He’s only been sculpting with clay for about 10 years but as he explained, “Basically that is what I do with the leather, I sculpt it,” said Rule. He was working on a cover for a day planner while I visited with him for this story.īut leather is not his only artistic talent. Belts, billfolds and of course I still build saddles,” said Rule. “I do most everything in leather, except boots and shoes. However, Rule’s work days are usually 12 to 15 hours.Ībout 90% of what he does is custom orders. He said once the design was completed and approved it took him about 7 days from start to finish on the cover. He had included the scissor-tail and bison on the Centennial saddle and he said it was pretty much a no-brainer to include them on the cover. “They gave me size instructions, but had minimal input on the design,” Rule said about the cover. He thought that was probably how the Oklahoma Department of Tourism found him to approach him about creating the cover for the 2015 Travel Guide. The saddle he created is on display at the Oklahoma History Center. Rule was chosen as the Official Saddlemaker of the Oklahoma Centennial.
It can be a fun hobby or a life-long journey.” Rule made it a life-long journey and clearly that decision has paid off when you view his artistry. “It’s approaching 50 years,” Rule said when asked how long he had been tooling leather. He told me he made his first belt at age 11. My wife and I bought it in 1980,” said Rule. “It was started in 1926 and I worked there for 31 or 32 years. Before moving to the Minco area he and his wife owned one of the oldest saddle shops still operating in Oklahoma, the National Saddlery located in the Oklahoma City Stockyards. He and his wife have lived here for about 8 years. Rule lives just over a mile west of Red Hill, south of Minco. It is not photographs gracing the new guide cover, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Bison, Oklahoma Rose and Indian Blanket are all carved into leather by John Rule, a local artist and leather craftsman. On the handsome cover of the new 2015 Oklahoma Travel Guide one will see the state bird, the state animal, the state flower and the state wild flower. A local artist was selected to produce the cover for the 2015 Oklahoma Travel Guide. This is a story I wrote for our local weekly in February 2015.
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