Sarah Garvey likes to keep her hands busy. The artist, designer, sewer and leather carver constantly keeps several pieces in production at her Sedona, Ariz.-area workshop. Be it carving a new set of leather cuffs or incorporating a Pendleton wool design into a tote, she pours her creativity into every piece built for her business, Western Skies Handmade.
Her desire to create began at an early age, influenced by her maternal relatives. Garvey’s time in the West, both at school in Arizona and then living on ranches in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona shifted her into Western lifestyle creations. Today, her daily inspiration from the Verde Valley outside her workshop window keeps the craftsman busy designing and building pieces.
“Since I was little, I’ve liked to keep my hands busy,” Garvey, 42, says. “I loved to draw; my great-aunt was an art professor at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and I would pour through the books she had at her cabin. My mom sewed and was very creative. My aunt taught me to knit and crochet when I was in seventh grade, and in high school I did quilting. I was doodling, drawing and making something all the time. Anything and everything, I kept busy.”
Be it a custom piece with a little something special built in or a piece she sells on her website or through social media, the Western Skies Handmade clients are eager and ready to see what Garvey comes up with next.
Midwest to All West
The Wisconsin native was always drawn to the traditional arts. When Garvey left home for college in Arizona, she was introduced to a different, yet similar, style of traditional crafts. But it wasn’t beading or leatherwork that brought her to Arizona, it was music.
“In college, I got a scholarship for music—I play the flute—and got my degree in music performance,” she says. “While I was studying that, I took art classes to fill the gaps. I loved it, but at that time, music was my main focus.”
After graduating, she married a cowboy. The pair moved from ranch to ranch as he worked in Arizona, then New Mexico and Texas, then back to New Mexico. The couple had two children before divorcing. It was during these years that Garvey reached back to her creative roots to fill time and earn income.
“Living out in the middle of nowhere, I was going stir-crazy,” Garvey recalls. “My mom bought me a box of Pendleton wool, and I started sewing bags, then it kind of snowballed. I love bags that are plain, simple leather without a whole bunch of stuff added to them. I started buying scraps of chap leather from Panhandle Leather in Amarillo, some good and some [bad]. I would dig through and get scraps, then make my own bags, cut lace, and play around with braiding. I would braid button knots, make simple bags with fancy braided borders, and then sell them for next to nothing. I would also make bags with Pendleton wool. I loved it!”
Living on a remote ranch with no internet meant she couldn’t learn by internet. Instead, Garvey drew inspiration from the traditional arts she had seen and her own art background and design.
“I used books,” Garvey says. “I was not drawn to traditional Sheridan style, so all of my early stuff has more of the scrolls and spirals I drew in high school instead of a typical Western look. It wasn’t Western influenced at first, but more traditional arts. With the fur my mom had, I would make headbands and add beads or Pendleton. It was very traditional with natural fibers and more old school. I like the back to basics, the skill and the simple materials and designs.”
Soon, she was selling her items at a mercantile on the way from Texas to Angel Fire, New Mexico. The demand increased, but with it, Garvey’s creativity waned.
“I started to feel like a machine, and I wanted to feel more like an artist, even though I never considered myself an artist,” she says. “[In] 2010 I started focusing on figuring out tooling.”
Finding Her Style
Nestled between the Mingus Mountain and Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff, Garvey’s shop can’t help but be inspired by her location. In the heart of the American Southwest, it would be easy for an artist to lean that direction. But Garvey found her own style, blending her Midwest, traditional base with glimpses of the Western lifestyle she adopted.
“I wasn’t drawn to fine arts growing up, but more traditional crafts, like bead work,” Garvey explains. “I never grew up on ranches, but I love traditional Western arts—beadwork, rawhide, silverwork. I like to make a purse that functions and looks pretty. At the time I started, there were very few women carving leather. There were clunky purses carved in the older ‘70s style, but they didn’t function. I decided to fill that void.”
Since establishing Western Skies Handmade in 2008, she has more than filled the void—she’s influenced it and embraced it. Her bags today blend delicate scrolls with vibrant colors. The designs aren’t clunky and are a unique blend of form and function. Ensuring the bag is more a work of art than a simple cell phone holder is important to Garvey.
“I use vegetable-tanned leather, a clean and sustainable leather made here in the United States,” she says. “Leather is unforgiving. Once you make a hole or put a line in it, it’s there forever and always. When it comes to putting together purses, specifically, with the leather I use, the veg tan, it’s a lot like building a purse with a piece of cardboard. You can’t force it to do everything, but you can wet it and convince it to do certain things. It has its own set of challenges.”
Over the decade-plus she’s been making bags, Garvey has evolved her leatherwork. She creates her own stamps and tools, and designs a piece not only based on a traditional scroll, like the Sheridan style, but from the plants, flowers and landscape around her.
Her pieces are often influenced by her own creations, like the set of leather bracelets made in fall 2024—all made because Garvey created new, geometric stamps and wanted to try them out.
“I don’t want to work and feel like a factory,” she says. “I like trying new things. Some things stay around and are available, but others come and go. I’ll make a piece based on what I see, or what I find at a pawn shop. I love plants and can name and recognize most flowers, and I like to tool a specific flower for a purse. I’ll even pull out my old beading loom and bead some pieces as I get the inspiration.”
Whether creating a custom piece or one that is born of her own design, Garvey is sure to put in the time and dedication to make it special. She packs in detail in all her pieces.
“I like hiding things and tucking things and not making it super obvious,” Garvey says. “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle to put all the client’s parameters together in one piece and make them kind of hidden in the design. My clients understand the value of handmade and appreciate the quality. My customer is someone who can buy a designer bag but would rather buy something that is more aligned with their lifestyle and values. It makes me so happy to work with all these incredible women. It’s such a privilege to be able to make a living creating pieces for people that value that hand-made aspect and would rather save up and invest in something that will last and reflect their personality.”
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This article about Sarah Garvey’s Western Skies Handmade appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of Western Life Today magazine. Click here to subscribe!
