The Eddy Grove Collection – a Princeton, Kentucky leather study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.
An August study.
Princeton, Kentucky began as Eddy Grove – a handful of settlers at the spring where Eddy Creek rises. We took the town's first name and built a leather collection around it: five original stamps for the Pennyrile, pressed on everything from luggage tags to a catchall tray.
First, the stamp that names the collection. An eddy is where water turns and stays a while before it moves on; we drew the rings of one and set a single mint leaf afloat in the calm eye, with EDDY GROVE arched above and PRINCETON beneath – the founding name pressed back into service.
Two of the tags run in pale sea-blue and warm caramel, the spring and the creek bank. The black tag carries the design in gold. It looks genuinely beautiful.
Next, the region's own name. Pennyroyal is the small wild mint this country grew thick with, and Pennyrile is what western Kentucky made of the word. We drew a single sprig, blossoms whorled in tiers up the stem, THE PENNYRILE beneath.
It sits in the lower corner of the journals, in deep forest green and pale warm greige. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.
Then, the heaviest history in the county, carried carefully. Dark-fired tobacco named this land the Black Patch; in curing season the barns smoke for weeks and the fields stand nearly dark. We hung one cured leaf point-down from its stick, veins cut in white, BLACK PATCH beneath.
On the toiletry bags it presses as a blind deboss, true black over deep espresso – a quiet shadow relief.
Then, a phrase the town has kept since 1857. Adsmore, Princeton's old house museum, took its name from the family's habit of adding some more, room by room. Our border grows a spare room off its own corner, with ADD SOME MORE inside.
It lands on the catchall tray in golden tan – the dish that always takes one thing more.
And finally, the one we liked the most. Princeton brought back more than forty of its Main Street fronts under a campaign called "Let's Paint the Town"; our brush lays the whole streetscape down in a single stroke, marquee tower and all, with PAINT THE TOWN beneath.
The poppy red keychain does it literally. The black fob takes the stroke in gold – the Capitol marquee at night.
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 these belong on your shelves or in your hands, or you'd like anything here changed or made real – say hello through our contact page.