McElyea gives leather old Western feel

Terry McElyea moved to Washington 25 years ago, and he brought a little taste of his home state with him. McElyea hails from Sweetwater, Texas. Since he retired last year, McElyea has been making billfolds, purses, belts, holsters, bootjacks and even cases for e-readers, all out of leather. He likes to carve designs depicting the Old West into them that reflect his heritage.

McElyea has had his leather creations on display at the Washington Farmers Market. He has noticed that Iowans have their own taste in leather designs that are slightly different from the ones he was familiar with.

?People up here are not necessarily into western stuff,? he said. ?I?m getting a feel for what people like around here. One person wants me to put a design on his motorcycle seat. Another wants me to do a biker?s wallet and one wants me to do a design on his motorcycle chaps. I?ve seen them, but I?ve never made one before.?

McElyea said he was inspired to start leatherworking because he didn?t like sitting around all day in retirement. McElyea likes working with his hands and especially likes woodworking. However, performing the woodwork in his garage was uncomfortable in the summer because it was too hot, so he sought another hobby. He remembered to the time he was in high school when a friend of his made leather belts.

?I remember him giving me a belt once and I asked him where he got it,? I thought it was interesting, but I was more interested in outdoor stuff at that time such as hunting, fishing, camping and horseback riding.?

Once McElyea entered retirement, leatherworking seemed more enticing than before so he took it up. He taught himself how to make things out of leather. He read books about leatherworking and gradually collected one tool after another. When he started his hobby a year ago, he had six tools. Now he has 60.

?Those things aren?t cheap,? McElyea said. ?Nothing about this hobby is cheap.?

The tools are used to carve shapes or hammer designs into the leather. Each tool is either a slightly different shape or a slightly different size than the other tools in the kit.

?When I started, I was doing a lot of flowers and those sorts of designs,? he said. ?As I progressed, I tried doing more figure carving, which takes different tools.?

The first thing McElyea made out of leather was a coaster, which he saw in one of his leatherworking books. He said his first few attempts were crude but that he has progressed significantly since he started last year.

?I started out small, doing things just to get the hang of it,? he said. ?After I got to billfolds and checkbook covers, I moved on to making ladies? clutch purses and handbags, which can get quite intricate.?

McElyea made all of the Christmas presents he gave to his relatives in 2011. He made leather cases for the e-readers his two daughters have. He gave his two sons billfolds, and another male relative a bootjack for taking boots off.

?I made about 30 items from September until just before Christmas,? he said. ?I used my family as guinea pigs. I enjoyed doing it and I got a lot of practice. When you carve, you mostly take in a flat picture and try to make it 3-D. You use your tools to add depth, shadows and background.?

McElyea said his skills have progressed tremendously since he started a year ago.

?I look back at the things I made when I started and there?s no comparison to what I?m making now,? he said. ?Instead of being crude and relying on straight edges, my designs are smoother and more detailed. They look more like the objects I?m trying to create.?