From Andy & Aaron’s website… “Every year for Cody High Style we get an excuse to make a piece that is truly extraordinary. This years Cody piece, featuring reclaimed Redwood burl was no exception. The bi-level coffee table named “Paseo De Plata” or, The Path of Silver, displays a colorful abalone shell representing a mountain spring lake. The lake spills over onto the lower level in the form of strung pearls. The pearls flow into another Abalone lake, which in turn spill into a stream of silver.” 

Andy & Aaron create furniture with unparalleled quality & passion. Their work will not only last for a lifetime, it will also continue to reveal new stories to your family over years of loving use.

A BIG Welcome to Andy & Aaron Sanchez as new Cactus Creek Sponsors. They have a lot of great things happening in their family and also their business. I am very proud to have them on Cactus Creek site and I look forward to sharing their stories with you.  Thanks y’all!!! xo,fancy

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Rustic * Western * Vintage FURNITURE

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Sánchez is a tall man, and greets his admirers with an invitation ‘would you like to here the story (of the piece)?’ Of course many heads turn, as he recites the tale of a bear traveling the base of the wood, but is being chased by two dogs; so the bear leaps to the next level and travels up the “trunk” of the tree with the dogs howling at its base. The bear leaps to the edge of a “cliff”, as he points out the bear tracks hanging on the edge of the “cliff”. The dogs go nuts, and the bear climbs higher trying to escape, and jumps through a knot-hole in the wood and into the cabinet. When he opens the cabinet door, the shelves are filled with large stone fetishes of bears and other wood creatures.

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When I inquired how long it took to create the piece, the story continued in his trademark style, explaining it took “one month and 30 years of experience.” Using alligator juniper that resembles an alligator’s rough skin, and found in Sanchez’s home state of New Mexico, the areas low rainfall causes short twisted growths in the trees. These trees can live for thousands of years, and the craftsman works with a woodcutter to harvest timber that has died. Left basically in its natural state, the holes are left as they are found, or inlaid with accents of turquoise, coral, marble and sterling silver.

He is a craftsman who truly loves the work he does and embraces the life that allows him to work with his family. They have operated their award-winning business for over 20-years and have earned many awards, including the Cody High Style’s People’s Choice Award in 2007 and Western Design Conference Best Western Spirit Award in 2003.

Andy and Aaron Sanchez offer an exceptional website where you can view their portfolio and start imagining your own furniture with a story!!

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As we wind up our Cody High Style series I want to give a big shout out to Guest Blogger Diana Friend for all of her hard work writing these stories while she was in Cody!!

Diana is a creative word-smith, specializing in personality profiles. She is also a horsewoman of long stature, and grew-up on the Putnam Quarter Horse Ranch, Hoyt, KS, achieving an accomplished record in the show and rodeo arenas for nearly three decades. She has recently launched her freelance business, “Lucky Shu—always creative”, and takes a limited number of projects that including event management, writer/editor, photographer, and appliqué design. She may be reached at luckyshu.df@gmail.com.  Thanks, Diana!!

Howkola means “welcome friends” in Lakota. Tim Lozier has been a custom furniture maker for 18 years and is a Cody native. His entry was an incredible king-sized bed featuring reclaimed wood and leather tooling by Keith Seidel, a saddle maker who has a shop on Cody’s main street. Tim’s work is one-of-a-kind but follows the Thomas Molesworth traditions with Lozier incorporating his own personal style. His goal with each piece is to create something that will be passed-on to the next generation.  Click HERE to visit Tim’s website.

Tim and Tiffany Lozier ~ Cody, Wyoming
“Spring Creek” Bed ~ $9,950
Lie down and dream of a beautiful Northfolk campus.  Juniper fence posts anchor the hand sculpted driftwood pieces that replicate the mountain view from Spring Creek.  The talented tooling of Keith Seidel brings softness to the hardscape of the wood.  Enjoy and sweet dreams.

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The desk’s partition is lighted, and the bronze-castings of a Great Gray Owl and two Mule deer fill its arch. The apron of the desk is covered in Zuni fetishes as they journey across the Range. The leather-covered desktop is hand-stitched with more animal fetishes.

Dan McPhail sure looks like a western cowboy, with his rodeo-creased hat and faded chambray shirt and blue jeans. But when Diane Ross introduced me to Dan, I heard a twang not usually found west of the Mississippi. That is because he is a Kentucky cowboy that has been designing western antler-art accented furniture, accessories and sculptures, seven-days a week, for over 20-years.

“I had not been out west,” explains McPhail, tipping his hat to the back of his head. “So when I built my first antler chandelier, I thought I had invented the concept—boy was I disappointed when discover I hadn’t (invented antler chandeliers).”

So, even though he had not been influenced by other’s antler creations, he learned that creating each piece is “elk challenged” he strives to create something that reflects simple western design. He conquered the challenge this year with his $8500, polished-antler peduncle chaise lounge, upholstered in pale green leather {ABOVE} winning the 2008 Cody High Style Best of Show Award. Of course, he began winning design awards back in 1996.

For more beautiful antler designs from Dan visit his website HERE.

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Unique furniture and Molesworth Reproductions

Santos Furniture was the last stop on the Cody High Style Studio tour. As the trolley pulled up to the adobe-style studio, Lester greets us warmly. Looking more like a rock star than a wood craftsman, the artists dress in a form-fitting black t-shirt, stonewashed jeans, perfectly coordinated with a classic black belt and boots. He guided us to a tall stand of wood poles that leaned against the building. He explained that he goes out into the mountains to look for the wood he uses in his pieces.

Entering the studio showroom, you immediately go into sensory over-load, as your eyes gaze the neutral palate of tanned leathers, wood cabinets, tables and shelves. Warm colors from Janet Bedford paintings and woven fabric used to upholster the furniture are strategically placed around the room. The loveseat has a ribbon draped on the seat that reads “Western Design Conference – Best in Show 2008.” The leather is handpainted (Janet Bedford’s work) and the cushions are framed in re-claimed wood.

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Lester shares stories of his current favorite projects. He designed a desk for use at the Buffalo Bill Historic Center and the Governor of Wyoming saw it and wanted one, so they are working on it so he can have it for use in his office at the state capitol. He is also creating 32 original-design doors for a new home that is under construction, and each door is hand-carved by master-carver Fly Brado. We see many projects under construction in the workshop. An entertainment center is nearing completion for a client who lives on Lewis and Clark Road. On the door panels, Bedford has painted the portraits of Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea. It is magnificent!

From the Cody High Style catalog:

Lester started his career helping his father build houses in Massachusetts and also apprenticed to a harpsichord maker, learning hand joinery. “The first time I walked through the door of John Nelson’s studio I was hooked.” He moved west to buld guitars for the Bennett Brothers and, then, to Cody, Wyoming, where he worked for Sweetwater Ranch taking apart old Molesworth furniture to document and to build replicas. Lester started his own one-of-a-kind furniture company, Santos Furniture, in 1994.

Santos Furniture specializes in unique high-quality, well-designed art furniture; the designs have appeared in numerous books and magazines, and television shows. Lester bridges and blends many styles to achieve a look that is not overbearing, but contains many elements. Components of Adirondack, Shaker, Molesworth, New Mexican, and Native American styles can all be found in his art.

Here are more photos showing the details that make Lester Santos’ furniture and artwork so special…  Click HERE to visit the Santos Furntiure website.

The Cody High Style Studio tour gave front porch views of the private studios of Cody’s best western artisans on a beautiful September day in Wyoming. Tour directors from the Cody Travel and Tourism department and transportation on a classic trolley set the stage to experience the settings and inspiration of these areas artists.

First stop was 15-miles outside of Cody, and down and up the narrow Hitching Post Drive to Ron and Jean Shanor’s Wildewood Furniture Studio. Built on what’s left of Buffalo Bill’s original homestead, the shop is an artistic endeavor, made out of straw bales covered with concrete that they built themselves. With an R70 insulating factor, they also built their home and their parents’ home using straw bales construction technique.

Listening to Ron as he explains his home and his work proves he is part engineer, scientist, architect as well as artist. We were welcomed into the studio filled with wood, lumber, tools and furniture in various stages of completion. He talks about how he selects and gathers the right pieces of wood for projects during the summer and works inside during the Wyoming winters. He also shares that his work is his passion, and is always learning new techniques, like creating wood inlays. He passes around a scroll-saw blade that is so fine, I could barely see it without my glasses! He then proceeded to use the blade to cut-out a steer head from quarter-inch panels of maple, black walnut and zebra wood stacked together—cutting carefully, then taking them apart to create an inlay piece from popping the horns from one piece, the head from another, into the framing block.

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Jean encourages us to look around, pointing to one of their “bread and butter” pieces, a trunk made from a hallowed-out tree trunk that currently is in the “ready-to-be-finished” process. But the crème de la crème piece is a applied-pole desk and chair made from driftwood that was entered earlier this month, at the Western Design Conference in Jackson, Wyoming. Along with the driftwood, the desk top is curt from curly maple and the frame is from black walnut. A built in stain glass reading lamp was crafted by Jean.

Ron and Jean’s handcrafted furniture is inspired by nature and the local animals, so much of their work incorporates bear, moose, elk, and mountain landscapes. We ventured into their home which showcases and incorporates the artists work. Driftwood stair rails and transoms, as well as trim around kitchen cabinets delight makes your eyes bug and jaws drop as you discover the details built into this art haven. In the office, a gun case can be seen through the door and Ron shares this is the first piece of furniture he ever made. Jean quickly points to the entertainment center in the living room, as one of their most recent projects. It is truly entertaining to be with the Shanors’ Wildewood Studio!

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I met Steve Reynolds at the Style West Trade show and I must say his grandfather clocks give a whole new meaning to recycle.

Contact Steve HERE for more information.

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The things mother’s teach daughters can open the doors to a fabulous career, as is the case for Lisa Sorrell. As a young girl, Lisa’s mom taught her to sew, a skill that became helpful when she married and moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma. Lisa saw a newspaper ad for a job sewing boots. She got the job, and ended up as an apprentice to the bootmaker and learned how to make custom boots.

A one-woman shop, each pair of boots begins with Lisa personally measuring and discussing her client’s needs and design ideas. The tools and time-honored craftsmanship take about 18-months to complete and deliver each pair. She produces about three-pair of boots each month.

A Master Bootmaker since 2005, she has won the Master’s Division of the boot contest at the Boot and Saddlemaker’s Roundup. Her work has also been featured in Tyler Beard’s books, Art of the Boot and Cowboy Boots, and in Jennifer June’s book Cowboy Boots: The Art and Sole.

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