A hobby that's becoming a business
Jun. 30—MOSES LAKE — Jereme Roy makes a lot of things out of leather.
Purses, folders, wallets, belts, potholders, wine bottle holders and little holsters for knives. He even makes little leather slips, each about the shape and size of a livestock ear tag and sealed tight in a small plastic bag. They don't look like they take much work to make.
"It's an air freshener," Roy said. "Hang that in your car and it will smell like you have leather seats. Even if you don't."
Roy and his wife Trudie stood inside the small workshop he built on his property northwest of Moses Lake, the air heavy with the scent of new leather, amid stacks of rolled leather, two large, heavy duty sewing machines, several tool benches and a display table of finished work.
They both still have full time jobs — he with the Noxious Weed Control Board of Grant County and she with Big Bend Community College. It's a hobby that has slowly grown into a business — Roy's Custom Leather Work and Repair.
"I was just kind of playing around with it a couple of years ago making a few things for myself. And it was kind of fun, so I started making more and more," Roy said. "And next thing, you know, friends were asking, 'hey can you make something for me?'"
There is almost a smile on his face.
"Yeah, sure, I can do that," he said. "And you know, this is all right, people are willing to pay me to make stuff for them."
Roy said he enjoys the work, that there's something about being able to take a piece of leather and turn it into something that is both useful and beautiful.
"It's very satisfying and gratifying when you can take a flat piece of leather like that. And watch it turn into something," he said. "It's a little bit of an art. But it's functional art."
By that, Roy meant he makes things that aren't only beautiful, but that people carry around with them and use every day, like purses and wallets, he said. Those are the things he said that sell the most, though he now offers a knife sheath with a farrier's knife that comes with a hoof pick.
"These are real popular with the horse people," he said.
Sometimes, though, Roy said he's asked to make something simple, something he doesn't have to spend any time ornamenting.
"Some people ask me, 'hey, can you make me a work belt, something that's gonna last?' And yeah, sure, you bet, I can do that," he said. "They just want a good quality piece of leather that's gonna hold up."
Roy said he orders his leather from a dealer in Texas, and gets it in giant rolls. He encourages people who want custom work done to come out and look at the leather he has, to touch and feel the material so they can be familiar with what they want.
"You know, make them part of the process of building a bag for them, or a wallet, or whatever," he said. "It's fun to have a good variety of stuff like that to be able to offer that to people, to really be part of the process of what we're making for them."
Roy said it can take many hours to do some of the ornate designs he carves into some of the things he sells, but he finds the work relaxing. However, it means what can sell in a moment can take many hours or even days to make, and the Roys have to time their visits to farmers markets and horse shows very carefully in order not to run out of stock. Right now, they are preparing to set up shop and sell their wares at the Cle Elum Roundup at the end of July.
If you can't get to one of his events, Roy sells informally through his Facebook page, and plans at some point to have a custom online store.
While not a horse rider himself — Roy said that's his daughter's interest — he has three old saddles hanging in the rafters of his workshop. They represent the dream of where Roy hopes someday to take his leatherworking hobby.
"Right now, they're just kind of decoration," he said. "The idea was to, you know, in my spare time, take them apart to see how they're made and how they're put together."
Because someday, Roy said, he'd like to make a saddle of his own.
"That would be the ultimate goal," he said. "Yeah, that would be a fun project to do someday."
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
