Olive Parker – 2020 Brinton 101

Olive Parker continues to stretch traditional methods of leather working since she first picked up a swivel knife in 1977.  For many years, leather working was a fascinating past time for her as she sought mentors to learn new techniques building horse tack and carving leather pictures.  Her first entry at her first show, a jewelry ensemble of carved and painted leather feathers paired with sapphires she mined in Montana, was awarded the People’s Choice Award at the Western Design Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Since then she has continued to exhibit her unusual leather and sapphire jewelry and carved, hand-stitched home accents in juried art shows in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest.

Olive lives in Stevensville, Montana where she is inspired daily by the beautiful Bitterroot and Sapphire mountain ranges and her horses.

“The love of horses and seeing the landscape from the saddle started my journey years ago as an artist.   I am fascinated by leather as an art medium.  It can be shaped, stretched, molded, carved, stamped, dyed and painted and I began tooling leather in my teens.  Many years later includes natural elements abundant here; feathers, leaves and stones.  I enjoy mining my own sapphires at several mines in Montana and travel to the Southwest searching for the right semi-precious stones to pair with leather, silver and gold.” Olive Parker