Garden & Gun’s Made in the South Awards, for which I’ve long served as a judge in the Outdoors category, can be a game changer for honorees. But don’t take our word for it. When decoy carver Jerry Talton was named the Outdoors winner in 2016, he had no idea how significantly it would impact his career as an artist. “It was life-changing,” says the coastal North Carolina native. “Simple as that. And not only because of the impact on business, which was enormous, but being on such a big stage put me at a level in the art world that I could not have imagined. I’m not sure this little North Carolina backwater decoy carver knew it existed.”
Talton fashions his decoys in a contemporary antique style—redheads, scaup, and wigeon that look and feel as if they could have seen hard duty in a market hunter’s spread. Suddenly, he says, it wasn’t only his typical buyers reaching out, such as duck hunters and fellow carvers, but a new world of clients drawn to his heritage approach. “It put me in a different place in the art world, even internationally,” he says.
It’s not a given that every winner and runner-up in the Made in the South Awards will become an international art sensation. But there’s no question the program can lift up an artisan’s work. South Carolina knifemaker Chad Weatherford, who was one of the runners-up in the 2023 awards, remembers being in a tree stand on a deer hunt when his phone started buzzing. “I didn’t even know the magazine was out when people started calling,” he says. Weatherford was selected for a hand-crafted blade he calls the Western Skinner, which I found to be the best deer-butchering and boning knife I’d ever encountered. “People were ordering three and four at a time,” he says. “Even now, two years later, the awards make a difference. What surprised me the most was how broad the fan base is for Garden & Gun. I thought it was just a Southern thing, but I got orders from New York to California.”
The types of products that can be entered in the awards are intentionally broad. In the Outdoors category, honorees have ranged from hand-built canoes to tree swings, fly rods, shotgun cases, landing nets, duck calls and duck call lanyards, firepit tools, and even an Argentine-style asado grill. If it makes sporting and outdoor life more functional and fun—and more beautiful—it’s in the zone.
What sets the winning entries apart? A few things. We love products that tell a story. We love gear rooted in family tradition or inspired by a favorite region, river, or pastime. And we love gear that reflects the Southern approach to the outdoors—artful but real, elevated but down-to-earth.
Other than that, we simply love to be surprised. So let us know about your work by entering here. Or if you know a Southern maker whose work has taken your appreciation of the outdoors to a higher level, spread the word. But move quickly. Nominations for the Made in the South Awards close on June 2.
