JRodz

I was born, live, and work in beautiful Ventura County, California. I started in leatherwork as a kid when I helped my father fix and make tack, saddles, and boots for local cowboys and ranchers. In high school I took 2 years of "Crafts" and chose leatherwork as my medium where I worked mostly off Tandy kits and learned the basics of leathercraft. I also rode with a Mexican rodeo team and used to watch them braid leather, make "pitiado" belts, and saddles. I often worked in exchange for my lessons, which pretty much means I cleaned a lot of stalls and cleaned, conditoned, and refinished leather.

Fast forward about 25 years and I now work in Information Technology by day and have recently returned to leather at night, weekends, and days off. I don't do much floral, sheridan, porter, etc. I mostly take the customers ideas or art, my ideas, tattoo art, lettering, etc. and turn them into a design that will work on leather. I suppose the most accurate description would be figure carving although my designs do not usually involve much tooling or stamping beyond bevelers and sometimes a background. The tools I use the most are the swivel knife, modelers, and bevelers.

I have a passion for the open road and spend a good chunk of my free time riding. This is what brought me back to leather, I was looking for good leather and it was very hard to find. Bottom line, I felt I would do better making it than trying to find it. I have a 30 year old Harley-Davidson wallet that still has it's made in USA and union stamp, but now Harley-Davidson mostly carries Chinese/Pakistani made products. The few products I did find that were made in the USA were very poor quality bonded or low grade split leather. I was looking for top quality leather and quickly found out that others were too.

I market primarily to the biker community. As the word and some of my pieces got out, I was approached by motorcycle clubs, riding clubs, and independents who were looking for the nostalgia and novelty of one off handmade leather and weren't driven by cost.

My second market is the Car Club market, we have a lot of them in this area and they, like bikers, want good stuff to show off with their rides and are willing to pay for it.

Third, military market, hard to stay out of when you have 20% of your local population in the military and about the same are veterans. This market is close to my heart and I appreciate all who have served and put their life on the line for our beloved USA. I like doing these projects, mostly wallets to celebrate anniversaries, major promotions, and retirements. I'm honored to do these when they come up.

Last of all, I look forward to getting to know and learning from youall, hitting the shows, meeting some of you, and promoting this trade to all.

Disclaimer: Above I made reference to Harley-Davidson's Chinese/Pakistani goods, I am not implying they are not a quality product. I do own some of those products that my wife and children have given me as gifts and they are great products. However, I believe in keeping or at least making an effort to keep our money in the US to create american goods, jobs, and stimulate our economy. I own products from and often refer to Schott, Langlitz, Fox Creek, Legendary USA, San Jose Leather, etc. for American made riding leathers in liue of H-D or other Manufacturer apparel lines. For accessories and custom work, support your local leather worker.