I began working with leather over fifty years ago. One of the first things I made was a small clutch for my mother – now my granddaughter has it.

I was born in southern Vermont and joined the US Navy right out of high school. I made custom items for my shipmates to give to their families while we were at sea – thirteen years of my twenty-six in the US Navy. I really started to expand my knowledge and proficiency in the early 80’s – I was an electronics instructor in northern California so was able to spend more time with my passion. In the late 80’s and early 90’s my work had me traveling about 80% of the time. So I would carve pieces for clutch purses, handbags, and wallets, then lace them while flying to a destination.

I moved to the Northeast Kingdom in 2010 and fully retired in 2011. I love to carve flora / fauna, figures (mostly animals), basket weave, and will use photos to incorporate into a purse, wallet, or handbag. I truly love a challenge when it comes to custom work in leather – I received permission from an artist to put one of her paintings into leather. My pet peeve is seeing ‘fine grain’ leather wallets and bags that only have one ounce (1/64th of an inch) leather adhered to cloth and last about a year – I know some of my work is still being used over thirty years later. I am now passing on some of my knowledge to students in afterschool programs in local schools.

Look for "Hutch-n-Ricka" at Craft Shows throughout northern Vermont.