2024 Quarterly Catalog Q2

MY LEATHER JOURNEY DENNY LOWE

M y life in leather craft started from the inspiration of my Uncle Richard Stanton, from Mt. Vernon, MO. He was a leather craftsman by trade. I was 10 or 11 years old when this trip all began. Whenever I had any money and could con my father into taking me to the local Tandy store, on Sheridan Avenue in Denver. Leather crafting, hunting, fishing, and “Cowboying” were my main interests through school age to adulthood. Carpentry was my vocation until the late 1970’s, when I went to work for an oilfield service company that was in Colorado. This ended up taking me to Grand Junction, CO with them until the early 1980’s when the bottom fell out of the oil business, and I was laid off. Looking for a way to make a living to support a wife, son, horses, and a mortgage payment, I searched out a local saddle shop. With nothing to lose, I went to the only saddle shop in town, Diamond Stock Saddle Co. Bob McCray was the owner/operator and he had developed his skills at the Visilia Stock Saddle Company. With more than just a little skepticism, he put me to work. Bob became my mentor as he led me through all the professional phases of saddle repair. For quite some time I was in the saddle repair area for all the saddles that came through the shop, but one day he let me start building a couple of saddles using his patterns and STRICT supervision. I continued working and learning for Bob until one day he told me he was going to hang it up. Timing seems to have a way of aligning; you see my grandfather

had passed shortly before this announcement and he had left me a little money. I approached Bob and told him I would like to buy his business. I didn’t have enough money to buy him out, but he sold me the inventory that I could afford and consigned the rest to me. Bob rented a building for me on North Avenue in Grand Junction, and I went into business as Diamond Saddle Company. I worked hard during the poor economy, due to the downturn of the oil business, coupled with my complete lack of knowledge of management skills, it was not long before I was operating in the red. My dad still had the family farm in Ash Grove, Missouri and we moved everything back to Missouri lock stock and barrel. Not wanting to give up my business, I put my shop in a local feed and western store called PFI. It was about thirty miles from the farm, but it was a hurdle I wanted to clear. Soon after I started at PFI, the tack store manager talked me into entering a couple saddles I had built in the 1987 Federation of Leather Guilds Show (held in Springfield for that year). That year Robert Beard won the Al Stohlman Award and that was presented at that leather show. By some stroke of luck both of my entries won 1st place in their respective categories. This was the one and only show that I have entered my work into, but I have always cherished the fact that I participated in an international show with so many prominent individuals in attendance.

a vacation to the Sheridan, Wyoming area and took a couple of my finished saddles with me to show to Don Butler at his custom cowboy shop. We visited for some time, and I inquired about employment as a saddle maker in the area. Don told me that he did not have the room for another saddle maker in his shop, but he told me about a very capable saddle maker in Cody, Wyoming that was looking for another hand, Keith Seidel. He called Keith and the next day I was off on adventure to Cody. When I arrived, we talked a bit and then got down to business. I showed him my saddles and that was all it took for him to hire me. We got back on the road to Missouri, gathered up what we had, leased out the farm, and turned back to Cody. About 11 miles out of town, on the south fork of the Shoshoni River we rented a place to live, and I went to work for Keith Seidel at Seidel’s Saddlery. This was a very exclusive shop; we did special projects for anyone that had an idea. The projects would include hat bands, motorcycle gear, gun holsters, pool table light shades, and more. One of the very first projects I got to work on was a Full Floral Stamped Saddle with Bolin Silver Conchos, this saddle turned out to be a gift for then president of Mexico, Vicente Fox. Later, a project of note was a belt for now former president George W. Bush. The list goes on, but the experience that I had there and the knowledge that I gained is beyond comparison.

I kept my shop at PFI through two store moves from 1987-2009. In 2009 we took

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