Leatherworker tools custom goods with precision

When Elisa Wilson discovered leatherworking two years ago, she was immediately hooked. 

But with few places in the Flathead Valley to learn the niche trade, Wilson made her way to Wyoming to take an intensive class and has since continued learning from what she calls, “the old masters.”

“You have to go kind of far away to go to saddle school or to learn from somebody that actually knows the trade really well. The guy I went to has been doing this for 40 years, so he was a good and knowledgeable place to get information on how to do things correctly,” said Wilson.

Following her initial training, she started her leather working company, Elisa Wilson Leather Goods, in hopes of helping people in the horse community find a saddle, tack, or chinks that is perfectly suited to their horse and lifestyle. 

“I mainly do custom work with chaps, chinks, belts, notebook covers. There's so much variety that it never ends with what you can make or do with leather. You're not always tooling and you're not always sewing and you're not always cutting. There's just a nice variety of what you get to do,” said Wilson.

Wilson also crafts custom rifle slings, wallets, bags, and purses from the cow, deer, and bison leather that she collects from all over the United States. One client has even brought her a couple of oryx skins, a type of African antelope, to work with. 

“My friend from Africa is a horse trainer and he comes and does clinics here often and he brought me this oryx and it has this real rustic look to it,” said Wilson. 

Wilson’s passion for leatherworking started with her love for horses. In 2013, Wilson trained her first mustang, and since then has participated in three mustang competitions, and become a certified Trainer Incentive Program trainer with the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Despite the training program losing its funding from the Bureau of Land Management in September, Wilson retains the skills to gentle wild horses and has five mustangs of her own along with one quarter horse.

Wilson dabbles in working equitation, endurance riding, mounted archery, liberty work, and spends much of her time on the trail and learning new obstacles. But when she’s not around horses, Wilson says she can easily spend 40 hours in her shop. 

While Wilson grew up drawing and painting, she said that leather work requires a new approach to design due to its unforgiving rules.

“You have to be so meticulous in the drawing, meticulous in the tracing, meticulous in every aspect of it. It's taught me to really slow down and focus on getting better. You have to practice a lot, and by a lot, I mean hours and hours,” she said.

She described her style and designs as old Western with a hint of modern. 

“I'm learning from the traditional stuff so I gravitate towards that with a little bit more modern,” she said. “But I don't go for the super modern which has a lot of color and geometric shapes rather than the traditional floral.”

Wilson is armed with a number of design tools such as stamps and carving and background tools, but hopes to expand her tool set in the future as she continues learning more designs.

“I watch this guy who's been doing this for years and his work is so amazing,” she said. “ He's very detailed and precise and while I don't have 40 years to get there, I’m shooting for that target to really improve in everything I do rather than just being satisfied.”

Elisa Wilson Leather Goods can be reached by phone at 406-270-8172 or email Elisa@MountaintopSaddlery.com. To see products, visit Wilson’s Etsy shop at Etsy.com/shop/ElisaWLeatherGoods.

    A leather bag made by Elisa Wilson. (Courtesy photo)
  

    A leather purse made by Elisa Wilson. (Courtesy photo)
  

    Leather bracelets made by Elisa Wilson. (Courtesy photo)
  

    Working in leather requires attention to detail. “You have to be so meticulous in the drawing, meticulous in the tracing, meticulous in every aspect of it,” said Elisa Wilson. (Courtesy photo)
  

    Leather chinks made by Elisa Wilson. (Courtesy photo)