Leather artist makes botanical creations

“Taint what a horse looks like, it’s what a horse be,” Terry Pratchett wrote in his 2004 novel “A Hat Full of Sky.”

Kristi Uhles, the Garry Oak Gallery’s artist of December, recalled the quote while attempting to define beauty in her eyes. She is establishing her own artistic discipline creating leather sculptures meant to evoke the feeling of, rather than strictly replicate, their botanical inspirations.

“I’ll never be able to achieve realism … so I try to make flowers and things that are what the essence of them are, not the realistic representation,” Uhles explained. “And when I can achieve that and you forget what the medium is, that’s my ‘Yes’ moment.”

Uhles said she began experimenting with leather in 2010 to create “indestructible board games” now sold at TerraVen, a business downtown she previously helped run. Lacking an artistic background and learning a craft she likened to the “Wild West” — rather unexplored — meant she could forge a discipline entirely her own.

Borrowing clay molding, woodworking and fiber techniques, Uhles shapes, dyes, then constructs flowers and foliage from leather. She explained that she formulated her techniques by studying “individual masters,” watching YouTube videos and learning from trial and error.

Numerous sketches are drawn early in her artistic process, meant to outline the final product’s proportions. Then, Uhles soaks leather pieces in water, allowing them to be shaped by hand before they are dyed. Dimension is given to the leather by compressing it with small metal tools, like bevelers, to create indentations. Often, she coils her designs around glass vases, giving the otherwise stiff material an eye-catching, if illusory, vivacity.

“I started to really play with it after about five years, and stopped following other people’s patterns and making my own. And then at about 10 years is when I was like ‘Alright, I think I know what I’m doing.’” she said.

Uhles’ creations are largely made from wet-formed, vegetable tanned cow leather sourced from tanneries typically supplying furniture makers. Vegetable tanning soaks leather in vats of tannins, or a molecule naturally occurring in some tree barks, to alter the materials’ protein structure and thus prevent decomposition.

Through this process, leather takes on a versatile malleability she finds inspiring, as the material can be both supple and firm. She finds inspiration in the world around her, too. Sometimes impressionist paintings do the trick — a print of Edgar Degas’ 1876 work “Ballet” sits in her workplace — whereas other times, its scouring the island for flowers.

While more abstract pieces increasingly occupy her focus, Uhles is still reliant upon crafting functional leather pieces and teaching leather working classes to sustain her artistic endeavors. She plans on teaching full-time, beginning in January.

Joining the gallery as Uhles did in October gives her a space to create freely, without worrying about making a profit. Her recognition means she has the creativity to embrace such an artistic freedom around the clock.

“I don’t think of myself as an artist like that, and to be honored and appreciated in that way is very, very humbling and makes me blush,” Uhles said.