The Wintering Grounds – an Eastern Shore leather collection of Chesapeake waterfowl and carved decoys

Volume I-A. A September study.

The Wintering Grounds – a small leather collection for Maryland's Eastern Shore, where the Atlantic Flyway comes down onto Chesapeake water each fall, and where carvers have spent generations making wooden birds honest enough to fool the living ones.

First, we carved a decoy of our own. A working bird in solid profile holds its post on a single line of water, one bare stripe rubbed through the paint where years of handling would wear it – and beside it, THE BIRD THAT STAYS. Every fall the flocks pass through; the carved one keeps the water all winter.

Black-and-white working decoy die artwork reading THE BIRD THAT STAYS for The Wintering Grounds leather collection.

It runs lengthwise along the luggage tags – deep navy for the winter water and warm tan for the reed bank, with a third tag in pale warm greige, the color of weathered decoy paint.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A deep navy leather luggage tag blind-stamped with THE BIRD THAT STAYS and a working decoy.

A warm tan leather luggage tag blind-stamped with THE BIRD THAT STAYS and a working decoy.

A pale warm greige leather luggage tag blind-stamped with THE BIRD THAT STAYS and a working decoy.

Next, a badge for the pocket. EASTERN SHORE arcs over a tundra swan decoy, the long S of the neck rising off a low carved hull, and MARYLAND closes the ring beneath. The swans winter on the Shore too.

Black-and-white EASTERN SHORE MARYLAND swan-decoy roundel die artwork for The Wintering Grounds.

We stamped it on keychains in chestnut and in deep navy.

A chestnut leather keychain blind-stamped with the EASTERN SHORE MARYLAND swan-decoy roundel.

A deep navy leather keychain blind-stamped with the EASTERN SHORE MARYLAND swan-decoy roundel.

The same badge sits low in the corner of the toiletry bag – a navy top over a chestnut base, Bay water over decoy wood.

Deep navy and chestnut leather toiletry bags blind-stamped with the EASTERN SHORE MARYLAND swan-decoy roundel.

And finally, the one we like the most. A skein of geese drops toward the marsh grass, and beneath the reeds stands BACK EVERY OCTOBER – on the Eastern Shore, that is simply the calendar.

Black-and-white flyway die artwork with eleven geese, marsh reeds and BACK EVERY OCTOBER for The Wintering Grounds.

We centered it on the golden tan catchall tray, at a size generous enough to count the birds.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A golden tan leather catchall tray blind-stamped with eleven returning geese and BACK EVERY OCTOBER.

And it lands in the corner of the journals – one in honeyed russet, October's own color, and one in deep green for the pines across the water.

A honeyed-russet leather journal blind-stamped with eleven returning geese and BACK EVERY OCTOBER.

A deep green leather journal blind-stamped with eleven returning geese and BACK EVERY OCTOBER.

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.