Walk into the workshop of most master leather workers and you will find belts, holsters, and any number of items used while riding the range of the American West. Jeff Icenhower’s workshop was no exception five years ago, when Jeff turned his longtime hobby into a business. Before long, however, friends in the Colorado Arts & Crafts Society stirred his interest in the leather work of the Arts and Crafts movement.

This leather clock by Jeff Icenhower follows the style of the Arts and Crafts movement that began more than a century ago.

Jeff studied everything he could find about the movement. It started in England in the 19^th century, he told me, as a revolt against the impersonal character of industrial production. William Morris, the icon of the Arts and Crafts movement, championed fine craftsmanship, simple form, and motifs found in nature. The mantel clock Jeff made (pictured above) exemplifies Morris’s points. Continue reading →