Edward Buckner, Red Flame Hunters
The Red Flame Hunters were founded by Edward Buckner in 2009. This traditional masking society is an all-youth tribe, focused on preserving these traditions and engaging the young people of the neighborhood. Edward Buckner founded the society with the hope of keeping young people on track and engaged with their communities, giving them the opportunity to learn the masking traditions and represent their families and heritage.
Shaka Zulu, Golden Feather Hunters
Shaka Zulu is a musician, stilt dancer, and Big Chief of the Golden Feather Hunters, one of the traditional Black Masking tribes in New Orleans, Louisiana. The New Orleans Masking Societies create elaborate, three-dimensional costumes worn during Mardi Gras, a tradition that dates back to when Black residents of New Orleans were excluded from participating in the Mardi Gras celebrations. Shaka was born in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and grew up surrounded by the arts traditions of the neighborhood. He and his wife, C. Naimah Zulu, Big Queen of the Golden Feather Hunters, collaborate on costume design, community outreach, and educational programs. He has been honored for his work as a craftsman as a 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellow.
Vicki Essig
Vicki Essig is a fiber artist who works with silkworms in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. She raises some 500 silkworms annually, guiding them to spin silk fabric onto foam pattern boards that she uses to make wearable art with no thread or scissors. In addition to her silkworm work, she weaves, makes paper, and collects in the nature around her home. She has taught at the Penland School of Craft and her work is in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Mint Museum, Baylor University, and more.
Osceola-Zepeda family – Karie, Jessica, and Marissa Osceola; Brian, Pedro, and Corinne Zepeda
The Osceola-Zepeda family has a storied history as makers of all types of Seminole crafts. The family lives in Naples, Florida, and includes sisters Karie, Jessica, and Marissa Osceola and their cousins, Brian and Pedro Zepeda, and Brian’s daughter, Corinne Zepeda. The family grew up learning Seminole crafts from their elders, including traditional patchwork clothing, beading, dugout canoes, sweetgrass baskets, and more. They are descendants of Osceola, a leader and warrior from the Seminole wars in the 1800s. Today, the Juanita Osceola Center sits on family land that was once a Seminole village, where the family gathers, crafting and teaching the next generation.
Canoe Journey – Lawrence Family, Suquamish
Suquamish Elder Barbara Lawrence is a cedar hat weaver as well as a storyteller and historian. She was a member of the Washington State Centennial Commission in 1989 and tells the history of the origins of Canoe Journey. The yearly Canoe Journey is a celebration and gathering of hundreds of canoes from Indigenous tribes across the region. Barbara practices and teaches traditional cedar weaving, supported by her granddaughter Elilal Abraham. Her sons, Nigel and Ian Lawrence, are both Suquamish canoe skippers and Ian makes traditional canoe paddles.
Tia Keobounpheng
Tia Keobounpheng of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a gifted weaver and fiber artist who works with thread and wood. Her practice changed when she discovered that she was not fully Finnish-American, but also Sámi, the indigenous people of the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. She takes inspiration from geometry, color, landscape, and her own ancestry in her work. Tia received a BA in Architecture from the University of Minnesota.
Jeremy Frey
Jeremy Frey is a Passamaquoddy basket maker from Eddington, Maine. He weaves with ash, sweetgrass, and other materials. A descendant of a long line of Native Wabanaki basket weavers, he mixes traditional weaving techniques with innovative new ideas. He is a 2025 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and has work in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Abbe Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, and others.
Pablo Lozano
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pablo Lozano started learning about braiding at the age of fifteen. Family tradition tied him into Argentina’s cattle heritage since the 19th century. After graduating from the Champagnat College in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lozano started studying the art of rawhide braiding under the tutelage of Don Luis Alberto Flores. Since the beginning of his career, Lozano’s traditional rawhide braiding has been recognized for its reliability and distinctive appearance, attributable to his individual style and creative talent. “Rawhide not only needs to look good but must be dependable and functional.”
Lozano has performed as an “ad honorem” instructor at the Heritage Center in the City of Tandil, where he has permanently resided since 1985. Lozano has mentored several aspiring rawhide braiders in Tandil, Argentina. He believes in the concept of apprenticeships to educate and safeguard Gaucho’s cultural legacy.
In 2004, Lozano and rawhide braider Armando Deferrari were invited to join a rawhide braiding seminar organized and sponsored by the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA) and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Lozano began studying cowboy trade tools and, in 2008, became one of TCAA’s first international members. Lozano’s rawhide braiding has Been exhibited internationally, received numerous awards and accolades, and received coverage in various publications.
Since 2004 Lozano has participated as instructor in rawhide braiding seminars sponsored by the TCAA and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and during the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. Has instructed during rawhide braiding seminars sponsored by the Idaho Commission of the Arts in Boise & Salmon, Idaho. Has also instructed during the annual Rawhiders Reunion organized by Mr. Clint Haverty at the National Ropers Supply (NRS) in Decatur, Texas and the Rawhider’s Retreat organized by Nate Wald in Chico Hot Springs, Montana.
Lozano has hosted braiders from the United States and across the globe in his shop and studio. Lozano has influenced U.S. braiders, who now incorporate Argentine techniques like “Trenza Patria” into their rawhide work.
Carol Gessell
Having always loved horses and beautiful handmade Western gear, Carol Gessell was given a little Tandy leather kit as a child, which she used to make tack for her model horses. Though she put the kit away when she got older, she pulled it out again years later to make tack for real horses. Gessell started her own custom leather business around 1998, and by 1999 she was able to focus on working leather full-time. Shortly after, she began to build saddles. In 2017, Gessell was the recipient of a TCAA Fellowship. Encouraged by the mentors she met through the fellowship program, she began applying for TCAA membership. Gessell is the first woman to be a full TCAA member.
https://tcaa.nationalcowboymuseum.org/artist/carol-gessell/
John Willemsma
Building quality saddles has been John Willemsma’s goal for 46 years. From the tests of the working cowboy to the eye of the finest collectors, he is driven by excellence. Willemsma has had the great fortune of being able to study under some of today’s greatest craftsmen, such as Don King, Dale Harwood and Chuck Stormes.
Combining the knowledge he gained from them, and his study of early saddleries particularly Visalia, Hamley and Ray Holes, Willemsma brings a strong desire for high standards to each and every saddle that he builds. In 1986, Willemsma opened LJ’s Saddlery with a desire to build and design saddles that he felt met the needs of both working cowboy’s, horsemen and women alike.
Since becoming a TCAA member, it has been gratifying for him to place his feet in both the worlds of working gear and functional art. Willemsma and his wife, Debbie, live in Westcliffe, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains. He is now passing his knowledge of saddlemaking to his son, Logan, and strives to honor all those who have guided him and shared their knowledge of the craft he holds dear.
https://ljsaddlery.com/latest.html
