Rusty May makes hand-tooled custom saddles for ranchers, riders and rodeo pros, in addition to other leather items. May is slowly getting back to work after his shop in Loveland was flooded last year.

As anyone who has ever spent a long day on horseback can attest, saddle making is a craft, art, trade and even science. Shoshone master artist Spider Teller came to the Nevada State Museum Saturday ...

Made at the Filson Workshop in Seattle, Filson's hand-tooled leather wallets, card cases and briefcases are extremely rare.

For the ultimate examples of Western decor, think distressed metals, sun-bleached woods, hand-tooled leather, and woodsy textiles that add warmth and texture to any room.

One of leather artist Jerry Shaw's horse saddles in his work space in McKinney, Texas on August 15, 2012. Shaw does does everything from guitar straps to chairs, but his main focus is horse saddles.

Across the room, Bryan Oliver takes an order over the phone before returning to a work bench covered with custom leather belts, one of which is in the midst of being hand tooled.

My mother helped by doing all of the bookkeeping. If the saddle was hand-tooled, she did the color background dying. My brother and I made extra money by sweeping the shop.

Clint Wilkinson makes custom goods and accessories out of the same downtown storefront that was once his grandfather's saddle shop.

Buford's Bona Allen Tannery was long-defunct, but it represented an important piece of history -- founded in 1873, it grew to be the nation's largest producer of hand-tooled saddles, bridles and ...