Local craftwmen featured in Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine

By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer

Guitar-maker Vince Pawless doesn’t advertise much.

So when a photographer and his assistant found their way to his workshop, to take pictures for a story on American artisans, Pawless was pleased to show them how he does his work.

About a year later, Pawless and a handful of other local craftsman, were featured in the February issue of Southwest Airlines “Spirit” magazine.

The “Spirit” article features photos by Dallas photographer Tad Myers who writes that he “criss-crossed the United States over the last two years to capture” the work of real American artisans.

Pawless, who makes guitars in his workshop about five miles east of Gainesville, said another featured craftsman, saddle and spur maker Bruce Cheaney mentioned his name to Myers.

Pawless said Myers and his assistant took over 1,000 photos.

During an interview, Pawless told Myers that he makes just one custom guitar a month.

He chooses the materials carefully and often builds guitars from wood harvested from his client’s own property.

Pawless said he has always loved guitars and when he left his corporate job in 2002, devoted himself full-time to guitar-making.

He’s built nearly 100 guitars using various types of wood including Brazilian rosewood, spruce, maple, walnut and mesquite.

Pawless said he immediately felt comfortable with Myers and his assistant.

“They told me to just do what I do every day. Tad took the photos and his assistant, Shane, talked to me while he shot the pictures. Shane was cutting up. He had me laughing,” Pawless said.

He also said he’s thrilled to a part of the project Myers has said he plans to turn into a book.

“When I got a copy of the magazine, I didn’t realize how good it would be. This experience gave me a more objective view of what I do. It’s me. It’s my job. It’s what I do every day. But to see it from another perspective, it’s gratifying,” he said.

Pawless said he felt a sort of kinship to Myers.

“He is kind of on the same plane as I am. He’s a craftsman. He’s interested in preserving the old traditional ways of making things. We kind of bonded in that area,” he said.

Pawless said he feels he’s in good company with the other artisans profiled in the story.

“It’s a neat thing for all of us,” he said.

For more on Vince Pawless’s guitars see pawless.com.

Like Pawless, Bruce Cheaney of Cheaney Custom Saddles spends his days working at his craft.

He said Myers called him about a year and half ago after learning about Cheaney’s talent for spur making through a video taped 20 years ago.

“He wanted to know if it would be okay to photograph me in the process of making a pair of spurs,” Cheaney said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

Cheaney said he was glad to comply.

“I took them down to my metal shop. And we spent about three and half hours in the shop. I figure he shot 700-800 photos,” Cheaney said.

He also remembers Myers talked about doing a feature on a guitar maker.

“As I was hammering out the steel, they said they wanted to meet a guitar-maker and I said, ‘You need to talk to Vince Pawless,’” Cheaney said.

Cheaney is part of a family of local craftsman.

He told Myers he learned to make spurs, saddles, bits and belts in his father, Jack Cheaney’s, workshop.

Cheaney’s operation has grown from a respected family business to a nationwide enterprise.

“It started out just local and it took some time, but now I get calls from all over. I just finished a saddle that is going to Pueblo, Colo. (His business) now reaches from California to Florida. My first goal was to get (saddles) on each coast, and I’ve done that,” he said.

Although he is perhaps best known as a saddle maker, it was his custom-made spurs that caught Myers’ attention.

“I learned leather craft from my dad. In the late 1970s, I got interested in metal making,” he said.

Cheaney said he learned a lot of what he knows on his own.

“A west Texas spur maker also gave me a little insight on the one piece spurs,” he said.

His spurs are as beautiful as finely crafted jewelry despite the fact that he often makes the intricately detailed pieces out of salvaged Model T Ford axels.

The decorative elements are often copper or nickel.

Both Cheaney and Pawless said the magazine exposure was a blessing.

“It’s great to have people who want to meet you and get to know what you do. It’s also good exposure for Gainesville,” he said.

Cheaney’s Web site is prosaddles.com.

Pawless and Cheaney are not the only local craftsman featured in the magazine.

The pictorial spread also features Nokona Athletic Goods and Trail Town Boots’ artisan Carl Chappell.

Nokona Athletic Goods — a handmade baseball glove maker — received some attention when a 2006 fire destroyed the company’s Saint Jo factory.

The family-owned business continued to pay its employees while moving its operation to a new location.

Nokona makes about 50,000 gloves a year. See nokona.com.

Another Saint Jo-based artisan, Carl Chappell has been making custom boots since 1982.

He said each pair takes about 40 hours to make.

Chappell’s boots are so beautiful and so sought-after that the theft of a pair of his boots made headlines three years ago.

The thief later left the purloined footwear in a public place where they were found by Muenster Police Chief Bob Stovall.

The boots — worth over $1,500 — were eventually returned to Chappell.

For more on Trail Town Boots see chappellboots.com.

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