The Rambling Gypsy
Welcome to The Rambling Gypsy Podcast, where Tiffany Foy and friends invite you to join them on their porch for a candid conversation about the quirks and adventures that make up their lives. From Tiffany's eclectic collection of animals to the chaos and joys of raising boys, there's nothing held back as they share their unfiltered perspectives.
With a refreshing honesty and a refusal to sugarcoat anything, this podcast delves into the various oddities and peculiarities that come in life's way. From hilarious anecdotes to thought-provoking discussions, they explore the everyday moments that shape their experiences.
Fortunate to be porching it, Tiffany and friends create an inviting atmosphere where authenticity thrives. They unapologetically embrace their unique journey, inviting listeners to do the same. This podcast is not for everyone, but it is for some; those who appreciate unfiltered, real-life conversations that don't shy away from the messy and imperfect aspects of living.
Join us as we gather around the virtual porch and immerse ourselves in the stories, insights, and laughter that The Rambling Gypsy Podcast brings. Whether you're a fellow animal lover or a parent navigating the rollercoaster of boyhood, this podcast will entertain, inspire, and remind you that it's okay to embrace life's imperfections.
So grab a seat, put on your headphones, and get ready for a delightful journey of laughter, reflection, and unscripted joy. Welcome to The Rambling Gypsy Podcast, where we invite you to be part of our vibrant and unfiltered world.
The Rambling Gypsy
From Race Tracks to Leather Stacks with Designer Custom Leather
In this special episode recorded on-site at Designer Custom Leather, Tiff sits down with close friend, Courtney Nixa, to hear all about her unique journey. Having met through a chance connection with musician Josh Ward, Courtney shares stories from her time in the equestrian industry - before switching gears and forging her own independent path in the world of leather.
This episode is a heartfelt exploration of creativity, tradition, and the power of community, as Courtney's journey from horse trainer to skilled artisan unfolds with every stitch and story. 🫶
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Shop Designer Custom Leather: www.designercustomleather.com
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Music: “Blessed” by NAEMS
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Merch (coming soon): https://www.ramblinggypsy.boutique
Talk With Tiff here: https://www.tiffanyfoy.com/talk-with-...
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Find Tiff:
Website: https://tiffanyfoy.com
Instagram: / gypsymammatiff
Facebook: / gypsymammatiff
TikTok: / gypsymammatiff
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Production: SIREN Studio
The Rambling Gypsy podcast is a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of real Texans doing real sh*t. We're pulling back the curtains on our daily lives - and you're invited to laugh and learn along with us.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/@TheRamblingGypsy
https://www.facebook.com/GypsyMammaTiff/
https://www.instagram.com/GypsyMammaTiff/
https://www.theramblinggypsypodcast.com/
https://www.ramblinggypsy.boutique/
I put a blessing on it to real. This ain't metaphoric. We just put the I in iconic buzzing like I'm electronic. Ah yeah, I put a blessing on it. See me dripping in it 24-7 on it. I'm just being honest. Ah, holy water dripping, dripping from my neck to my creps. So I'm too stepping on it like.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, I'm Tiffany Foy. Welcome to the Ramblin' Gypsy podcast. And today we are not in our normal which we really don't honestly ever have a normal but we are in a really, really, really cool place. Um, this is a very good friend of mine. This is Courtney Nixa. Say hi everybody. Yes, um, so we met, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna go before this, before all this epicness that I don't know what all you guys can see here, but I will tell you that it smells like fucking heaven and I don't think I think I just messed up the f thing because I I was like what, 10 minutes before I'm supposed to drop the f bomb or whatever. But I think we can put, you can put like that's a new record on it slaying it I'm just slaying it right out of the gate today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the last two days have been a fluctuation and if anybody follows my uh gypsy vocab, yeah, it's been a, it's been a show, Um. But anyways, yes, we met through mutual friend, Josh Ward. Yes, ma'am, yes. So if you guys don't know anything about Josh Ward, you should, and shame on yourself. So Josh Ward, musician, very, very good, very, very, very genuine soul, and you know we have Gypsy River Resort and we kind of labeled it as the Josh Ward weekend. I think that's what we have it categorized in our system. And you guys have been friends for how long?
Speaker 3:About two years, I think he reached out one day about getting a bag and it blew my mind, cause I was a fan prior and um got to hang out a little bit. They invited us down to the river. We had to hang out and met a bunch of awesome people.
Speaker 2:I had no idea that that's how y'all's relationship started. No shit, I'll be down.
Speaker 3:There's a long backstory, if you will, but that's pretty much the extent of when we first actually got to know each other. Yeah, and we met him in green with a bag and he was the most just down to earth person, the sweetest, most genuine soul, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, such good people. Yeah Well, that's really ironic in here, my gosh. So we've had the Josh word freaking deal at the camp for such a long time and so, yeah well, that's really freaking cool, yeah, so met with a bag. That's how I met you guys. And then now here we are. I mean, don't call me out, but I kind of feel like you're my friend. Well, I would hope so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So, um, you guys are you're from here, from San Antonio from San Antonio Originally grew up in San Antonio, moved to Seguin about my sophomore year of high school and have been on the same property ever since. So you graduated graduated from Seguin and.
Speaker 2:Matador and I'm a unicorn, yep, and you know our rivalry is strong. Yes, yes, it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, my dad, um who you know I've recently lost, but he's um's lived in Seguin for a long minute. I worked in the child care industry for a very long time, so I had a facility in Seguin for 13 years, so I know that whole area like the back of my hands. Yeah, so you guys are out here, you have horses, horses and dogs and cats and cows
Speaker 3:and donkeys and ponies and chickens, and so this property that you guys are on is 80 acres. The original property is 80 acres. Yeah, and it is absolutely beautiful. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you guys got in the horse business.
Speaker 3:I've been in the horse business business. I started riding when I was eight doing hunter, jumpers and whatnot, and then my parents got into some racehorses probably sophomore, junior year of high school and out of high school I went to about two years of college and it wasn't for me. I wanted, I didn't know, I did all my basics, got them out of the way and then I had no idea which direction I wanted to go Right. And so I told my dad I don't want to waste your money, I want to do the horse thing. And so I went to work for our trainer and I worked for him for about eight years out of high school, out of college, and then went out on my own for a little bit and did the training thing and then got kind of tired of the moving every three months city to city to city. It's a hard life. It's 24-7. Like there's seven days a week, 24-7.
Speaker 2:So I didn't realize, which is kind of I mean, that's kind of a catch-22, I guess in the training side. But saying that I don't realize that a trainer travels is kind of stupid, because then I just had to catch myself Because I do. I have an exotic trainer that comes in and that's all she's done. She's, um, we are 10 years, part and age and she has been training forever and she has traveled all over the place. So, yes, now that makes sense. But then my mind goes into um, my family owns Los Indios stables, which have been horse trainers and they've been in the horse business forever and ever and ever, and four time world barrel champion and heading and healing and what have you. So there's a traveling there. So, for whatever reason, when you mentioned horse training, it's my brain is like where were you going?
Speaker 1:What were you doing?
Speaker 2:You got your wagon and a little thingy and you just amused it right on up and you just traveled.
Speaker 3:But no, I get it now. You literally pack up your stable every three months and move to the next track. It's a circuit, and so you either stay within state and you go to the tracks that are in state, or if you travel to different states. Some horses are there's bigger money, there's different stakes, races, there's different opportunities in different, or if you travel to different states.
Speaker 2:Some horses are. There's bigger money, there's different stakes races. There's different opportunities in different states. So you're training horse racing Quarter horses.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, yeah, quarter horses, my exotic trainer that comes down and works with my camels that's. She started race horse training and it's really kind of cool. I'd love to have you two sit and have a conversation and listen to y'all stories on how cool that is. And because she goes back and tells the stories on how everything used to be just I mean, just hard and just into now where she, if you even walk up and your eyebrow is in the wrong direction, she's like I know, yeah we're not, we're not doing that today.
Speaker 2:You're going to mess up the entire vibe here. The herd is going to react the wrong way, but I guess in training for all those years, she it's is it's all changed, or but so you, okay, decided to go work for the trainer started from the ground up.
Speaker 3:Worked as the, as the stall cleaner, the basic groom, worked my way up over time to assistant trainer and then eventually took off, got my license and trained on my own.
Speaker 2:So it requires a license to train horses Yep. I did not know that.
Speaker 3:You've got to take a test, pass a test and keep a current license.
Speaker 2:What do they?
Speaker 3:ask you in this test Don't ask me that.
Speaker 2:It's been so long. Do you get on the right side?
Speaker 3:There's some pretty basic things, but there's some pretty off the wall that it's like, really you don't you don't need to know that I had no idea yeah. There's some, there's things to know. I mean there's a lot to know about, yeah, wow, how much medication they can have. Okay, the certain markers on the track, like there's all kinds of different odds and ends yeah and fear of horses ever more so the older I get, I never did weird how that happens, yeah. I never did growing up.
Speaker 1:No, I could do anything in the same way, I wonder.
Speaker 3:I just get more aware of the what ifs right and I know I break probably a little easier now. And yeah, I took too much time away from it, I think, and the longer I've been away from it, the more it's like and I say away from it, I've still. We have 20, 30 horses like. I'm around them every day. It's just the getting on, the not worrying about what they're going to.
Speaker 2:You know, spook at what they're going to do, that might cause a problem, but it didn't used to bother me at all. Backed away from the training thing.
Speaker 3:And I backed away from training for a couple of reasons. I um one, I was kind of tired of the 24 seven, but it's the money in Texas at that time was just, it was not good. It's still not amazing, but it's a lot better than it was Right.
Speaker 3:And, um, I just didn't see myself traveling and doing that 24 seven that you 2013, no doubt and um, one of the reasons I quit was my dad had a brain aneurysm in January of 2012, I believe it was, and that was where I. I just didn't want to do it anymore and I, while he was in the hospital, I was braiding lead ropes, just something to do, and I taught myself how to cut braid custom lead ropes. And, um, in the racetrack, each barn has their, their colors like their stable colors.
Speaker 3:So red and white, blue and white, all the different combinations. And so I do custom ropes and that's where they were selling really well because I had a lot of ends with the racetrack Right. And uh, that's where one of my brothers told me to name it, make it a business, and I was like what do you name something like that? And so he was like I don't know something like designer custom ropes, you know something like that. And so we started out as designer custom ropes and then little by little that changed. There were things that happened that we ended up doing. The ropes turned into people wanting like barrel racers wanting nose vans, bands done and all that kind of stuff. And so I was making those at teaching myself how to kind of tool the leather a little bit and do those things, but I still had to drive to new Braunfels to have them sewn, and so it picked up enough at Ludwig.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cause we talked about this Ludwig leather. And so finally one day oh, is it, opie, I?
Speaker 3:think it was was sewing them and he's the sweetest man. And um, I just said you know, what does one of these machines cost? Cause I mean by the the the time that I take to drive over, drop them off, pick them up, pay y'all to do it. And um, we bought a machine that day and I taught myself how to sew, and you've never sewn before, never sewn a day in my life, not a button, a clothing, nothing nothing taught myself how to sew on the leather show.
Speaker 3:Put it together. It came in on a freight liner. They dropped it off out on the road.
Speaker 2:I don't know. You know Nick has heard me say it a million times over some assembly required can fuck off.
Speaker 3:I fucking hate it and your shit came on a freaking freight liner in pieces, yeah, in pieces, and that thing is heavy, like obviously it came had to have a forklift to get it off. When I loaded it on the wagon I was like, okay, so how am I going to get this in the house right? But I figured it out and I manned it up and got it in the house and put it together and experimented. How long did that take? Honestly, it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2:In a term of a six-pack, a 12-pack, an 18-pack. How many did it take to assemble? Probably a 12. A 12-er.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, and I didn't. I'm horrible with reading directions. I cannot, I do not. I have to look at it and if it makes sense, I can get it done. If it doesn't make sense, I kick it and throw it away.
Speaker 3:It was pretty self-explanatory, even though I had never done it, but the right pieces went in the right places. I watched I'm good with videos, so I'd watched a couple of videos, um, and then just started experimenting and little by little that took off, enough that my brother was like okay, you need to change your name. You're not Ropes anymore. And that's confusing. People aren't going to understand.
Speaker 2:So you had first were. Brady Ropes what you're selling Then we have a sewing machine that shows up industrial clearly. Mm-hmm, you decided at that point.
Speaker 3:That's the original machine there it is. That's the OG, that's the.
Speaker 2:OG. So then what? Did you just like? Run over to Tandy and grab a piece of leather, or did you get like an old boot?
Speaker 3:Well, I had the leather from I just want to.
Speaker 2:just I'm just going to practice what?
Speaker 3:would you practice on? I had the leather and some cowhide from making the nose bands.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I don't know why.
Speaker 3:I didn't make a nose band and so a nose band for some reason. The first thing I did was throw together like kind of like a pillowcase inside out and just kind of stitch the edges and then I flipped it inside out and I was like oh, that's kind of cute.
Speaker 3:That'd make a. And I think Brandy, I think, still has the original bag that I did. That was the first bag that I ever made no way, and I call it a bag. I mean she uses that. She still uses it. That was what 13 years ago.
Speaker 3:So, that tells you. I mean just even the first one. But so we changed it to. I didn't want to change it too much because I didn't want to lose my following Right, but I didn't want to start all over with a new page. So I just said designer, custom leather. So now we have no more ropes the og.
Speaker 2:And so from that point, you stopped the ropes, you stopped, they trickled off. I just didn't have time it didn't make sense.
Speaker 3:For one, it kills my hands. It took 20 minutes a rope. I did get it down to 20 minutes per rope, yeah, and for what I was making and my hands just killed me, right. It didn 20 minutes a rope. I did get it down to 20 minutes per rope, yeah, and for what I was making and my hands just killed me, right? It didn't make sense. When I could, when I saw what I could, do what you could do with something else that didn't wasn't as challenging, so you started with your.
Speaker 2:You did your very first bag and from that bag, or the your inside out pillowcase, that turned into this bag, which is now turned into this huge, yeah, little huge but little family owned you, bubba, your mom and who do.
Speaker 3:You have two others, three two others in the in the actual leather shop and a person that comes in and helps with the embroidery. Which has turned into that in such a little wee bit of time. We have gone from a guest bedroom in our mobile home, basically Right, that overflowed into the dining room, that overflowed into the next guest bedroom.
Speaker 2:Are you hearing all the overflows, nick, do not be mad. We've got gold. We're going to get there, babe, we're going to get there.
Speaker 3:I took over my house with leather.
Speaker 2:You cannot walk in my house ever, yeah, ever, and we did this train wreck.
Speaker 3:My dad had a hay barn down there that's been there for about 20 years now. Yeah, and I had a friend that was a contractor that I called in told him what I needed. He gave me a quote. I said get after it and we closed in. Essentially it's a hundred foot barn that we closed in a 20 foot section 20 by what is that? 45. Yeah and made one room that was the shop and then a room off of that that was like our shipping room.
Speaker 2:That's my front door, the shipping and receiving area.
Speaker 3:You got to take big, huge steps and it's right where you walk in the front door. And then I didn't even tell dad I was doing it. So he came home from work one day and the construction crew was here and they were framing up and he was like what's going on? Excuse, me.
Speaker 2:We have a family meeting.
Speaker 3:Better ask for forgiveness than permission.
Speaker 3:So he uh he was okay with it. I think he understood what was happening. And, um, I put an apartment above it because I was tired of the trailer house that I was living in and I wanted something a little more. After living on the road for years and years and years doing like apartments and hotels and all this, I wanted something a little more, you know, stable, and, yeah, nice. And um, I put an apartment upstairs and, um, quickly, we that's Bubba came into the picture about that point in time and um, we ended up having to frame in a whole nother room for the hides because we were out of room, like there just was no room for everything that was in there. And um, we framed in another room just for the hides and, little by little, we were finally able to sustain to where we made it it was possible to do the shop. And we, we got with another contractor and built the shop.
Speaker 2:So did you realize how quick and how fast that this was growing? Were you nervous about the growth being that fast? Were you just grab it by the freaking? We were just having so much fun, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:It's like you look up and it's like oh wow, this is really fucking happening.
Speaker 2:This is really happening.
Speaker 3:Little by little, it just kept kept to trickle in the right direction, right and slow enough that it wasn't I say slow enough, slow enough that it wasn't, like it didn't hit me blindsided to where I couldn't keep up and lose it all. But I mean it's, it's been nice to maintain.
Speaker 2:Clearly, you've been able to maintain your growth. There's a lot that.
Speaker 3:I'd like to do that. We could go a lot bigger, but I also know that that's when you start losing people, because you start disappointing people. And I'm a people pleaser, yep, and um, I try to keep. I'm a I don't want to say I'm a control freak, but, um, I like to have control of things and I don't like to. Well, this is your baby.
Speaker 2:It doesn't say design for nothing. It started somewhere and it started with you and you have to think I mean you're. You're the backbone of every single bit of this.
Speaker 1:Well, I never would have thought that I'd be making purses.
Speaker 3:I'm a tomboy, I'm not a, I'm not a girly girl. Nope, I've never had been way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, never dreamed he'd be making purses. And then there's that. Add that to your resume. So what do you do? Well, you know I'm a big person. Well, nick, never thought she'd have goat farmer on there either but you know, whatever Never say never, when you're around people like us. I quit my career 20 years and you're so, and we'll get some snippets of Bubba, but this is.
Speaker 2:this is the husband that is now making purses in bags in your career of 20 years was search one instrument first there you go, there he is, there's the guy everybody, there's you, there he is, there's the man, yeah, but the did you. You didn't find it hard to jump in. I mean, that's, that is a commitment and a support of a marriage or relationship, and confidence and dropping everything. And look where you guys are right now. It's.
Speaker 3:It's so cool and so impressive and you'd be surprised how many people, people and there's another leather maker. Before all of this, outside of the racetrack, before leather, I did a lot of dog rescue and I ran across somebody that but you're still doing it. I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've been in your backyard lately.
Speaker 3:But I'm just going to let you know I'm still committed, you're still doing it, but I'm not taking on any new ones. So I got you, I got you, but I did a lot of dog rescue and I ran across it's. This lady called me about something one day. Come to find out it was. It was about dog rescue.
Speaker 3:But come to find out, her husband did leather work, and so that piqued my interest, because I was still very new into the leather thing and I didn't really, and I was looking for any information, knowledge I could grasp from anybody that was willing to. You know, just share, right, and his name's Blake Jones. He's a leather king, I believe is the name of his company, nice, and he's in Laverna, okay, and so his wife rescued heavily pit bulls and stuff, and we got to know each other that way and he, I went in and talked to him and he was always very, very nice to share and his work's incredible, completely different from what we do, but absolutely incredible stuff. And he just, he just kind of opened a lot of doors for me, just in knowledge, trying to find out, you know, different types of leathers and different machinery that works certain ways, and just all the different things that I.
Speaker 3:Now I look at it and it's there's still so much to learn, obviously. But I see people that come in and they're kind of like blown away by some things and I'm like, oh yeah, that's just. And then I think about it. I'm like, but I didn't know that at one point either, so so like, yeah it's, it's interesting.
Speaker 3:But so the dog rescue thing was interesting to run into somebody that's in the same field.
Speaker 2:That helps when you kind of makes you think when things happen for a reason you know that's definitely when you cross people's paths like that. That's, that's really cool, A hundred percent, Really really cool.
Speaker 3:So one of the things that he told me I kind of lost track of what I was thinking about it. One of the things that he told me was at that point was how you'd be really surprised how many people can't use a pair of scissors, like on leather, or cut a straight line or see the details and things. And I was kind of like, oh yeah, but you know, that's teachable. Well, no, it's not teachable it's not.
Speaker 3:And um, so Bubba would come in on his weekends and his days off and he'd we'd be working and stuff and he'd just kind of come in and piddle and whatnot. And I was like he has the eye for things and whatnot. And some things were going on with his work and I was just like why don't you just come work for me? Because I was like I could use the help. Yeah, and little did I know he took me up on it.
Speaker 2:Just done, didn't think twice and boom.
Speaker 4:I was driving 50,000 miles a year and it turned my commute walking down a flat of stairs instead of driving two to three hours every day. So I was like, are you sure?
Speaker 2:Yeah, are you sure that you like me this much? Yeah, how many barns do we have, and how many doors do we have that we can slam? So yeah, yep, believe me, when I was on the road in the motorhomes and run around in 45-footers and big, which sounds bougie or whatever the hell it is, and everybody gets fucking panties out of her wide, but there was not enough doors I could slam in a motor home to get my point across I'm like you know what I'm gonna have to exit.
Speaker 2:I know there's not a rest area or a walmart or anything here, but I need to take a lap, I need to walk around this sucker before I end up going to jail for murder. But yeah, y'all got a lot of rooms, y'all can take a lap and walk it out. But you guys are, y'all are cool, cool, y'all work, y'all, y'all are, y'all are. I mean it's working, yeah, it's working.
Speaker 2:I don't think we spend hardly any time apart, Any time apart Between the Live together work together Everything. Yeah, that's a lot Yep Changed light bulbs together. Haven't tried to kill each other yet. Oh, it's still early, girl. What time is?
Speaker 4:it yeah, 5, 13 yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:No, y'all are too cute, y'all are so cool. So you go in, we got, we have the bag started and then, um, I want to talk to you about the design aspect of this. Okay, so you started off and you made your first little sewing line and then you flipped it inside out and then what? And then you said, oh shit.
Speaker 3:I just literally none of it had any plan, like none of it. That's the best kind. Everything is just something that literally I'll pop an idea in my head and I'm like, oh, I want to try that and, and then I I don't draw it out.
Speaker 4:I don't design it.
Speaker 3:I don't do it with like fabric first to make sure I don't screw something up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just I go all together.
Speaker 3:I go all in, I see it, I see a vision and I just try it and luckily, sometimes it works.
Speaker 2:So my family which is kind of ironic because you people can skin the cat however they want to, they can talk however they want to or whatever but this was um, or is my children's father family, right, fourth generation saddle makers and we're all very, very, very, very close. We have um, they're, they're still my family. I've never left that side of the family. We're all very close. So they own Camel Saddlery at the time. And then there was Hadlock and Fox and then there was Hadlock and Sons and did saddles and all the leather work. And Papa was the most amazing human being I have ever met, probably in my life, and was such an amazing father figure for me and we were extremely close and that was my ex-husband's father and he um actually patent the fiberglass tree, saddle tree, awesome, yeah.
Speaker 2:So um, and we lost him. Unfortunately, um at a very, very young age. He was coming out of home Depot at the crack of dawn. This man worked his ass off 24 seven, never stopped, and um and had a heart attack in the home Depot parking lot and so we ended up losing him.
Speaker 2:But um in the saddle shop. We were always in the saddle shop a lot and they tend their their own hides. Um did it all, and so, um, chet, and so my ex-husband didn't have anything really to do with the business whatsoever. So but chet, his younger brother has him and papa have have done, and he's kept it up for as long as he could. And so then they now have Hadlock designs, which they do, the leather watch bands and what have you. But Chet is by far one of the best master toolers and can cut and tool and fast and any design and any creation like nothing I have ever, ever seen. And I mean, there's it, you know, you've horse business, saddle business, leather business, whatever. There's circle y, circle j, double d, blah, blah, blah, and we could go on and list them for days and days and days and years and years and years.
Speaker 3:But, um, yeah, his tooling skills are absolutely going into Comal Saturday as a kid with my mom. Yeah, yeah, and there was. Yeah, I just that's good Grandma.
Speaker 2:Thompson in there, little tiny little that was. That was granny's mom and yeah, um, but great memories and the smell of walking in here is just like being in the freaking saddle shop. It's just, it's. It's so good, but, um, talking with them and how they've had to change and do and adapt from going from building saddles to their jewelry thing and they tour all over, they do all the major rodeos, um, but what I want to talk to you is so this fringe, and so you cut your own fringe. So Chet and I have talked about fringe and different things and he was like no, can't do it, can't, it's just this, it's just that. How did you, how are you able, or what made you decide that? You know what? You do your own monogramming, you're cutting your own fringe, you're braiding and you're lacing and you're looping, you're doing your own study, every single thing every detail, every single detail is all hand done every hole for the lacing is hand punched.
Speaker 3:Yes, four, five, five, five yeah how did you get?
Speaker 3:into cutting this one piece at a time, and you have. Is it literally? That's how it works? Literally, one piece at a time, a quarter inch at a time. Yes, shut your face, and you have. Is it literally? That's how it works? Literally, one piece at a time, a quarter inch at a time. Yes, shut your face, and you got to keep it straight and you mess one up. You got to start all over. Wow, yeah, it's, it's tedious and it takes somebody that can keep the ruler in place and and that's exactly how it's done and a sharp knife and not cut your finger off. And yeah, it's one piece at a time.
Speaker 2:Literally one piece at a time, literally one piece at a time.
Speaker 3:Well, no wonder he says he doesn't want to do it.
Speaker 2:It's time consuming it's a whole job in itself. I know Chet very, very well.
Speaker 4:He's like, yeah, fuck man the first thing that I ended up working helping her yeah, I cut right through it. She just started, yeah Well cause.
Speaker 2:Chad and I had talked to a lot of a while back and and we were talking about the different textures and the different um, is it depth, or is it thickness or what? I don't know what the hell you call that. But he was like yeah, no, yeah, I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1:Wait, I guess I'm doing it, right yeah.
Speaker 2:But we need to make sure that we do. We have a video of them to actually doing the cutting of the thing, Because that's yeah, who does that?
Speaker 3:A lot of us, I so every one of us.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine what mine would look like? It looked like my hair. It would literally look like my hair. I'd get fired on before I even walked in the door. What do you think, nip? In fact, you need to go shovel the shit out of the stalls. You need to go catch a horse or something. To me, yeah, no way.
Speaker 3:We all do it. I make sure that's one of the things when people start. I make sure that's something they can do, because if they can cut fringe, they can do just about anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so can you imagine yeah. Yeah, mom's mastered, it.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you what. I would like to put her in my pocket and just take her out on the town, If she is not the cutest damn thing in the world.
Speaker 4:Oh, she is freaking adorable, yeah, she is?
Speaker 2:She is freaking adorable. Yeah she is. She is a little rock star. She is so cute. Yes, she is, and she sews her little ass off.
Speaker 4:She does, she works hard.
Speaker 2:And she's over there taking a break eating some snacks, just looking at you she's quick yeah. It just comes. It's kind of how chet is with tooling you get, you know, you say this is what I'm thinking or whatever. And yeah, I mean he can swivel and go, and I mean it is absolutely insane yeah, that that takes a huge talent.
Speaker 3:That's in patience, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And the oldest son, Brett, is, is is got the tooling. He's been with them long enough. And then Tyler, Tyler's, Tyler can do it just as well in the sewing and all the things, but yeah, but to watch Chet tool and to cut with those knives and to pick up, I mean he doesn't blink an eye and I mean just goes nonstopstop, yeah it's yeah, it's, it's incredible that's a whole nother world.
Speaker 3:How did you?
Speaker 2:figure out how, where to find your hides and stuff. So I mean that's, did you just sit around?
Speaker 3:I mean it's a little fbi work on facebook. No, um, just I mean trial and error and a lot of people. Once you get to one place, a lot of people know other places and a lot of people are real secret. Get to one place, a lot of people know other places and a lot of people are real secretive about sharing where they get things.
Speaker 3:And so that's why I say it's kind of like an FBI word, because it took a while to find the right place and the place that I've found now I'm very happy with. They're very, you know, they help work with you. They have excellent customer service and they help work with you. They, um, they have excellent customer service and they have excellent quality hides and, um, I've gone through three or four and I'm sticking with what I've got right now, but, um, there's, there's multiples of them, though too, there's not, um, like, I don't get the exotics at the same place that I get the hair on hides, and so there's, there's different sources. So you have there's probably five sources, four or five for all the different things that we get. I mean, obviously there's others that we get here and there, but just our tried and true all the time orders. Right, there's about five different companies we work with, and do you?
Speaker 2:you're clearly not going. Oh yeah, I'll take that one and then flip, and then flip, and then, oh yeah I do, you do I, they.
Speaker 3:They facetime me and flip through the hides and I pick the ones I want there you go, and when we go up there, they.
Speaker 3:Yep, and they don't mind doing it. One reason I left one of the other companies was because I kind of they stored. These people store the hides flat, like we do, like open-faced, and so it's easy to kind of see what's available. And the other company folds them hide-side in and just has, like you know, brazilian, colombian, the different types, and it's like you go in and they were willing to pull a couple, but then it kind of felt like you were being a bother and they you just needed to say I need 10, and they take the 10 and I've. I don't settle for that, like I I want to provide what I would want if I was buying it Right, and I don't want to have a lot of waste and I don't want, so I pick what I what I want.
Speaker 2:I have a wholesale hide account, but it's not because I'm out doing this by any means or whatever. It's because I just want something cute to put on my floor and decor and what have you. But that's. I was a my sister, and them gave me and said, hey look, she would like to come in and, of course, with all the businesses or whatever, but that's exactly and it. I don't know which place you're talking about and but it may be the same place, but they are so freaking genuine and you can go in there and they will let me spend hours upon. And if I say, rip this one from 15 feet up in the ceiling and I want to see the fourth one down, they will bring that fourth hide down there and I go yeah, that's not it. I would murder someone. There is no way in hell.
Speaker 4:Her phone will start going off. It'll start ding ding, ding ding.
Speaker 3:Just random, it's them sending pictures. Pictures of hides, because they know her style, they know what I like and they're like hey, we've got these.
Speaker 2:Do you want any of them? And I'll just go through and be like yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:And then, if they know they're getting a load in, they'll call me, facetime me and as they, as they, open them and I can have first first choice.
Speaker 2:That's so cool. That's so cool.
Speaker 3:They're really really good people.
Speaker 2:How many different styles of bags do you have?
Speaker 3:I don't even know the answer to that question.
Speaker 2:That's a big question.
Speaker 3:That's just what's currently on the website, like there's a several that we still do that we don't really offer a lot, so they're not necessarily on the site yet, but I mean there's definitely a handful of our tried and true bestsellers that stay on the website.
Speaker 2:You have a very loyal clientele, very, very loyal clientele, and I have really say that again, max, we currently have 18. 18. 18. That's a lot. So I'd say there's probably 25.
Speaker 2:Easy. Yeah, yeah, we currently have 18, 18, 18, that's a lot, probably 25 easy, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the I I didn't realize how loyal the clientele was until, um, I really started researching the bag and of course, you know, I I love to do designs and all kinds of stuff, and that's when we had talked about that for branding and and what have you. And then that's when we were here and you were telling me about the resale deal and how that, and I think that is a really cool thing, where one these are one of a kind, they're handmade, they're here to last a freaking lifetime and then some, but to have it's. It's not really a swap meet, but it kind of is a.
Speaker 3:so to speak. It gives you an outlet that if you, if you're like you know what, yeah something you can sell it to somebody that appreciates and understands what it is, what it is, so that you can go get the next thing that you want, versus having to sell it for pennies on the dollar to someone that doesn't understand or know where it came from or know anything about it, and I think that is so important that how everybody understands exactly what goes in to one of these bags.
Speaker 2:What would you think that the time spent on this size of a bag man hours from beginning to end.
Speaker 3:Beginning to end.
Speaker 2:if I made it without my help and just myself, or I would say the whole let's say the whole team, because that's, you've got payroll involved, you've got time, you have time management, you've got supplies, you have all the things that are involved and blah, blah, blah, you have everything that's going on here I mean that's tough because when we're making them we're cutting out and making multiple at a time, right, and trying to get as many done at a time as we can, because we sell everything each sunday, right.
Speaker 3:But if I had to, per bag, I would say, with everybody's help and everything, probably with the whip stitch and the cutting the fringe and the, probably about a two hour period per bag, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 2:With the whole crew. Yeah, but this is prepping. This is your.
Speaker 3:That's from the way they're laid on the table to where you've already laid out.
Speaker 2:If you're putting a puzzle together, you've already got your corner pieces set over here. You got your flat edge over here and then you got your miscellany. If we're putting a puzzle together, you got all the pieces are all laid out, so now we're going to piece it together with your whole crew.
Speaker 3:Piecing it together Once everything's I was talking about like literally the base of cutting the handle out the front, out the back, out all the pieces and then piecing together um, is probably a two-hour process. I mean, once it's all kind of prepped and just throwing it together is probably a. It's pretty quick really. Yeah, it's probably I don't know every bit of 30 minutes just to do the whip stitch, though yeah, the whip stitch alone is the handle and the top of the bag is about 30 minutes a bag.
Speaker 4:Whip.
Speaker 3:Whip stitch is, yeah, this leather lacing along the edge, yeah.
Speaker 2:So why is it called a whip stitch?
Speaker 3:I have no idea, I didn't name it. Oh, it sounds like fun though.
Speaker 2:If you mess it up, you're going to get it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it sounds like fun, though keep going. It's just, it's a um. I don't know why it's called that, but each, each piece is hand punched, and then the leather lacing is literally one piece at a time, right laced through and which is like a whip.
Speaker 2:I guess, like if you're whipping mashed potatoes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I guess, so it's a whip because it goes If it's skeeter whip stitching, it's like five and a half six Skeeter is like.
Speaker 2:First of all, you need to get your stitch together. You ain't whipping it.
Speaker 4:But I think the really cool thing about this is we have automated this as much as you can automate a handmade item.
Speaker 3:Yeah, with the small crew that we have.
Speaker 1:It runs pretty smooth it runs very smooth.
Speaker 3:Everybody has their designated things they're in charge of so do you?
Speaker 2:have days where monday tuesday is. We're cutting patterns days. Tuesday, wednesday we try, we're whipping, we're whipping it, no, no thursday, friday, we're whipping a good, yeah what are we doing here?
Speaker 4:what are we doing?
Speaker 3:we're whipping on friday complete chaos for the most part but never mind, I'm talking about the whipping on the fridays.
Speaker 3:So the whip stitch is basically the last step. So that's why he says on fridays it's most of everything gets whip stitched, as anything we can get done before friday can get whip stitched. But for the most part it's like those you know. It's kind of like I don't procrastinate, but I feel like I do, because it seems like every week come Thursday, friday, it's like crunch time, right, and that's when we're getting the last bags put together, everything put together. Sometimes we go into Thursday, sometimes into Friday, and we haven't even put a bag together yet and we have to like rush, right, and it's like everybody you know head down.
Speaker 3:we're all business, we get it all done yeah, get a bag put together, throw it over on skeeter's table and then sometimes I get ahead of her and I pile stuff up in front of her. But I guarantee you by the end of the day she's caught up and she finishes it all. She is like a machine that's epic.
Speaker 4:She's a machine, she, just she, just incredible balls of walls the most I think we've done in one day is 26 bags.
Speaker 3:That's okay From a standpoint. You're talking Right. Everything's prepped and you just got to put them together, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:That one day was a whole week's process, Really Cause it's like so you guys do these um live Sunday sales right that are on Facebook and um, and we've talked about this and I've done it and I've watched it and I've sent several people that have purchased bags on the Sunday deal. So for you guys to prep every week, you your anticipation or your goal or your um quantity or whatever is that. Do you have a number?
Speaker 3:Do you guys have as much as you can make, as much as you can as much as we can physically put together and sometimes there's stuff that started that we don't can't. We just run out of time, we can't do it Right and we'll save that for the following week. But these ladies, like you said, are so tried and true and diehard fans that I've sold items that aren't even finished on the live auction, like we'll tell them that we have something started, and they're like I want to see it, I want to see it, and so we show it to them and they're all in and they buy a bag before it's even constructed, which is incredible to me.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that's you know that they trust the process that much. So yeah, it's fun.