fork and Middle Fork joining the Flathead for the Home Water leather collection of Montana.

An Arizona golden-tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with a schematic confluence of the North Fork, Middle Fork, and Flathead from the Home Water collection.

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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

An alternate forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER from the Home Water collection.

An alternate pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER from the Home Water collection.

An alternate caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with a spotted cutthroat rising to a dry fly beneath FLATHEAD RIVER from the Home Water collection.