Just Under the Surface – a leather collection from Morro Bay's underwater world
A September study – Shops Waterfall, Volume I-A.
Morro Bay keeps most of its life just under the surface. Kelp forests climb through green water toward the light, and sea otters sleep in their canopy, wrapped in a blade so the tide leaves them where they dozed off. We pressed that world into leather and called the small collection Just Under the Surface.
First, we grew a kelp forest around the name of the bay. Two stipes climb from one holdfast with bladders and blades all the way up; the clear water between them holds MORRO over BAY.
It looks genuinely beautiful. We stood it upright on three luggage tags: deep green for the forest and golden tan for the kelp, with a navy tag for the water they stand in.
Next, the otters. Before it sleeps, a sea otter wraps itself in a blade of kelp so it stays put while the tide moves; the kelp's own anchor is called a holdfast. We drew one mid-nap with the blade across its chest, and gave it the anchor's word – HOLD FAST.
On the toiletry bags it sits low in the corner, honeyed russet over deep espresso brown – otter colors, as it happens.
Keychains with the sleeping otter look just awesome too – one in chestnut, one in pale sea-blue.
Then we looked at a moon jelly straight along its axis and found a rosette waiting there – four horseshoe rings around the center, a fringe of short tentacles at the rim. This one keeps no words; the geometry says enough.
It became the medallion of the golden tan catchall tray – the dish where keys and rings land at the end of the day.
And finally, the line the whole bay lives by. We drew the surface as a single long stroke and hung a moon jelly beneath it, bell grazing the line, with JUST UNDER THE SURFACE set below the water. On a journal the phrase earns a second meaning – everything worth reading sits just under the cover.
Looks great when stamped onto the leather – once in navy, once in pale warm greige.
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.
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