I feel honored to be a part of a group of#people that take pride in what they do, to be able to produce something from a raw material into a functional piece of art.

Jeff Minor is a jack of all trades and master of many, but his specialty is in rawhide braiding.

I'm braiding 16 strands of#rawhide.

I'm trying to pull each individual string evenly so that the V's in that braid come down straight all the way through.

As I'm pulling these strings, I'm applying a# a soap and glycerin lather to it.

That soap lubricates it and it pulls it tight clear up# above where I'm actually working the strings.

Raw hide is exactly what it says.

It's#raw cowhide with the hair taken off.

No processing at all.

This is a bosal body.

It's#a piece for a horse.

It goes around the nose.

Rawhide braiding and all of those cowboy crafts take time.

There's so many things mass produced today, but now#there's kind of a renaissance of people wanting to see this kind of stuff that is done with your hands again.

[Music] In Idaho, the work we're doing to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country is to elevate and give voice to the traditional arts and especially important are the cowboy arts.

This weekend, it's the third silversmith#symposium, the 11th overall in the series of gear maker gatherings.

And I like to#be about 7/8 of a graver in the metal.

Nice little cap cut.

We have some of the best#silversmiths and engravers in the western world here today giving some advice and teaching#how, you know, how each of us does things.

We make heirloom quality items that are going#to be around for hundreds of years after we're gone.

And these are going to hold that silver in#there.

You know, I've been banging away on my own like this for 35 years.

And I've helped# quite a few people along the way.

I live in Wyoming.

I just brought my whole setup over#here so people could see if it interests them.

[Hammering] So, we got our pattern.

Okay.

They're#learning and they're excited about it.

And that's contagious.

And And then I get excited about it again.

So, all I'm doing here is just keeping#an evenly proportioned line.

This has been a really steep learning curve.

Metal smithing is really new to me, but being able to participate and just be a fly# on the wall in a lot of ways has been fantastic.

It's one of those art forms that you really can't# describe to anyone or teach them through the written word, but it's very easy to show someone#and help them.

This looks great.

I was thinking maybe doing like a three petal flower kind of# like a sego lily or something on those.

Now remember, whatever you do here, it's really hard to# get over the top of this dome.

Engravers, of course, we work by ourselves.

We don't#get a lot of interaction.

Maybe just leave that empty.

And so to have the opportunity#to gather with other engravers I'm always learning something new.

You know, like,#wow, I never thought of doing that or I thought you couldn't do that, but look#at you have.

And look how good it looks.

[Engraving tool buzzing] Most of the gear that I make is functional.

And#then of course I try to decorate it, you know, to whatever the customer would like or whatever I#would like.

I think there's 20 some people here.

I can show them my work and say, "Critique this."

It looks mighty busy from here.

Busy.

Yeah.

You would make this flower maybe clear to the center.

Well, I'd make one come out of the center of that flower.

Oh, I see.

It's not something that you#can just go to a trade school or college to learn it.

It's pretty much a cottage industry.

There's#not very many of us that actually make our entire living at what we do.

What are you working on?

I#want to try this cut I'm here with my wife, Hunter, and my baby, Monty.

My wife#actually started silversmithing first seven years ago and she started getting orders and developing#her skills and then she went up and took a class with Diane Scalese and about 3 years ago we kind#of went full-time.

I still do ranching early early mornings I go take care of my cow chores and#then I come back and I work in my shop for as long as I can stand it.

It's probably way too thick for... Ernie Marsh lives 20 miles down the road and he taught me a lot about engraving and just showed me the#right direction.

We need to raise the awareness of just just how cool it is.

The cowboy tradition, bit making, silversmithing, saddle making, rawhide braiding, all these trades that are all#handmade that have been perfected in this country.

The cowboy arts embodies that cowboy spirit,# that western spirit, and it's the part of us that I want to perpetuate and to save for# the next generation.

So, just want it to be a little bigger.

A little bit bigger because# I want the the width of my leaf to be the same.