Cherokee Rose Custom Leather

08/29/2026

42 minutes of swivel knife work condensed into just over a minute. 😳

And yes… those are a LOT of straight lines in that text 😂

This custom graduation cap topper has officially made it through the swivel knife stage. Every single line you see is cut by hand before I ever pick up a beveler or a backgrounder stamp.

The last few seconds are back at regular speed so you can get a good look at where I ended up after 42 minutes of carving.

Next comes the tooling—and that’s when all of these lines will really start getting some depth & character!

Be honest… could you sit and make swivel knife cuts for 42 minutes straight? Let me know in the comments!

08/28/2026

⭐️Friday Inspiration ⭐️

08/28/2026

My pieces always start with a few swivel cuts… and ends up looking nothing like where it all started!
This custom show stick wrap was made for Chisolm, from the first cuts in the leather all the way through to the finished piece.
There’s just something that I love about watching plain leather turn into something made special for one person, that never gets old 💜

08/27/2026

Too much equipment and not enough counter space? 🙋🏻‍♀️

That was exactly the problem we were running into in my leather studio. I wanted several pieces of equipment close at hand, but I definitely didn’t want every inch of countertop permanently occupied.

So we came up with this interchangeable setup — and it has worked SO well. And now I get to share it with y’all.

Here’s how we built it and how I swap everything out depending on what I’m working on.

And if you want to see how the rest of my studio is set up, I recently put the full studio tour over on YouTube. 🎥

08/24/2026

Freshened up my little spot at Rooted: ETX Local Goods + Market
We dropped off a new batch of horse and cow keychains along with more initial necklaces this weekend, so everything is stocked back up and ready for some new homes 🐴🐮
If you’re around Murchison, stop by route and take a peek!

08/24/2026

Well... the full studio tour is FINALLY here 🎉🎉
When I shared that quick peak inside my studio before we left to go to the Heart of Texas Leather Show in Waco, I got so many questions and comments about how we designed it, why things are where they are, storage ideas, equipment and all the little details we built into it.

So I finally did it. And when I say it's a FULL tour, I mean it its 38 minutes FULL! 😆

I'm taking y'all through my entire studio, how we planned it all out, some photos and video from the original build, and all the little things we incorporated to make the shop work, for the way we work.

There's a 4'x8' cutting table, tooling and painting areas, leather storage, interchangeable equipment setup, sewing area, photography and shipping stations, my funky chair.... and yes, the ridiculously expensive 'leather-cutting' laser lol
If you love leather work, workshop organization, studio tours or you're planning your own creative space, come snoop around my shop.
And if you see something you want to know more about, ASK! I'd love to know which parts you want me to break down in future videos.

Welcome inside my custom leather studio! In this full workshop tour...

08/22/2026

From plain leather to a whole HERD!
One of my favorite parts of this 22 piece wholesale order is watching as each little pony develops its own personality once I started applying paint.
Buckskin. Palomino. Black. Sorrel. Flea-bitten Grey.
Same little leather horsehead… 5 completely different ponies, all painted by hand.
And now the whole herd is finished and ready to head to Pleasant Plains Arkansas on Monday!
Which is your favorite?

08/14/2026

One more stop from our Waco trip that I haven’t shared yet! 💜

Of course we couldn’t head to the Heart of Texas Leather Show without stopping by Tandy Leather’s newest store in Waco, Texas!

Y’all know I can’t walk into a leather store without looking at EVERYTHING. 😂 So come take a quick walk through the new location with me!

I may be back home in my studio now, but I’ve still got a few more Waco adventures tucked away to share.

Have y’all made it to the new Waco Tandy yet?
Tandy Leather

08/10/2026

Well… we survived the 2026 Heart of Texas Leather Show! 😂🤎

We’re back home, so we sat down for a few minutes to talk about the week—the classes, the trade show, our day exploring Waco, the Last-Minute Leather Shootout, what we learned…and whether we’d do it all again.

Spoiler: absolutely.

We both came home with new skills, new ideas and about 47 new projects floating around in our heads. 😂

And yes—that bag he’s holding is the one he made in class!

Thanks for coming along with us this week. I’ve loved sharing a little behind-the-scenes look at this side of the leather world with y’all.

Now we want to know: what was YOUR favorite thing we shared from Waco?

08/08/2026

I’ve been keeping a little secret from y’all this week… 👀

I entered the Last-Minute Leather Shootout at the Heart of Texas Leather Show!

And apparently I took the words “LAST MINUTE” as a personal challenge. 😂

The competition was designed to recreate a real-world situation where leatherworkers don’t have unlimited time to plan and perfect a project. This year’s challenge was to create a patriotic valet tray honoring America’s 250th birthday. 🇺🇸 It had to function as a tray, flatten/fold/roll for travel, AND stay securely in both its open and packed positions.

Sounds fun, right?

Well… I procrastinated until about a WEEK before it was due. 🤦‍♀️

I finally started, had about two hours of work into it over a couple of days and then realized I’d made a HUGE mistake—I had accidentally backgrounded part of the FLAG.

There was no fixing it.

I had to start completely over.

With FIVE DAYS LEFT. 😂

So I redesigned, recut, retooled, painted, stitched and finished this sucker right up until we left Tuesday for Waco.

All together, the finished version took me about 8 hours to create.

I even came up with my own solution for the travel requirement: suede corner ties with brass Native American-inspired slider beads. Cinch them up and the tray holds its shape; loosen them and the entire 10” × 10” tray lays flat for packing.

Then Wednesday morning, I carried it into the Waco Convention Center and handed it over to the judges.

I didn’t take 1st or 2nd in the tooled category this year—but I had an absolute BLAST with this challenge.

And considering I managed to turn the Last-Minute Leather Shootout into an ACTUAL last-minute leather shootout…

I’d say I understood the assignment. 😂