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Johnny’s Custom Hatters
Ronnie Bardwell’s felt hat still hangs on the wall at Johnny’s Custom Hatters, just where he left it before he passed away, in April 2013. His ashes reside nearby, along with his portrait, which his...
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KKDW
In a corner of Kelly DeWitt’s workshop, housed in a nondescript industrial park in Northeast Austin, stands an upright piano covered in sawdust. On breaks, the 25-year-old Houston native often sits...
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Serenity Knives
Five years ago, Russell Montgomery was managing a Starbucks and dreaming of starting his own business. His wife, Elizabeyta, suggested knife making, because he had been fascinated by sharp edges as a...
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Elefant Press
One of the many posters hanging in the Deep Ellum studio of Elefant Press says it all: “Art Is Work.” The quote—from famed graphic designer Milton Glaser—rings especially true as Fernando Gonzalez...
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Hey Murphy
Horseshoe crab exoskeletons found while kayaking in Nantucket. A fossilized megalodon shark tooth discovered on a beach in North Carolina. Pretzel-shaped napkin holders picked up in Round Top. Objects...
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Circle 21 Candles
From humble beginnings in Amarillo, Janet Coffman’s candles travel great distances, destined to be burned by customers around the globe. “They go crazy for our candles in Switzerland,” Coffman says....
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Garcia Lures
Like any devoted fisherman, John Garcia can easily recall his most epic catch: a 27-inch trout he reeled in at age thirteen off the pier at Cole Park, in his hometown of Corpus Christi. Garcia learned...
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Bexar Goods
The Instagram account for Bexar Goods is full of beautiful, inspiring photos of the company’s handcrafted items—leather satchels, waxed-canvas totes, and accessories like wallets and leather-bound...
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Jarvis Boards
Three years ago, Tony Smith was happily committed to a desk job in finance. But his mind often wandered to childhood adventures in tinkering, like restoring a 1966 Corvette with his dad and learning to...
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Rocketbuster Handmade Custom Boots
It’s a typical day at Rocketbuster headquarters, in the historic Union Plaza District of downtown El Paso. Three men sit at a cutting table, meticulously hand-tooling unfinished leather; nearby,...
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Cat Spring Yaupon Tea
During the drought of 2011, sisters Abianne Falla and JennaDee Detro watched as one-hundred-year-old oak trees died on their family’s ranch, in Cat Spring. On neighboring ranches, entire herds of...
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Campfire Quilts
Among Ebony Porter’s fondest memories are the camping trips her family would take during her childhood in Australia. In particular, she recalls sitting around the campfire with her mother and...
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Capron Bits & Spurs
The Roy Rogers generation is passing away,” says Wilson Capron. “The legend of the cowboy is fading, and that breaks my heart.” In fact, Capron, who is rarely seen without one of his three custom-made...
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Mi Golondrina
Cristina Lynch can still remember her early fascination with the embroidered blouses and flowing, vibrantly colored skirts that she’d see throughout the streets of Mexico during childhood trips. Born...
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Caddo Watershed
Starr Bowen always has a good story, and it is often set near the water. There’s the time he worked as a ship’s carpenter during the Vietnam War, and the time he built a rowboat in North Carolina as a...
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D.H. Phillips
Dan Phillips hunches over a worn-in drafting table in the middle of his East Dallas studio, which occupies the second floor of the twenties-era warehouse that was once the Ford Motor Company assembly...
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Side Project Skateboards
When Jake Eshelman moved to San Antonio in 2007 to attend Trinity University, the Virginia native thought he’d become a trial attorney. Then he met a girl. It was his now wife, visual artist Margaux...
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Ila
The seed of inspiration for Ila, the colorful line of fine jewelry handmade in Houston by sister-brother duo Ila and Vikas Sodhani, was planted halfway across the world. As children, the siblings, who...
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Smith Map Studio
In the early eighties, Christopher Alan Smith and his family would pile into their Chevy Caprice and set out from their home in what was once rural northwest Austin on road trips across Texas. Along...
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Brad Pearce Glass
The furnace in Brad Pearce’s downtown workshop is blazing at 2,100 degrees, the perfect temperature for working glass. Fortunately there’s a breeze coming off Corpus Christi Bay, three blocks away....
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Hatton Henry
In 1926 George Hatton Vaught opened a harness and bridle shop in Rockwall. Though he had just $35 to his name, he grew the business, one meticulous stitch at a time, into a thriving Western saddle...
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Keith Kreeger Studios
In his East Austin studio, Keith Kreeger sets his three kilns to 2,400 degrees. Glazing inside are glossy black porcelain bowls and serving dishes with gold paint dripping from the rims. Kreeger’s...
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Odin Leather Goods
Odin Clack can still remember almost everything about the Tandy Leather shop just outside the Loop in Houston, where his mom took him as a boy. On a day trip from his hometown of Galveston, Clack, only...
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The Wild Standard
It all started with a buttermilk pie. A few years ago, Linsey Metcalf, a graphic designer, was in the middle of baking one with her roommate in their Austin apartment when the oven broke. She decided...
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Fleur de Lis Forge
On the modest one-hundred-head cattle ranch in Dayton where Rob Flurry grew up, his grandmother taught him how to read, at age four. One of the first books they read together was The Acts of King...
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