Working Water – Lewes, Delaware fishing heritage in leather · Volume I-A

Working Water – a small exhibition in leather. Volume I-A.

A September study.

Lewes, Delaware has fished for as long as it has done anything. The menhaden plants opened in 1883, and through the mid-fifties the town contended for the busiest fish port in America; the fleet is long gone, and the water still keeps the town's time – stripers along the breakwater, flounder flat on the sand. We pressed that world into leather.

First, we let one line do two jobs. At the left it is the breakwater holding the horizon; run it right and it enters the fish, where it becomes the stripes of a striped bass swimming home. HOME BY THE BREAKWATER runs beneath, lengthwise along the tag.

Black-and-white die artwork of a striped bass joined to the Lewes breakwater above HOME BY THE BREAKWATER for the Working Water leather collection of Lewes, Delaware.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – here in navy, pale warm greige and pale sea-blue.

A blueberry leather luggage tag blind-debossed with HOME BY THE BREAKWATER and a striped bass from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

A Gray Sand leather luggage tag blind-debossed with HOME BY THE BREAKWATER and a striped bass from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

A turquoise leather luggage tag blind-debossed with HOME BY THE BREAKWATER and a striped bass from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

Next, we hung a vintage spoon lure from its swivel, treble hook and all, and set KEEPER under it – the word for a fish worth taking home, which is what a key already is.

Black-and-white die artwork of a vintage spoon lure and KEEPER for the Working Water leather collection of Lewes, Delaware.

A blueberry leather keychain blind-debossed with a spoon lure and KEEPER from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

A caramel leather keychain blind-debossed with a spoon lure and KEEPER from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

Then the flounder, drawn the way the old zoology plates drew him: broad and flat, with both eyes on top and the five spots in their crooked X. BOTTOM TIME sits beneath, because a journal is where the quiet hours get written down.

Black-and-white die artwork of a five-spot summer flounder above BOTTOM TIME for the Working Water leather collection of Lewes, Delaware.

On the pale warm greige he lies the way a flounder lies on sand – the animal's whole trick.

A Gray Sand leather wrap journal blind-debossed with a summer flounder and BOTTOM TIME from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

A blueberry leather wrap journal blind-debossed with a summer flounder and BOTTOM TIME from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

Next, LINES OUT – the call that starts the fishing day. A vintage reel pays out its first line above the words, pressed small in the corner of the kit, navy over deep brown.

Black-and-white die artwork of a vintage fishing reel paying out a line above LINES OUT for the Working Water leather collection of Lewes, Delaware.

Blueberry and dark-espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with a fishing reel and LINES OUT from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

And finally, the one we liked the most. We closed a purse seine around a circling school of menhaden, the little fish that once made this town a contender for the busiest fish port in the country. The net gathered the school; the tray gathers your pockets.

Black-and-white die artwork of a purse seine circling a menhaden school above LEWES DELAWARE for the Working Water leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful on the golden tan.

An Arizona golden-tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with a purse seine and menhaden school from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

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

P.S.

An alternate blueberry leather luggage tag blind-debossed with HOME BY THE BREAKWATER and a striped bass from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

An alternate Gray Sand leather luggage tag blind-debossed with HOME BY THE BREAKWATER and a striped bass from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.

An alternate turquoise leather luggage tag blind-debossed with HOME BY THE BREAKWATER and a striped bass from the Working Water collection of Lewes, Delaware.