Custom Saddle Maker Etches Permanent Imprint on Leather Craft Business
With swift, precise hand movements, Alfredo Ayala chisels and molds sheets of thick leather into what he calls his “piece of art,” a saddle, graceful with intricate etchings, yet sturdy in weight and form.
Ayala is one of a handful of craftsmen who have carved a livelihood out of making custom saddles. Far removed from East Coast saddle assembly lines or even larger saddle manufacturers in the Los Angeles area, Ayala works alone in the back room of a small Pacoima Western-wear store on San Fernando Road.
He has been practicing his trade 34 years, beginning at age 13, when he learned to make wallets, purses and belts from his maestros, teachers in his native Nayarit, a western state of Mexico.
After coming to Los Angeles in 1963 and settling in Lincoln Heights, Ayala spent 10 years working for McPherson Leather Co. in Los Angeles, one of the largest custom saddle makers in the area.
Juan Torrez, the supervisor of the McPherson saddle shop and a 27-year leather worker himself, calls Ayala “one of the best stampers I’ve ever seen,” referring to the art of creating detailed etching on the leather.
“It’s very hard to find someone like Alfredo,” Torrez said. “He can make a perfect saddle from beginning to end all by himself.”
Inside Ayala’s shop, with dozens of tools hanging from pegboards, two sewing machines and a row of saddles in various stages of creation, the craftsman works eight to 10 hours a day to the accompaniment of Mexican music on the radio.
It takes him about 60, sometimes 80, hours to make a saddle, cutting and molding layers of leather around a wooden seat-shaped base called the tree. Most of the time is spent stamping with pencil-thin tools the popular saddle designs of wild roses, poppies or acorns.
The designs are created by first etching an outline with a dull knife-like tool. The depths and hues of flowers and leaves are formed by pounding indentations into the leather with hammer and tool.
“People think carving little flowers out of leather is easy work,” Ayala said, while briskly pounding away on the leather. “But let me tell you this is hard--I work up a sweat.”
The complete saddle will weigh 40 to 45 pounds. The cost: $1,500 to $3,500, depending on the detail. Ayala said his work is steady and he relies only on word-of-mouth referrals and repeat customers for business. A good month brings in $3,000, a slow month $800.
Customer Sonny Miller of Simi Valley said he is willing to pay $3,400 for an Ayala saddle because the workmanship is “far superior to any other leather shop I’ve seen. I was looking for something outstanding, and Alfredo can do it.”
Despite his reputation, Ayala said he is content to keep his business a one-man shop without the assistance of apprentices.
“My customers come to me and say, ‘Alfredo, make my saddle.’ They want my work, not someone else’s,” he said. “So my hands are the only ones that make the saddle.”
