"Hellbent for Leather" consists of the rebellion and tenacity of two hearts, two minds, and four hands.... Randy and Claudia Lister met and fell in love, first with each other and then with an art form. The journey began in the land of boots and fashion... the year was 1988 and Randy was doing his part being the misfit of a small historical American town, squeezing his exotic boot store among the prim and proper, and tooling around in his supped up ‘63 T-bird, fully equipped with steer horns and loaded with attitude. Meanwhile, Claudia was restless and aggravated not only with life but also with the holes she was wearing in her boots... little did she know that the answer to her boot problems would also be the answer to her search for a soul mate. In addition to the attraction, they shared a common language and love for design and first laid eyes on the art of inlay/overlay leather design after seeing photographs from the work of the legendary boot makers in the book Texas Boots. From that moment on they ate up everything they could find on the subject including an adventurous day at the Library of Congress. As if bitten, they became hellbent to learn how to take leather and turn it into beautiful creations of their own making. Thus, the journey began...
"Since that fateful day, we have been pushing the boundaries of traditional leather work to make hundreds of beautiful creations together. Being self taught allowed us to think outside of the box, and the result has set a new standard for the art of inlay/overlay design. This is seen specifically in our portraiture work which we especially enjoy. Trying to capture the essence of a person takes it to another level for us in addition to the challenge of construction. We feel it’s important to keep stretching our wings, and we enjoy seeing what our art looks good on. Not everything works out as planned, but it’s that unexpected "x factor" that happens in the process of making something that makes it art in the end and sometimes makes all the difference. We have a passion for precision that enables us to strive for the cleanest work possible. Every piece of leather is hand cut, skived, glued and stitched with this intention, rendering a finished work that is not only, we hope, a demonstration in skill but an organic thing of beauty that will enhance any surrounding. We offer original works in an array of products for sale. We also accept commissioned orders for portraiture and logo reproductions. We work from home, a small farm north of Nashville, where our studio is housed in the smaller of our two barns. We plan for the larger one to house the ultimate garage and custom hod rod interior shop. So get ready!
Our life became complete in 2005 at the birth of our daughter, Sagan, our greatest creation! She is an ancient soul who amazes us and constantly reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously. Like all great love stories, our story has been filled with passion, with drama, with adventures, with challenges, with heartache, with joy, with forgiveness, with blessings, with fruition. Our life is unique in that our art is a large part of the territory of our relationship, and many times has been the catalyst for our personal growth. Everything we do is a collaboration and it’s in that spirit that our pieces are born. At times we can be what we call the two headed monster when we’re feeling passionate about our opinions, but that’s to be expected. The results are always worth it."
THE TENNESSEAN
LEATHER AND LOVE
Couples unique artwork makes a mark while binding their souls ever closer
The stores name might raise an eyebrow HELLBENT FOR LEATHER.
And there's another double-take on the wall inside: a portrait of a Native American chief. On first glance, it looks like a painting.
But it wasn't oil carefully applied to canvas that created the face. Its 455 pieces of leather from deer, cattle and young goats, applied in a technique thats typically reserved for cowboy boots. Yet this is an art form that Randy and Claudia Lister are taking beyond its traditional boundaries. And this new territory is not only strengthening their business, but their relationship.
The couple makes wall-hangings, denim jackets, portraits, soft sculptures and other items at their Nolensville Road gallery and studio.
The more challenging the better. And when customers, many of whom pay several thousand dollars for a complex design, don't challenge them enough, the couple finds their own hurdles. Such was the case with the chief.
We needed a challenge, says Claudia. So we pulled it out of the file. The couple spent more than 200 hours creating the work.
Their shop and gallery name comes from an old cowboy expression meaning recklessly determined or at a great speed, Claudia says. Were more recklessly determined than at great speed. People look at the name and think were some scary leather sex shop and thats not the case. We knew the name would be controversial; what was more important to us was that people didnt forget our name.
When the process by which the couple creates their leather art is distilled, it seems rather simple. First comes the idea, which is sketched out. Randy cuts the patterns with a surgeons scalpel. The pieces are glued in place, and Claudia sews them on using creative detail in the stitching.
Its all aimed at one goal pleasing the customer.
Randy went to great lengths to get just the right shade of yellow to match the logo, says Pittsburgh Steelers fan Rob Baird of Kalamazoo, Mich., who had a jacket made to showcase his pride.
It took the Listers four months to create the jacket, with Roman numerals representing the Steelers Super Bowl championships around the collar. The more you look at it, the more you see the detail, Baird says.
For Cristal Elkins-Williams of Bloomington, Indiana, the Listers created a portrait of a beloved horse. The couple spent 75 hours preparing the artwork before the first of 251 pieces of leather was cut.
It really should go in some sort of museum, Elkins-Williams says. They are the Elvis of leather.
One of the Listers most challenging projects was a jacket for Jeff Allen, vice president of finance for Sony Music Nashville. The custom creation was a Russian Imperial crest incorporated in leather onto the back of a denim jacket, with a leather background of the Russian flag. I wanted to do something in honor of my Russian heritage and the Russian Imperial crest is really striking, says Allen. His grandfather was a general for the last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his great-grandfather was a physician for the czar.
After showing Randy and Claudia photos of the Imperial crest, the design work began in earnest. They did additional research on the Romanov dynasty, the crest and Russian military uniform to perfect the details of the jacket for Allen. European lambskin was used to create the artwork. It took 179 pieces for the crest itself, with the center shield of the crest requiring 44 pieces of leather in a 4 inch by 4 inch area.
Stitching the little antlers on the deer in one of the small crests on the wings of the eagle, making sure that everything is perfectly symmetrical down to the one-sixteenth of an inch or even less. Allen says. Its absolutely incredible.
But a decade ago, Randy knew virtually nothing about cutting leather and Claudia didnt know how to sew. At 24, Randy owned a boot store in Virginia. He sold stock and custom boots and always admired the vintage cowboy boots with inlay / overlay art.
One day, Claudia came into the store to buy boots to wear when riding a Harley she planned to purchase. I met Randy and never left, she says. We laughed for three hours straight.
I noticed she had a hole in her boots, so I gave her a pair of shoe boots, he says. I designed her boots for her Harley and told her as long as she knew
me, shell never have holes in her shoes.
She put her Harley money into Randys store. After a naïve business decision forced them to close that store, they picked themselves up by their bootstraps to start over. Randy told Claudia he wanted to do inlay / overlay leather like the great bootmakers. He wanted to put the art onto the backs of denim jackets. Only problem was, they didnt know anyone who could teach them how.
They went to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and looked up every photograph they could find on vintage cowboy boots and studied the boots crafted by master bootmakers. Even though it took them longer to learn the craft, the Listers believe they were better off not learning under the wings of someone else. That way, they had no boundaries instilled in them.
Randy and I have developed a style that is uniquely ours by following the less traveled way, says Claudia. It may have been a more difficult road, but I think the reward is well worth it.
The couple moved to Chattanooga in 1990 in hopes of working for a leather company. When that didnt work out, they made custom jackets, traveling frequently to Nashville to sell them whenever they needed money.
We didnt have a shop then, or a name or a label, Claudia says. All we had was us, our work and selling it out of the trunk of the car to pay the rent.
In 1996, they moved to Nashville after looking for two years for a landlord willing to let them turn an old store into the shop and gallery they wanted.
We met, we fell in love. It was destiny we came together and this was conceived out of that love, Claudia says. Randy and I came together; and our minds were able to mesh in a way that we fed each other. My artistic love has melded with his.
For Randy, knowing that you get to do what you love, thats part of our business. Im thankful I get to do this with my Miss Claudia. To be able to look at each other, know that well have a one-dimensional thought and through our efforts together take that one dimension into two dimensions and all the way to three.
Nobody showed us how to do this, he says. It was all trial and error, every single bit of it. But it was us pushing each other.
By Jeanne Reisel 1998
RANDY AND CLAUDIA 1989 - 2008
