Featured Artist: Clay Banyai
My first introduction to hand carved leather was when my grandfather gave me a belt he made for my birthday. Later that same year we had an introductory leather class in junior high school. I got hooked in that class and have been carving for about 35 years. I started out doing belts and billfolds and the other things most people start out with. Many years later when I first saw the kind of figure carving work that Robb Barr, Jan Schoonover, and Peter Main were doing, I knew that was the kind of thing I wanted to do. I took a bunch of classes from Jan and worked my way through Robb's video series. I also took classes from several other masters of the craft, trying to learn as many different things as I could. With the help of Rex Cook, a local saddle maker, I learned to build saddles. But my real love is still extreme embossed figure carving.
I have been a member of several leather crafting groups on the internet and through them have written some online lessons. Hopefully in the near future I'll be teaching "real" classes too. I feel really lucky to have learned from some of the best and hope to be able to pass some of what I've learned on to others.
Contact Information:
Clay Banyai
13480 21st St. SW
Belfield, ND 58622-9361
(701) 575-8619
claybmaker@ndgateway.com
www.badlandsleatherart.com
