Embracing a heritage

GILLETT, Wis. — Cindy Engebretsen’s grandfather shared with her a special hobby and tradition — an affinity for working with leather that would last a lifetime.

“That time spent with my grandfather, learning an age-old craft, working with my hands and honoring the animal is something I find great respect and pride in,” Engebretsen said.

Engebretsen’s husband, Jeff, and his brother, Chris, operate Engebretsen Brothers LLC, where they milk 350 cows on their Oconto County dairy farm near Cecil. Much of Engebretsen’s time is devoted to caring for their disabled daughter. In her spare time, she operates Cindy’s Leather Goods, making custom hand-stitched and handcrafted leather goods out of the basement of her family’s home.

Last fall, Engebretsen did something outside of her normal comfort zone — she entered a belt in the Pendleton Leather Show’s Northwest Leather Masters’ Champion competition, in Pendleton, Oregon, and was rewarded with a second-place finish.

“My goal in entering was to receive feedback from judges who are experts in the field of leather,” Engebretsen said. “I wanted to be sure I was creating a quality product.”

The endeavor was not without stress, Engebretsen said, but the encouragement she received from family and colleagues she networked with through the Leather Life Inner Circle group helped her complete her entry.

“It was very nerve-wracking for me to enter the contest,” Engebretsen said. “I didn’t plan it that way, but the belt I ended up submitting was for my brother-in-law, and now he thinks it’s pretty cool to have a prizewinning belt.”

Engebretsen was putting the finishing topcoat on the belt she had originally made for the contest when she realized she had put the wrong conditioner on the leather.

“The leather bled out; when you rubbed it, you got black dye coming off,” Engebretsen said. “I knew I couldn’t enter that in the contest, but it was just the day before I had to ship it to Oregon. Luckily, I had another belt started — the one for my brother-in-law. I stayed up until 3 a.m. finishing it, and got it in the mail that morning, the Friday before the contest.”

Engebretsen’s late night paid off.

“It really elevated my confidence that yes, I know what I’m doing,” Engebretsen said. “I was pretty excited. The prize money more than paid for the expense of entering, but the experience was worth so much more.”

Engebretsen grew up on her family’s dairy farm in northern Minnesota. It was there, at her grandfather’s knee, that she learned the craft she would embrace later in life.

“My grandpa trapped and tanned fur hides,” Engebretsen said. “We tanned beaver, coyote and deer hides in his basement. We spent hours and hours on the weekends and after school.”

Learning the intricacies of various types of leather would serve her well in the future, Engebretsen said.

“He only let me do a coyote hide after I’d done many beavers,” Engebretsen said. “Coyote hide is much thinner than beaver and takes more skill to tan. While I tanned the hide well, I met my match in managing the head. We had to cut that off and now I have a headless coyote hide.”

Throughout her youth, Engebretsen continued to dabble in leathercrafting, making projects in industrial arts classes and then operating a leathercraft shop as part of her college work study. After marriage, as her family grew, she continued practicing various handicrafts.

Leathercrafting came back to her radar full force when her son made a pair of wooden katana swords while spending time with his grandfather.

“The edges of those swords were very fragile, so I wanted to make a sheath to keep them safe,” Engebretsen said. “(I thought) ‘It couldn’t be that hard, could it?’ I watched some YouTube videos, and I had a piece of leather from my college days and a few tools.”

The project turned out to be more complex than Engebretsen imagined. She researched the subject matter, determined to make the sheaths.

“After several renditions, I ran out of leather,” Engebretsen said. “That led me down another rabbit hole — I had to buy more leather. I learned you can buy leather on Facebook and Instagram live auctions.”

Those auctions taught Engebretsen she did not know quite as much about leather processing as she had previously thought. The leather she purchased was much different from what she expected.

Engebretsen took a step back and decided to start small, to learn the details that plagued her initial attempts at making the sheaths.

“I decided the first thing I needed to do was learn how to stitch,” Engebretsen said. “I started making dog collars. Then I thought I should try a belt. And then I learned how many mistakes you can make, making a belt.”

Frustrated, yet determined, Engebretsen continued.

“I started thinking a belt was a lot, and decided to try making a wallet,” Engebretsen said. “I made a few of those and the first ones came out rather atrocious.”

As she worked through mistakes, Engebretsen learned a key point — she had to differentiate between working with fabric and with leather.

“With fabric, when you make a fold and stitch, it’s no big deal,” Engebretsen said. “When you work with leather and make a fold, suddenly you’ve got this extra space you have to account for — the inside of the wallet is shorter than the outside, depending on the thickness of the leather. You’re not just taking into account the fold; you need to consider the thickness of the leather that is making the fold.”

Engebretsen continued to hone her skills, using YouTube as a resource.

“I quickly learned that not every leather you buy is going to be the same,” Engebretsen said.

Engebretsen purchases her cowhide by the half-cow, which is approximately 26 square feet. Goat and sheep are typically an entire animal. The thickness and pliability are affected by the tanning process, although leather from the back is considered superior to that from the belly.

Engebretsen said purchasing leather online has its challenges.

“Like with any craft, you have to know your materials,” Engebretsen said. “If you’re doing woodworking, you know that oak, pine, poplar, walnut, maple — they’re all a different kind of medium to work with. It’s the same with leather. Once a project is matched with the perfect leather, the result is a timeless, lifetime investment.”

In 2024, nearly five years after she started her quest to make a sheath for her son’s swords, Engebretsen finally achieved a successful creation.

“Sometimes I think I was born out of my time,” Engebretsen said. “Leather work is a nod to the past history of our country and one of the skills required for survival. I’ve invested time, money, hard work and even a bit of DNA into developing this craft. I can only look forward to taking my skills to the next level.”