For reasons that may–or may not–become clear in subsequent posts, until now I haven’t entered into the social media world. I’m still not on Facebook, but this is my first blog.
Happy 2011!
Call me old fashioned, but I still think that real 3D interactions are much more important and substantial than virtual interactions. Ironically, it is my love of the craft of saddle making that is launching me into communications for the 21st century.
I love making things slowly and by hand. I love art. I love to see, touch, hold, and use things that are made by real people with real love. Our world today has become very sterile, oriented to profit, and mass-produced. Don’t you miss the smell and taste of homemade bread coming out the oven? (Have you ever tried it?? If not you are missing one of life’s greatest pleasures…) Don’t you get tired of things that break, are packaged in obscene amounts of hydrocarbons, and that you never use or love? When was the last time you had a pair of shoes that can be resoled and do you even know where to find a cobbler?
I make things out of leather by hand. It is inefficient, low-profit, and expensive. Almost everything I make costs more in just materials than a similar thing costs to buy at Walmart. When you count my time and significant investment in tools that are almost impossible to find, I probably make the GDP of the United States run backwards with every new item that I make.
However, there is so much more to life than profit, efficiency, and instant gratification. Making things by hand is a combination of meditation, puzzle making, and history. I learned my craft from some amazing teachers, who I will describe here someday. They all learned from other masters, and we are now at a critical and strange point in our history when we run the risk of losing significant amounts of information about real crafts. When I started to accumulate a several things that I made, I realized that I needed a way to share them and their stories with anyone who cares.
For each post, I will try to provide a picture of a recent piece of work. For the next several weeks I will be populating my portfolio page with some of these pics. The piece of the day is a laptop computer bag that I recently made. Everything was done by hand, and the piece took a significant chunk of my Holiday break to finish. I hope you like it!
Art's Musings, etc. 
This is really nice. I love your work. I’m passing it on to my son, Joe, who also appreciates things handmade (bread too). I look forward to reading more on your blog.
Kelli Brew has, yet again, brought wonderful things into my world! I am a lover of leather and silver work. A native of CT., I spent each of my growing up summers in Salt Lake City. I remember Park City when it was truly a ghost town and the school was for sale at $3,ooo. Little Cottonwood, Brighton, Alta and Timpanogas were my playgrounds.
I am delighted to find your wonderful art and skill in Gainesville and hope to meet up soon.
You did a wonderful job on your website. I love seeing more of your work than just the belt you showed me in person. It was very fun reading your blog as well as it tells more about you as a person. Another thing to add is “American made” not from China! Excited to read more additions to your blog and would love to be your friend on Facebook if you ever get there 🙂
p.s. My husband has been trying his hand at homemade bread which seems to be a little challenging with the altitude difference but love the smell of bread cooking in the oven!