Blossom and Furrow – a leather study of Aroostook County potato country

A September study – Volume I-A.

In July the potato fields around Presque Isle flower white and pink for miles, and by late September the same rows lie open for the digging. Blossom and Furrow is a small leather collection drawn from both ends of that Aroostook County season.

First, we folded the potato blossom into a small emblem – five creased petals around the anther cone, drawn from a flowering seed farm in the county – and set beneath it the name the rest of Maine uses for Aroostook: THE COUNTY.

Black-and-white die artwork of a potato blossom above THE COUNTY for the Blossom and Furrow leather collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

On keychains it becomes the quick recognition gift – dusty lavender for the purple-flowering varieties, deep green for the rows in leaf. It looks genuinely beautiful.

A lilac leather keychain blind-debossed with a potato blossom and THE COUNTY from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-debossed with a potato blossom and THE COUNTY from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

The same blossom sits low in the corner of the toiletry bags, honeyed russet over dark espresso – the crop above the soil it came out of.

Indian Summer and Dark Espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with a potato blossom and THE COUNTY from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

Next, we ran the flowering furrows down the long side of a luggage tag – seven garland rows converging on a far farmhouse, AROOSTOOK across the sky. Tens of thousands of acres bloom like this every July, and a tag is how a landscape gets carried away.

Black-and-white die artwork of flowering potato rows converging on a farmstead beneath AROOSTOOK for the Blossom and Furrow leather collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

We pressed it three ways. Deep green carries the rows in leaf and pale rose the pink-flowering fields; honeyed russet is the harvest that follows. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with flowering Aroostook rows from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

A blush leather luggage tag blind-debossed with flowering Aroostook rows from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

An Indian Summer leather luggage tag blind-debossed with flowering Aroostook rows from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

Then the journals. A field and a page take the same verb – both get turned. So we drew the horse-drawn digger from an old Aroostook Farm photograph, team and driver in side view with the fresh row trailing behind, and set TURNED DAILY beneath it in the lower corner of the cover.

Black-and-white die artwork of a horse-drawn potato digger above TURNED DAILY for the Blossom and Furrow leather collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather – deep brown like the turned earth, and warm tan like old harness leather.

A Dark Espresso leather journal blind-debossed with a horse-drawn potato digger and TURNED DAILY from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

A caramel leather journal blind-debossed with a horse-drawn potato digger and TURNED DAILY from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

And finally, the one that made us grin. Everything small ends up in the catchall – keys and coins and whatever the day shook loose – so we tumbled a scatter of spuds across the golden tan base and called the tray what it holds: SMALL POTATOES.

Black-and-white die artwork of twelve potatoes around SMALL POTATOES for the Blossom and Furrow leather collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

An Arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with twelve potatoes and SMALL POTATOES from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

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 changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

An alternate forest-green leather luggage tag blind-debossed with flowering Aroostook rows from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

An alternate blush leather luggage tag blind-debossed with flowering Aroostook rows from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.

An alternate Indian Summer leather luggage tag blind-debossed with flowering Aroostook rows from the Blossom and Furrow collection of Aroostook County, Maine.