Idahoan Cary Schwarz puts his heart into saddle making–a lifelong student keen to improve and perfect his work.
Now in his fourth decade as a saddler, Schwarz is surely a master craftsman, but that’s something that he’ll never call himself, he said in a telephone interview. Schwarz sees ”becoming a master” as a byproduct of perfecting his craft, whereas “being a master” denotes arriving at the summit of a craft, an idea that he believes could inadvertently bring complacency and dampen creative growth.
“What gets me up and going in the morning is the challenge of learning something new,” he said. With each new project, Schwarz pushes himself to work in an area that he’s never been before, crossing new creative frontiers.
“There’s a tremendous amount of [creative] energy that can take place right on the edge of your abilities. ... When you’re challenged right at the edge of your abilities, and you’re able to push that envelope just a little further each time, you derive a little bit of a therapeutic benefit from that.”
Celebrating 40 Years of Saddle Making
Schwarz developed his leather making skills while working at gun holster companies, and then when he studied saddle making in college.Many leather carvers are indirectly using design concepts and elements that have been around for centuries, such as Baroque and Victorian era architectural ornamentations, he said.
He decided long ago that no two of his designs would be the same, although he uses the same basic concepts for designing the flowers and stem work on each saddle.
Schwarz tackled his first 3/4-size saddle to commemorate his 40 years as a saddler. It took him around 200 hours to make, over a two- or three-month period in between his commissioned works.
He first designed the saddle on paper with a series of motifs that commemorate his 40 years of saddle making. A sea of syringa flowers, the flower of his home state, Idaho, dominate the design. He colored the flower petals red rather than their natural white, purely because the spirit-based leather dyes he favors don’t have a white color. He antiqued the saddle leather, which muted the red petals to pink and lightened the green leaves and yellow flower centers.
Bronco figures—one of the most well-known symbols of the American West—feature throughout the saddle. “[In the American West] we would say that there’s only two types of cowboys—one who has been bucked off and the other one who will be,” he said. Schwarz sees the bucking bronco as a metaphor for life: When our lives get hard or messy, we all try to stay upright, but ultimately, at one time or another we all fall.
Schwarz notes that most Western artists depict cowboys successfully riding their broncos, but on the saddle dish he’s chosen to depict a rider who’s about to fall. Nearby on the lower back part of the saddle, he’s added a buffalo skull and a snake. Not only does the snake cause the bronco on the saddle dish to buck, but it also alludes to the Genesis story and the subsequent world chaos.
Traditional Cowboy Arts Association
Both Hardy and Schwarz are founding members of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA), which was formed in 1998 by a group of cowboy master craftsmen and enthusiasts to uphold and protect the American Western traditions of silversmithing, saddle making, rawhide braiding, and bit and spur making.Anyone can apply to join the TCAA, even international masters of the cowboy crafts, but they must be proficient in making American Western-style works. Currently, there are a dozen TCAA members: four saddlers, two silversmiths. four rawhide braiders, and two bit and spur makers. Each member has established himself in his craft, with commissions booked years in advance, and with each member willing to pass on his expertise to students, TCAA CEO J. Kent McCorkle said in a telephone interview.
A big part of the TCAA mission is to show the brilliance of Western craftsmanship and for bona fide experts to teach the trades. McCorkle explained that when the TCAA was first founded, many Western products were mass produced overseas, and aspiring young apprentices had only a handful of places where they could learn Western crafts.
There was also a veil of secrecy surrounding the disciplines, where some established craftsmen were reluctant to pass on their skills, and in some instances even hid their work. That veil of secrecy meant that the quality and expertise in the cowboy disciplines was diminishing at a rapid rate, and the TCAA wanted to prevent those disciplines from being lost.
The association provides a mixture of educational support that includes scholarships, peer-to-peer gatherings, and fellowships opportunities.
Crafting Cowboy Art
For 23 years, TCAA members have exhibited their work in the “Traditional Cowboy Arts Exhibition & Sale” at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. This year’s show features 55 pieces in steel, silver, leather, and rawhide—including encore pieces, which are selected works from previous shows that demonstrate the progress of the craftsmen.Every exhibit in the show has a functional aspect to it. But McCorkle says that the time, energy, and the level of expertise that each craftsman has put into these pieces make them works of fine art.
Meet Some of the Members
Many TCAA members have been inspired by their Western upbringing, and all are dedicated to preserving and honoring not only the cowboy arts that they love but also the cowboy way of life itself.
Silversmith Beau Compton was raised in the ranch and rodeo tradition and now lives with his wife and two children on his in-laws’ family cow-calf ranch in Tombstone, Arizona. He feels blessed to raise his children as the sixth generation on the family ranch and to perpetuate the Western lifestyle and values, he said via the catalog. For the sale, Compton created a pocket-sized, heavy-gauge sterling silver, six-shot flask and two glasses. He handmade each piece, decorating the pieces with bright cut engraving. One side of the flask has a sculpted head of a Texas Longhorn, and the other has the TCAA logo.
Rawhide braider Jay Adcock’s grandfather inspired him to work with rawhide and leather from an early age. He honed his craft by working on ranches across the U.S. West after working with Oregon rawhide braider Frank Hansen. Adcock now lives with his daughter on a cow-calf ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. He made a headstall (the part of the bridle that goes over the horse’s head) and Santa Ynez-style reins braided with Corriente-yearling rawhide. Santa Ynez-style reins comprise multiple strands that gather near the bit end. Adcock created each rein with three individual eight-strand braids (over the top) that transition into a 16-strand braid (over an eight-strand core). Schwarz made the curb strap, and Compton made the buckle for the Santa Barbara-style spade bit (made by Ernie Marsh). Pedro Pedrini made the popper, which is a flat piece of leather used to move cattle that “pops” when it hits a surface. The popper is attached to the end of the 20-strand romal (a braided thong attached to the reins, used to move cattle.) Adcock decorated the bridle with 178 rawhide buttons.
Bit and spur maker Wilson Capron grew up in a ranching family in far West Texas. He took an apprenticeship with bit and spur maker Greg Darnall. He was also influenced by his father, artist and cowboy Mike Capron. Capron created a Santa Barbara bit for the show, with 24-karat gold roadrunners darting amid the rich scrollwork and fine silver inlay. Capron’s silverwork on the bit harks back to the high-relief engravings found on high-end shotguns, where ducks, geese, and pheasants weave through the scrollwork.
Schwarz’s 3/4 saddle is also on display. He gets immense satisfaction when his work puts a smile on somebody’s face. Schwarz approaches all of his work from a biblical perspective, putting the essence of “love thy neighbor” into practice by serving his customers the best that he can. “All that I do really is charged with spiritual significance, because that’s why I believe I’ve been placed on this planet,” he said.
He feels blessed that he can keep learning and perfecting his saddle making. “I can’t even imagine life without it,” he said. Schwarz may not have to imagine life without his craft, as thanks to the work of the TCAA, the Western disciplines of silversmithing, saddle making, rawhide braiding, and bit and spur making are having a renaissance. And to use the metaphor of the bronco—at the moment, they’re in the saddle and riding well.
