Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

There aren’t many places around to get good-quality and affordable leather. Luckily, that is what Valerie Marshall and her husband Ted offer with their business Yellowstone Custom Leather. 

“We actually have Tennessee’s largest selection of Italian leathers and embossed leathers, so if you’re a leather artist, maybe you make belts or maybe you make shoes or whatever, we have an amazing selection,” said Marshall. “Nobody else has the selection that we have.”

The Marshalls are in the process of getting the business fully up and running. They already have the leather set up to sell, but they are also opening the Sew Fabulous Leather Studio where they hope to offer classes and the use of their industrial machines.

“If you or your friend or your wife or your sister or whoever wanted to come in and learn to make a bag or a belt or shoes or whatever, we’re going to have classes where you can learn to do it, and if you, let’s say you’re already a bag maker but you don’t have access to all the machines, we do,” explained Marshall. “You can do one of our membership models and basically have access to all the machines.”

Valerie and Ted are fairly new to Manchester. They came to the area from Montana to care for Ted’s father who had gotten sick. They chose Manchester because of its convenience.

“We chose Manchester because we’re far enough away from Nashville but real close to all of the major artist shows, so within three hours we can be in Lebanon or Nashville or Chattanooga,” said Marshall. “We’re kind of central for the leather workers.”

Valerie is an experienced leather bag maker, and she says that they started Yellowstone so they could ensure that other artisans could have access to quality product.

“The people in our industry are typically older people like myself, and the prices of leather were becoming astronomical, and they’re still going up, and when you would receive your leather, it was often times of a poor quality that wouldn’t lend itself to bag making,” she explained. “So I saw that I had the opportunity to bring in only premium leathers at a really, really fair price and make it so that the leather you did get you knew you could use it and that you weren’t going to get shocked with the D grade.”

She also noted that she wanted to be able to offer customized and personalized service to all of Yellowstone’s customers.

“I’m very small, but I have about 3,000 people in my group and they all have my phone number so they can call me and be like ‘Hey, you know I’m thinking about designing this pattern’ and I know a lot of the patterns, so I know what they are trying to create,” she said. “Then we do video calls so they can say ‘Hey I like this leather. Can you pull this one and put them together and see if it works,’ so it’s really cool. It’s almost like shopping with your friend.”

Valerie, a self-described “horse woman,” says that leather is just part of the lifestyle with horses because all of the equipment is made of leather and meant to last which is why she emphasizes good materials to work with.

“I just figure if you’re going to make something, why not make it with the absolute best materials that’ll last a lifetime,” she said. “They’re just beautiful.”

Back in Montana, Valerie worked for on a “guest ranch” where visitors could come experience what it is like on a working cattle ranch.

“It was extremely fun and really, really exhausting,” she recalled with a smile. “It was customer service 24/7 because the people live with you for a week, and you take them out on horseback rides, and they learn how to move cattle. It was really fun but really long.”

Valerie says that she loves the smell of leather, but you end up losing the smell when you’re around it all the time. She says that when she got into the craft of making bags and other things out of leather, she went all in as she does with a lot of things.

“Whenever I learn something, I tend to go super deep and because most people don’t do that, I found out that I can offer that as a service to my group,” she explained. “It’s something that we don’t charge for, but we teach them. Basically, I just started and went crazy with it.”

Sew Fabulous will also offer fun activities for children around Christmas time where the kids can make bracelets or smaller things for gifts for friends and loved ones. Valerie says that she hopes to guide people as they breathe life into a unique art that is being lost over time.

“With the resurgence of people trying to find a hobby, this has really made a comeback and there’s a lot of people who want to do it but have no access to it,” she said. “They wouldn’t know what to buy or who to trust, so it’s basically a real community service because you can spend as little as you want in this or you can go as deep as you want and have a great learning experience and also have something that’s pretty to give to your family and friends.”

All of the leather bags that Valerie makes have a unique name because they are one-of-a-kind and can’t be found anywhere else. One that she says she is particularly proud of is the Legendary Explorer, a Dungeons and Dragons bag made out of Italian gator.

“It takes about 60 hours to make that bag. Every piece is hand-sewn, hand-cut and every hole is hand-punched,” she explained. “You just sit and sew for hours.”

Yellowstone is open for anyone wanting to purchase any of their leather by appointment that can be made by calling Valerie.

“Basically, the store is yours for however long you’re here,” she explained. “We have the lowest pricing out there. Usually, if you wanted to buy by the foot, you might pay anywhere from $15 to $20 per foot, but if you buy it by the quarter from us, you’re looking at maybe $100.”

Marshall and her husband have already gotten to explore Manchester’s Wal Mart, Home Depot and Logan’s, and they hope to make their way to Old Stone Fort. A big emphasis for them once they get settled is going to be immersing themselves in the community.

“That’s going to be a big focus for us because everything we do is sort of one-on-one,” she noted. “We’re going to be involved with a lot of moms and a lot of older ladies because this is something that is very therapeutic and that you can be as intensely focused on as you want or it can be something that you do while you watch TV and pass the time.”

Marshall says one of the things she enjoys about her business is getting to help people bring their vision to life.

“They don’t really know what they want, but I’m really passionate about it, so I think the girls know when they come in that we’ll figure it out and find something pretty,” she said.

“If they really want to learn a new skill, this a great way to try it without having to spend,” she added. “If you wanted to try this on your own without help, you’re going to spend at least $1,000 and half the stuff you buy won’t be the right thing to buy. This way there’s really no investment other than the price of the leather that you pick. It’s great. I think if anybody’s looking for something new and fun they should come check us out.”

“…but they have to call first.”