We recently connected with Michael Parham and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Michael with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I grew up in a family that was no stranger to hard work. My mother a nurse and father a teacher and coach, working hard every day to make a living and serving their community with heart and soul. They left a lasting mark on me firsthand by portraying purposeful, service driven work every day. I truly believe that did me a great service by having chores and structure, while also allowing space for creativity and dreaming.
My grandparents had great influence on me as well, my fathers parents in education and worked a small family farm that taught me the connection between food and nature. They also displayed the hard work and love that went into getting it from the soil to the table. I remember “hunting for arrowheads” in the fields walking behind the tractor, when really, we were picking up rock to build fence terminals for cattle and prepping fields for rye. They taught me that work, though hard, served purpose and could be fun.
My Mothers parents were also hard working and community driven. My Grandmother “Nana” served the household and the church. She took great pride in having a beautiful well-kept yard and always had a project for me to help her with. At an early age I was helping her with mowing, trimming, painting, and landscaping. We even dug a fishpond with beautiful rockwork all around it. I would later go on to tend several yards, had a paper route, and worked at a golf course to make money as a youngster.
My Grandpa Jon had a shoe store that ran like a clock. I still have a nostalgic feeling of walking into his store when I walk into my studio and smell the leather. He worked long hours and took great pride in customer service and serving his community with discipline and leadership. I have so many memories of spending time in that shoe store. I watched him kindly interact with people and make sure they left with the right footwear and a smile. I loved helping him make displays and hand cranking gift bows at Christmas, as they would wrap up the gifts for customers.
All these things led me to see the importance of a hard days work and serving others. I think as a maker and craftsman this upbringing set me up to find purpose, really connect with my work and the people its for.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I own and operate a small bespoke business making fine leather goods with an emphasis on hand-tooled and painted original artwork on leather. I make a variety of goods such as journal covers, guitar straps, coasters, wallets, skillet handle sleeves, framed artwork panels, among other items. I sell at festivals, have a small presence at a few local shops, recently started instructing some basic leather tooling classes, and do custom work mostly on guitar straps.
Over the years I’ve leaned into the custom guitar strap making side of my business. This led me to a great community in music festivals, specifically bluegrass. Interacting with these spaces brings me a great deal of joy and excitement! The music and the people make me feel alive and it truly fills my cup. I have always loved music and how it evokes a feeling for a place in time and tells a story. I have tried off and on to learn guitar, mostly making noise instead of music. So, making guitar straps has been a fun way to connect with people that possess a gift I carry much respect for. Customizing a strap provides a pathway to tell their story through a functional piece of art. A full circle moment is achieved when I see it worn on stage as they share their gift of music. Custom work can be quite a process. Consisting of communication, pencil and paper, design, revising, and practicing unfamiliar aspects of the artwork. Once committed to the concept, transferring that idea into a piece of leather with several tiny tools and a hammer, painting, and sewing it together. It can be a rollercoaster ride of anxiety, fear of failure, struggle and problem solving as a project goes through all the phases before coming to life. The many hours, mental gymnastics, and physical manifestation of an idea can really evoke multitudes of emotion. I get to know a person and a product as if they are one. Often turning a stranger into a friend. Sometimes I contemplate a break from custom work because of the emotional toll it tends to take on me, and then I take another custom order. Probably because deep down inside I absolutely love the challenge, the personal connection, and embracing the creative process.
Aside from the custom work, I draw from nature to create the concept for my inventory. Most of my work is covered in the flowers, mountains, trees, and animals I take pictures of while hiking or in the garden. My love for nature is what draws me closest to a higher power. Sitting on a mountain or in a forest reflecting, makes me feel part of something so much bigger. It reminds me that everything is connected. Some of my great memories are sharing moments and conversations on a trail with friends and family. I want my work to inspire others to experience nature in a similar way.
My goal is to stay consistent with this theme, organically growing into more festivals, art shows, and galleries. My dream is to continue learning new skills, improve communication, and grow as an artist/instructor, in order to best share my love and passion for this craft with others.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think that becoming a friend of failure is most important to developing a new skill. Learning how, when, and where to fail with intention can be a powerful tool. Failing doesn’t have to be a negative experience, if used as a steppingstone to find footing on a new path. Failing forward unlocks hidden ability, as we persist through the frustration it holds. I fail a little bit every day and that just shows me that I am stretching out of my comfort zone. After the pain goes away, I find myself more flexible with new confidence to apply in the next process.
Finding a community to learn from is another important quality. Get in front of the beauty you want to create and let it wash over you. Truly absorb and saturate it. Find people, places, and experiences that connect with your goals and ask questions. Let yourself be inspired without getting jealous that someone else is a little further along in their journey. Take workshops and classes from artists willing to share the lessons they have learned. Find resources and knowledge that advance your perspective. We all start somewhere and grow at different speeds. I am a firm believer of the phrase “we stand of the shoulders of giants.”
Practice a lot. It feels weird if I go over 24 hours without making something. The goal is to take your new skill or tool and become friends with it. Find fun ways to incorporate practice. Make things for friends and family to receive safe feedback and enjoy the gift of making something and connecting it to a person. Healthy engagement of that process not only feeds growth of skillset, but nourishes the soul of creating.
These are the things that have helped guide me and provided positive growth as a maker and craftsman. I still put these into practice every day. They are all things that we never outgrow and we only find different ways to incorporate them into our journey.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
Being able to have a small business is such a blessing and I am so grateful for the opportunity. That being said, it does come with endless obstacles and requires several hats I don’t wear well. Things like marketing, promotions, social media don’t come naturally to me. Last year was a pretty strange year with several obstacles, I will talk about the 2 most impactful. I had the best festival sales and overall experience of my career. 3 months prior I had the absolute worst sales and experience. This forced me to really take a look at my ideal client and the products they gravitate towards. I am now making improvements with the intentionality choosing the spaces I display my work.
I also had 2 open abdomen inguinal hernia surgeries last year. It starved me of physically making anything because of the restraints on lifting and limited mobility. The upside was it forced me to work heavily on my drawing, organization, and design skills. I logged in hundreds of hours of drawing, initiating a necessary elevation of skill level. Also, the down time drove hunger to put my drawings and designs into production once the hammer was back in hand. This humbling season created a more dynamic perspective of gratitude for the time I feel able-bodied. Thanks to the season of struggle, a negative experience turned into a space for potential growth. My work has become stronger, and I advanced my skillset.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.parhamcustomleather.com
- Instagram: @parhamcustomleather
- Facebook: Parham Custom Leather
Image Credits
Amber Dawn Photography
Annie Wymore
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
