Clint Wilkinson - Owner

When I was born in 1982, my grandfather traded the doctor a saddle for my hospital bill. I didn't end up here because of that trade exactly, but it's a fair place to start the story.

I grew up inside his shop, Weldon's Saddle Shop & Western Wear, which he opened downtown in 1957 and ran for sixty years. I learned the basics of leather before I was old enough to know it was a skill and not just a chore. By my teens I could hold my own on hand tools. Then I got a dirt bike instead of a horse, and leather took a back seat for a long time. Close to fifteen years, spent in motocross, photography, and design work.

I came back to the bench in 2012, working leather alongside my grandfather while his shop was still open. In 2017 he retired it. He passed away the following year. I wasn't going to let the trade end with him, so I kept going, on my own, under my own name. Not a reopening of his shop, something new, built in the same building, carrying the same craft forward.

I still do this the way he taught me. By hand, mostly, without shortcuts, because the shortcuts are usually what make a piece forgettable. It won't come out perfect every time, and I've made peace with that. A hand-cut edge and a hand-pulled stitch carry the mark of whoever made them. That's not a flaw to hide, that's the point.

Every piece that leaves this bench is meant to get better with use, not worse, and to eventually mean something to whoever ends up with it next. That's the whole idea behind heirloom work. It's not really finished when I hand it to you. It's finished when it's been carried long enough to have a story of its own.

Thanks for looking, and for being patient while it gets made right.

(Weldon Burgoon, Clint's grandfather)