Первая конференция Western Design в Боземане собрала рекордные 115 мастеров со всего Запада

Bozeman’s first Western Design Conference showcases artists, luxury makers The first Western Design Conference in Bozeman brought more than 100 artists, designers and craftspeople from across the West, showcasing creativity, entrepreneurship and luxury products at MSU’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The Aug. 6-9 conference relocated to Bozeman for its 34th year after spending more than three decades in Cody and Jackson, Wyoming. Nearly 115 vendors came from 28 states, making the three-day event the largest in the conference’s history. “There is a great connection between (Jackson and Bozeman),” said Allison Merritt, the executive director for the Western Design Conference exhibit and sale. “The energy and reception here is wonderful.” A preview party and fashion show occurred on Aug. 6. Design panels with 28 artist and industry speakers occurred throughout the weekend. The event’s boldest expression was on the show floor, where artists, makers and designers built intricate booths showcasing their best work. Imagination and physics are the only limits for Dan Schwarz, the craftsman behind Schwarz Custom Boots, a custom cowboy boot maker based in Beaverhead County. He owns the business with his wife, Julian. Colorful custom inlay and multi-row stitching is standard in Schwarz designs on the sometimes 14-inch-tall boots. His handmade footwear features portraits of a client’s dogs or complex, colorful animals like trout in orange, blue, yellow and green tones. Schwarz’ booth showcased boots made from a variety of materials including regular leather, bison hide, shark and alligator skin. “Every (boot) is looked at as an individual piece of art, albeit functional that you can wear,” Schwarz, 65, said. The boots featuring the trout design, a decade old, were recently re-footed. The owner’s dog chewed out the toe. Measuring the customer’s foot is the first step in building a custom boot, according to Schwarz. The last step is shaping the toe and heel height. He described the boot-building process as working from the inside-out. It’s a lost art. Schwarz uses hand-guided Singer stitching machines patented in 1931 and a line finisher sanding machine for grinding heels to shape. Each heel is layered with five to seven leather pieces depending on the desired height. In the correct light, each layer is visible, resembling an intricate wood grain. Schwarz completes 10 custom boots on average annually. Each pair costs approximately $4,500 without exotic material or intricate inlay. The most expensive boot he ever sold cost $12,000. A Hi-Line native, Schwarz came to Dillon to attend the University of Montana Western, before becoming a career cowboy in Idaho and Montana. He was nearly 40 years old when he got into the business after purchasing Blacktail Bootery, a Dillon repair shop and retail store in the 1990’s. “After repairing thousands of pairs of boots, the next level was learning how to build them,” Schwarz said. He attended the historic C.T. Chappell Boot-making School in Saint Jo, Texas in 2000. “I... learned to make boots there, came home to hang my shingle out, and we’ve been building boots ever since.” A shingle is traditional trade sign or small signboard that a shoemaker or shoe repairer hangs outside their shop to advertise their business Schwarz Custom Boots offers a two weeklong boot-making school. After 12 hours per day learning the craft, pupils leave with their own pair of handmade boots, a reference manual, and a supplier’s list. Forged Elegance An aluminum-handled foosball table veneered in reclaimed white oak originally used in Oregon railroad car grain crane towers, was among a custom shuffleboard table, beds and other one-of-a-kind rustic pieces made from reclaimed, exotic materials by Forged Elegance, based in Bend, Oregon. It took Forged Elegance owner and founder Paul Shepherd a year to retrofit the 1965 foosball table. Originally made in West Germany, Shephard’s father acquired the piece from a Portland, Oregon pool hall in 1967. Each project Shepherd builds costs $15,000 to $50,000. The foosball table handles are handmade with a gun-blued patina. The field labeling is custom, and the cups where the ball rolls into after a goal are reused gas piping elbows. Shepherd, a metal worker who owned a heating, ventilation and air conditioning business, recalled experimenting with chemicals and different metals in his spare time. “We heated it up to see what it did,” Shepherd said. “We got into forging. A contractor asked us to build a copper kitchen range hood, it made a national magazine, and that’s how it started 15 years ago.” The custom shuffleboard table is built around an Oregon black walnut bottom rail. Each full slab can cost $15,000, according to Shepherd. “We had a couple of slabs for a client,” Shepherd said, valuing the table at $25,000. “The wood was beautiful, stunning. I didn’t want it to necessarily go to waste, so we incorporated it into this piece.” Titanic table A gargantuan wooden dining table loomed in the exposition hall. The 84-inch-wide table is made from the largest slab from the largest pecan tree ever cut by Brandon Berdoll, the master wood craftsman and owner behind Berdoll Sawmill. Berdoll values the table at approximately $250,000. Six inches remained in the 28-foot box truck he bought to transport the table to the Western Design conference. Berdoll’s uncle in-law discovered the massive pecan tree, which the wind blew down. When the felled giant was delimbed, its trunk weighed 30,380 pounds, according to Berdoll. After hauling the trunk back to his sawmill on a tractor trailer, it was cut into seven live edge slabs, then air dried for five and a half years, before spending six months in a kiln. Berdoll spent more than 1,000 hours building the table. Berdoll, who grew up on a pecan farm, began his custom woodworking business in 2009. “We started because my family had been in the central Texas area since 1830,” Berdoll said. “I know a lot of landowners. Whenever trees got blown over by a windstorm, hurricane, tornado or flood, I was able to go in and get them.” Berdoll credited his agricultural upbringing with instilling natural mechanical and woodworking skills. “I had this raw natural resource going to waste,” he said. “Mostly people were just burning them. I started going in there, harvesting, salvaging those trees and fell in love with it.”