This is my fifth shop, two in Cumming, Georgia under the Leatherman and three shops in Colombia. My first was in Georgia in a small space in the back of a laundrymat. Then I moved to a bigger shop in a shopping center where I did real well. I mainly did shoe and boot repair, saddle repair and made lots of holsters and knife sheaths.
Here in Colombia I'm mainly making and repairing saddles and tack. Making saddles stateside is nearly impossible unless you want to starve the first couple of years until your name gets know. Just to build a saddle will cost you about five hundred dollars in materials then you have to compete with the cheap import saddles. Pretty tough way to make a living. if you live at west it's possible, but not easy.
I can probably make a saddle in Colombia from about 60 to 100 dollars, big difference. It's a much simpler saddle then the modern western saddle. I'm mainly making Mexican saddles and McClellands. Here I'm using a Ralide type tree because the wooden tree quality sucks and we have a termite problem.
This latest shop is a little bit smaller than my last, but I'm saving a lot of money and the shop has a good feel.
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