2022 - Volume #46, Issue #3, Page #08
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Leatherwork Durable Enough For Cowboys
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She sews, tools and stamps leather in her spare time between caring for her two children, working part-time as a nurse, and helping her husband on their cow/calf ranch in Idaho.
She started by making practical items for use on their ranch including chaps, headstalls for their horses, hobbles, and doctoring bags that fit behind a saddle and hold vials and syringes and other equipment. When the Ottleys attended ranch rodeos or gathered cows with neighbors, people noticed her leatherwork, and Ottley started making things to sell in 2018.
Beyond practical working gear, she makes purses and wallets, phone pouches, leather patches for caps, earrings, journal covers and a variety of other items.
“I make sure the leather is good quality,” Ottley says, noting she purchases most of it from the best U.S. leather sources - Hermann Oak and Wickett & Craig. Purses are made from the more supple chap and oil tan leathers.
“I make my own patterns and draw my own designs for tooling,” she says.
Her website includes items for under $30. Chaps start at around $450, depending on the price of leather. “I do a lot of custom work,” Ottley says.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, High Mountain Leather, 1400 S. Hwy. 81, Malta, Idaho 83342 (ph 208-681-7891; highmtnleather@gmail.com; www.highmountainleather.bigcartel.com).
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