Meet Kasey Orr | Leather Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kasey Orr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kasey, how has your work-life balance changed over time?

noun: balance; plural noun: balances
1.
an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.

A constantly balanced life does not interest me. The times that I’ve seen growth in myself or my business is usually when I’m completely unbalanced and diving deep into one area or another. In my opinion, too much pressure on equal distribution of this thing called life can set us up for failure.
We are human beings and life is not perfectly paved.

I think of balance more in the sense of being an optimal time trader, of my 24 hours, while taking into account my long and short term goals.

To me it’s about having the self awareness to evaluate those closest to me, my goals and myself.

If I’m not going out in public, I probably don’t need to spend 2 hours curling my hair and doing my makeup that morning. Trading those 2 hours in for a 1 hour workout and cooking a nice meal would serve me better.
If I have a busy work load, I’ve gotten great sleep for a few days in a row, but haven’t worked out all week, maybe its time to trade in a hour of sleep of a good sweat.
If we just got back from a family vacation and spent every moment with each other maybe it’s time to deep dive into work when we get back home.

I try to separate the wants from the needs. Readjusting and knowing myself enough to differentiate when I truly need a break and when I am just being plain lazy or ignoring my goals that are begging me for progress.

It’s also in the understanding that things don’t just fall apart over night. If you miss a couple workouts in a week you aren’t going to instantly gain 20 pounds. If you miss one family event, your family will not disown you. If you only get 4 hours of sleep one night you will not die. If you put down your phone for one morning and a few customers have to wait for a response, your business will not fail.
If you work late and skip dinner with your family that does not make you a bad person.
It’s when things are left unattended for time on end. Your family, your spouse, your business, yourself… Thats when things fall apart.

Up until this last year (2021) my husband was constantly out of town. He was an electrician working a schedule of three weeks on, one week off. It was like this for about 8 years. During the time he was gone all I did was work. I was in a new town where I didn’t have any friends or family. Nothing interested me other than building my skills in the leather craft so I could hopefully make it into a business one day. I wanted to have something that I could choose my own schedule because if I got a full time job I would have seen my husband very little. This isn’t meant to come across as a complaint, there are a ton of couples that have it way harder than that – military families for example – not a complaint, just my story.

This was from ages 18-25. During that time I didn’t exercise regularly, if at all. I didn’t go much of anywhere besides the post office. I didn’t take great care of my appearance, I got very little sleep and pulling 24 hour work nights wasn’t irregular.
One Christmas season I took on way to much of a workload and paid for it by working 48 hours straight. No cat nap. 48 hours. Straight. My husband brought me snacks in my little shop area.. It was not fun. I had family and friends back home telling me how much they think I’m missing out and “don’t you want to go out to the the bars” and “you work too much” or ” you are boring.”
It didn’t bother me because I liked what I was doing and it brought me true happiness. Regret was never a feeling I had then or now for those years I spent going as hard as I could. Without that time alone I really don’t think I could have done what I have. From an outsiders perspective i’m sure what I was doing wasn’t balanced in the standard way of the word and I agree. I hope I never have to stay awake 48 hours straight another time in my life! But I learned the most about myself during those times where I was completely unbalanced and not only would I do it again, but for me I think it was necessary to find my true limit.

For the last year, my husband has been home every night. He got a new local job and we’ve never spent this much time together. I also got a commercial space last year and I’m not working from home anymore. This dynamic is completely different since we’ve never experienced it. My days look different from before in this phase I’m in right now and I’ve welcomed and enjoyed the changes.

I just try to adjust in each phase my life to be as happy as I can, accomplish as many of my goals as possible and love the people closest to me.
If something comes into my life that isn’t in alignment with those things, I drop it without hesitation or guilt.

I plan out my days and weeks with projects that need to get done, I write down my goals and expectations of myself and business regularly. But I’m constantly shifting my days around by the hour to get the most of them and I’m comfortable in the unpredicted things that come up. If every day went exactly to my perfectly balanced plan I think would get a little bored.

I think deep down we all know what we feel like when we are operating at our own optimal level and serving those close to us best. When we start to feel off is usually when we let other peoples opinions of how we are doing things, get to us. Comparing and seeing someone else’s life that seems to be perfectly balanced from the outside in will also get you in trouble. One’s personal priorities will surely look different than the next, because it is physically impossible for any two people to be living the same life.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Horses were a big part of my life from when I got my first one when I was 10. Beautiful tack was all around but you could really tell the hand tooled pieces a part. I always thought “how in the heck do they do that.” When I was 16 I bought my best friend a hand tooled belt from a local leather worker I had never even met before. I just asked “Hey would you ever need some extra help around here? Id love to learn.” Then I spent the next one to two years hanging around that leather shop as much as I possibly could. That boot maker taught me the basics of tooling and how to build things; glue, dye, buff, sew. Although I do have to give a shoutout to my Grandma who taught me how to sew, she used to own a quilt shop and that previous sewing foundation really helped with my leather work I think.

Although I learned a lot there I most certainly didn’t learn everything about it. A lot of what I now know was just from a lot of frustrating nights over the granite and Google searches. Which can sometimes help but mostly just leave you even more frustrated because you get all of these people claiming that their way is the only right one. There were some days where I wanted to throw in the towel, but then id have these little moments where something would click and it would be fun again. I think I just finally realized, maybe subconsciously, that I just have to keep trying and I will inevitably get better. The only way to fail was to quit.

My business grew very organically into what it is today. Once I made a couple wallets just out of hobby, my family saw, wanted them and I would gift to them. Then friends would want something, I would just charge them for materials. Selling something before I was confident in my work was something I never wanted to do. I had a trash bin full of projects because nothing felt like it was good enough. Sometimes, looking back, I wish I would have been just a tiny bit kinder to myself in that aspect.
I knew my time would come to sell pieces. For me, my first 1-2 years in the craft was not that time. You have to be patient with yourself. I have a couple pieces out there that friends insisted I make for them and wouldn’t take no for an answer. To this day I hate that those pieces are out in the world with my name on them before I felt ready to sell.

Sketching my own art patterns was my downfall for sure. Dillon, who works for me now in the shop, was one of the same boot makers apprentices before me. He actually told me with laughter the other day “Yeah I didn’t think you were going to make it. I just thought this girl doesn’t have it.” I mean I was really terrible at drawing and the worst part was that I was actually putting in a lot of effort and time. It just wasn’t good! Some of my course students send me photos of their sketches saying how bad they are and I always think.. man.. I really was bad (laughs) because these are way better than anything I ever did in the first couple years.

Not to sound self deprecating, but I’m not sure theres anything I’m “proud” of that I have done. I just do my best, I’m sure not perfect and there has yet to be one project I’ve ever made that was perfect. It is art, it is handcrafted. It will never be perfect. I always see something I could have done better and just save that for next time. I am never completely satisfied with something I’ve made, I just make sure I’ve done my absolute best for my skill level at that time. If I made a rookie mistake, it gets cut up and goes into the trash. When I make something where the tooling pattern looks good I think, hey, that looks neat, then move on.
I will say though, the thing that makes me happiest are the reviews I receive on my course. I created an online course that includes pretty much everything I’ve ever learned about leatherwork. What dye, paint and antique I use. What tools to buy and how to use them. I even go so far as to share what product number for ear wires that I use. I created the course because as my social media continued to grow so did the amount of questions I would get from people asking for help. At first I was able to respond to most of them. Even taking several people from not knowing what brand of swivel knife to get, to now selling their own pieces online. I did that for free, and was more than happy to, but as my page kept growing it became a little unrealistic to spend that time away from my work. I wanted to have a product available for people with all the answers, if they wanted them. You can learn a ton from YouTube and online and general, but if people want streamlined answers for exactly how I do things, I have that solution. I wanted to create the course that I wish I had when I was first starting out and I feel like I have done that! When I receive a message saying that I’ve made learning the craft easier or more enjoyable that makes me feel really good.

The commercial space I got last year has been nice with all of the extra room it provides me. It is pretty rough around the edges form the previous tenants. Once I get it shined up a bit I’m exited to do in person one on one classes and group classes. Its something I’ve done in the past at different places and its always such a good time!

Being active on social media you see a lot of crafters trying to make a business out of their hobby or new boutiques pop up. I see a lot of them come and go. It always breaks my heart when you see someone with huge potential and skill going up, then they just drop off. I’ve seen this with friends and family trying to start their own thing too. I always wonder if they truly, in their own heart, wanted to stop or if there was an external force that made them feel like they should quit. Being a business owner is tough. It’s not all just arts, crafts, sipping lattes on the computer and making your own schedule. It takes a lot of sacrifice at different stages.

One day I was scrolling Etsy and I saw these epoxy resin heart shaped necklaces that were filled with dried maggots. I thought what in the world is this?! And sure enough this gal had a ton of sales too. It’s probably a weird thing to say, but I always keep that in the back of my mind. The point being that there is a market for everything. If you are showing up in the world as yourself and bringing your own uniqueness to the world that is going to help you be successful. There are 7 billion people in the world and over 330 million people in the us. Whatever your product is, you can find someone to buy it. Let the market decide if they want to buy it or not. Don’t predetermine the answer for people you don’t even know, before you’ve even asked the question. Understanding that and coming back to it in my mind is something that’s helped me out several times along the way. It’s also the one thing I would tell anyone wanting to start their own thing.

When it comes to selling your art you will have hits and misses. If you miss, get over it and make something else. If you get a hit, ride it out and enjoy it, but know that it will come to an end. When you have a home run it’s easy to think you are just going to keep selling the heck out of it forever. Thats usually not the case. People get bored, especially in this short attention and immediate gratification world we are in these days. Never get too comfortable with your wins. I used to get really bummed when I would be super stoked to release a new product that I just knew everyone was going to love. Sometimes they are a total flop and that’s okay! Sometimes it’s also the thing that you say “Eh im not sure about these but ill put it out there and see.” Then it totally blows up. Just keep rollin with the punches.

We offer laser engraved pieces, The KJLD Online Leather course, tooled hats, watch bands, belts, earrings and other leather jewelry, custom pieces and ready made pieces on the website.

My favorite thing at this time is working with brides to create a special wedding package for them. Wedding bouquet wraps, boutonniere wraps, shoes, mens belts and hip belts to go over your dress, matching custom earrings for your bridesmaids, flute wraps and whatever else the bride can think of! You often hear about how aweful brides are to work with (bridezillas) I don’t know what I do to attract such kind, patient and beautiful brides but they are always such a true pleasure to work with. I have yet to work with one bride that was nothing but kind throughout the entire process. It’s just good energy I think because they are full of excitement and its really fun for me to be a part of that and have a small part in such a special day for them. Seeing the photos of them walking down the isle with their bouquet wrap in hand still makes me smile.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My husband Donovan and I live in Prineville Oregon. My shop is conveniently about 2 minutes from our house. Prineville is a pretty small town, but Central Oregon as a whole is a beautiful area with a ton to do!

Anyone who likes to be outdoors I always recommend they stop in Terrebonne and see Smith Rock. Its a state park and people from all over come to climb it and just marvel at it. The Crooked River winds through the bottom.

Hands down, my favorite place to eat is One Street Down in Redmond. It’s a charming little house that was turned into the coziest cafe years ago. They have great food and really kind staff.

Another favorite morning hangout spot of mine is Thump Coffee in Bend. They have these little wood boards where people write their dreams and anything they want really and hang them from the ceiling.

The Old Mill in Bend is a great place to shop, walk and hang out.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband Donovan for believing in me, dreaming with me and supporting me always. Never detouring me from my work and his everlasting encouragement. My parents for being my biggest fans.
Natalie McFarland for helping me create the KJLD Course
All of my friends that are still rocking the first wallets and pieces I ever made.

Website: www.kaseyjeanleatherdesigns.com

Instagram: @kaseyjeanleatherdesigns

Facebook: Kasey Jean Leather Designs

Youtube: Kasey Jean Leather Designs

Image Credits
Juniper and Rust Photography Whitney Dawn Photography Marijka Hunsaker