Nightjar Trade Company in a one-woman shop based in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Hello! My name is Patti Wren Byrd and I am the sole designer and crafter.

Born and raised in the North Carolina Piedmont near the Cape Fear River, and the coast on Bogue Sound, I grew up spending as much time outside as I could. The natural world always intrigued me and won my entire heart at an earlier age than I can remember. I could never find more happiness than when I was completely submerged among the pines and scrub oaks, with the occasional cry of the osprey, the wind and cicadas in the trees and the chuck-will’s widow calling in the night.

My other obsession other than nature, is time. I seemed to have been born madly in love with all things aged by time, including various time periods preceding me. I have always appreciated the craft and skill and of course, time, that would go into the hand-making process. I love holding old handmade items and letting my mind escape the current moment for a while as I drift away into imagination of who the person was who crafted the item so many years ago; What was their life like? What were they going through in their life at the time when they made this particular item? What was their story? (...I am a keen daydreamer.)
So, at a young age, I began my journey of hand-making; starting with designing, building and crafting forts in the woods, naturally.

My leather craft easily lends itself to being able to work out in nature by the rivers of the mountains or on the beaches of the coast, where I have hand stitched almost all of my leather work. It is here that I marry my two loves together, nature and time, into one piece of work that will hopefully outlive its maker.

Behind the Name:

My business name, Nightjar Trade Company, holds deep sentiment to me as it is derivative of all the nights of my youth, drifting off to sleep in the country with my widows as wide open as they could go so that I could hear all of the night creatures' songs; especially that of the chuck-will's widow, a nocturnal bird of the nightjar family, closely related to the eastern whippoorwill. As more land was cleared for the construction of new homes, the chuck-will's widow, a ground-nesting nightjar, lost its habitat and is no longer heard in the area. It's been years now since I've heard its nightly song. The name, Nightjar Trade Company, is my way of holding those nights close and keeping the memory alive of one creature in particular who was so dear to me.