Fine saddles, bits and spurs featured in Traditional Cowboy Arts show at National Cowboy Museum
(Above) Guthrie saddlemaker John Willemsma shows the saddle he created for this year’s Traditional Cowboy Arts Association Annual Exhibition and Sale, opening Saturday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Willemsma is one of four new members of the association and the first member from Oklah0ma. (Below) Two detail shots of Willemsma’s saddle. (Photos by David McDaniel/The Oklahoman)
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Oklahoma City museum saddles up for exhibition
Annual sale: Traditional Cowboy Arts Association’s goalS are to preserve and promote the making of fine Western gear
An entire meadow of lilies, calla lilies and wildflowers seems to bloom out of the leather and silver on John Willemsma’s intricately tooled saddle.
From another saddle, a pair of elks do battle while wolves, bears and cougars gaze out from a forest of pinecones and needles. Silver stars and flowers burst out along a set of blue steel spurs. And a golden dragonfly flits up the side of a steel spade bit.
“This is all original artwork, it’s all drawn and it’s all done by hand. Each piece, you take your design concept and you would lay it out on paper and draw it first. … It’s quite a lot of work,” said Willemsma, a Guthrie saddle maker with 33 years experience.
For the 11th year, the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association Annual Exhibition and Sale is showcasing fine Western saddles, bits, spurs, braided rawhide and silver work. The show opens Saturday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
The exhibit features the exquisite artistry of more than 20 talented gear makers from the United States, Canada and now Argentina.
“What this show allows each person to do is go a step beyond what the normal customer would buy, to push the level of the artistic part of it, to try to push each member to do something out of the ordinary,” Willemsma said.
Willemsma is among four new association members featured in this year’s show. The other three are Russell Yates, a bit and spur maker from Rotan, Texas, and Armando Deferrari and Pablo Lozano, both rawhide braiders from Argentina.
The Guthrie artisan is the first Oklahoma gear maker to gain membership in the exclusive organization, said Don Reeves, the museum’s McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture. Willemsma said he applied six times, building a new piece each time, before he was voted into the association, which required a 75 percent majority approval.
“I wanted to be part of a group of a craftsman where excellence is the standard. These guys are tough,” he said. “To be accepted by your peers is an honor. There’s probably not very many people know that I have a little shop up in the woods in Guthrie.”
Founded in 1998, the association’s goal is to preserve and promote the tradition of fine Western gear making. Although all the pieces are carefully and cannily crafted, they also are made to be used, he said.
Along with his California-style saddle, Willemsma also created a pair of tapaderos, or stirrup covers, and a brush collar, designed to keep the girth on a saddle from moving as the horse moves, for the show. He worked with three of the association’s silversmiths who crafted the silver details on his works.
“What’s great about this is the collaborative effort. Normally, you go to a craftsman’s shop and you’ll get by and large his work,” Reeves said. “But that’s what makes these pieces so unique is you have one of the most famous engravers in the country working with John on his tapaderos.”
Willemsma typically works on a custom-order basis, tailoring his saddles to meet his clients’ desires. Most customers buy his saddles for riding purposes.
“This was so much fun to work on because you’re allowed … artistic freedom,” he said. “Everyone here is trying to do something unique; everybody tries to create a different flower or tries to do something of their own that gives it their own personal stamp or appeal or signature. Everyone here is trying to push their limits.”
He spent countless hours devising the complex floral pattern on his saddle. Except for the stitching, all the work was created by hand using about 30 different tools.
“I have over 300 hours just in the leather work alone,” Willemsma said. “So, it just takes an enormous amount of time to go beyond what the normal customer wants, to bring up to the level of a show like this.”
The exhibit and catalog serve as inspiration to other gear makers and aspiring artists. The show also offers a chance for the public and collectors to view and buy fine works of art, Reeves said.
“I’m proud of the creativity of the work,” he said. “These people are trying to take their craft — not just their own personal work — and elevate it and do something that other folks aren’t doing or haven’t tried.”
On exhibit
Traditional Cowboy Arts Association Annual Exhibition and Sale
When: Opens Saturday; on view through Dec. 6.
Where: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63.
Information: 478-2250 or www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
-BAM
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
[...] week, I wrote a feature story about that exhibit, which you can read by clicking here. The Oklahoman’s photo chief, Doug Hoke, has helped me construct a great slideshow that allows [...]
Where would I find new or antique bridle conchos?
I purchashed some very old conchos several years ago that
are brass with pictures covered with rounded glass on them.
I have not seen them at antique shows or the internet.
Sharron Zantop
That’s a saddle to die for in the picture!