Rozet saddle maker still eager to learn

ozet saddle maker still eager to learn
 
By Jonathan Gallardo 
Gillette News Record
Via Wyoming News Exchange
 
GILLETTE — The first saddle Matt Avery ever made still holds up today.
Built in 1982 or 1983, it’s lasted decades and has been used by himself and his granddaughter.
“It’s good, it’s put together solid, and I’ve never had anything come apart on it,” he said.
Although it holds up in a utilitarian sense nearly 40 years later, it doesn’t hold up quite as well from an artistic point of view. Avery can point out all the mistakes he made, from using a stamp that was less than ideal to making cuts in the leather that were “way too long.”
Still, it got the job done.
“I rode it with a lot of pride,” he said. “I know it was crude, but it was my saddle.”
Even with decades of experience and more than 50 saddles now under his belt, Avery is still learning.
The work of Avery, a Rozet rancher and former Campbell County Commissioner, was on exhibit at the Rockpile Museum recently during a two-day artist residency. Visitors had the opportunity to watch Avery he work on a saddle there.
He usually works on saddles alone in his shop. He’s never done it for an audience before, so it will be a new experience for him. But he’s all for doing something new, especially when it comes to improving his craft.
“You never quit learning,” he said. “When you quit learning, you better quit.”
He’s constantly looking to learn from people who are better than he is. In the late 1990s, he flew out to California to learn from James Jackson of Kings Saddlery.
“He opened up doors that I didn’t even know existed,” Avery said. “My leather carving blossomed from there.”
And last year, he asked G.K. Fraker, a saddle maker in Buffalo, if he’d be willing to teach him. Avery wanted to learn two things: if the way he was making saddles was correct and if there were efficiencies to be found in his process.
Fraker taught him a lot of little things to do to make the process simpler, including cutting all the pieces of leather for a project before starting. Before, Avery would work on one piece of leather at a time, and after finishing it, he would have to cut another piece.
“A person needs to keep exploring and learning, and I tell everybody that’s wanting to learn, get better at whatever you do,” he said.
Growing up, Avery was more interested in electronics, but he was introduced to leather craft through 4-H. He and his father would repair saddles together. They stitched leather using a sewing machine that Avery called “the five-blister machine.”
“I always figured by the time I got five blisters on my hand, I’d better be done sewing,” he said.
That machine is still in his shop, along with shelves with sides of leather, boxes full of leather scraps underneath tables and drawers full of tools, including lead weights, mallets, stamps, blocks of wood and polished deer antlers.
“I come down here and lose myself in this world,” he said. “I love it.”
He said his father “would probably turn over in his grave if he saw how much scrap leather I throw away.”
But even the scraps have their use. He can turn them into smaller items like wallets and earrings.
He has so many scraps because he’s somewhat of a perfectionist.
“I get really irritated with myself when I make a mistake,” he said.
His wife Diann is an avid quilter. When she messes up, she can cover up a mistake by resewing the fabric. That’s not an option with leather.
“Once you poke a hole in this, it’s there forever,” he said. “You basically got to throw it away and start all over.”
He recalled a saddle skirt that he had cut too narrow. That piece of leather is now in his scrap box.
“It wasn’t right, and it bugged me,” he said. “Some people might have cobbled it up somehow and made it work. I’d rather spend the money on another side of leather and get it right then have something out there that just don’t look right.”
It’s not for those with a short attention span. Avery said the biggest thing he’s learned from decades of saddle making is patience, a virtue that he didn’t have as a kid.
“When I was younger, I wanted to hurry up and get a project done,” he said. “To sit and carve for hours just about drove me nuts. You can’t sit still that long.”
Now, he can sit at a table and work on leather for seven hours straight.
He’s built a saddle in as little as two weeks, but on average it takes to four to six weeks, if not longer. One of the saddles he’s working on now was started in February.
It’s key to stay focused the entire time. Avery’s been doing this long enough that he’s learned “what can happen if you’re not alert.”
“If you get to daydreaming and not paying attention, it’ll come back to haunt you,” he said.
The feeling of finishing a saddle is always the same, Avery added.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said. “And time for a beer.”