Digital Photographer and Fiber Arts Designer Darin Alexander invites you to celebrate 20 years of public education July 4th, 2012 with us. More details on Summer Events will be posted as plans are confirmed!
A special thanks to all those who have been instrumental in making October 2011 the ArtCords' 10 year Anniversary! We appreciate your continued support in 2012 and sharing with your friends about our dedication to the revival of true mohair cinches in traditional cowboy design and custom creations. :)
The Greet family were also instrumental in the development of ArtCords educational presentations since they expressed interest in learning about cinch making. Dale Alexander, Darin's father, arranged for the showing of cord cinch making at the Ten Sleep, 4th of July rodeo in 1992. Although it took Darin's father some effort to convince the young Alexander to share with the public, it has turned into a life-work.
In 1997, while working as an intern in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center of Cody, Wyoming, Darin was encouraged to become a museum gallery presenter by area saddle maker Verlane Desgrange. Upon visiting Verlane's shop, it was discovered that she still had a few uniquely custom cinches made by Darin as a high school student when he had learned the trade under the Bork of Pendleton name between 1986 and 1989. Training and direct supervision were provided by factory manager Terri K., who later began her own cinch company, "Terri's Cinches". Becoming rapidly proficient in all the styles of cord cinches offered by the factory the young Alexander was promoted to train his peers who applied as new student workers.
The prototype roper remained as a wall hanging until its disappearance one fall. Tracing it back to the youth camp he'd worked at during the summer, Darin asked around and learned that a cinch matching the obviously unique description might be found in the tack shed. Sure enough, the prototype had somehow found it's way into use and tested out quite successfully!
A few years later, in during a bit of seasonal inspiration, Darin used the color edge roper as base for the Santa Clause. The idea stemmed from somewhat of a self portrait since he had served as the Clause for a children's event. Some folks noticed the cinch during a demonstration and were willing to pay $500 each provided a second one could be made and delivered.
Since the color-edge woven style had proved to be so technically advanced, requiring substantial time to ensure the proper tension, the style was not produced by the company. Years later, during the demonstrations as gallery presenter in Cody, Wyoming, one of the museum employees asked if it was possible to make a woven design with three body colors to go with his saddle blanket. The fellow indicated that Darin's emphasis on bringing back the ornate elements of cinch making as seen in the horsehair Vaquero cinches, had fostered the idea of added color strands in the roper style. It took a few test runs to fine-tune the engineering and create a viable working roper and breastcollar set.
In 2006 Darin accepted the invitation to share cinch making at the Cowboy Songs and Range Ballads in Cody Wyoming. The opportunity presented, included that of teaching a formal class where students could complete a cinch. A 17 strand with diamonds seemed the likely choice for folks to learn the most important basics of cinch making. One of the students, Pop Wagner, took time away from his part as a presenter in the symposium to take the class. He enjoyed it so much that upon reconnecting with Darin in the spring of 2008, collaboration began on various aspects of cinch making and the two developed a more extensive exchange of ideas on more mobile loom designs, public education, and supply sourcing.
Pop began offering cinch workshops at his music and poetry venues, and Darin realized the value of continuing to grow the ArtCords online store, which had been launched in spring of 2007, providing cinch supplies. This dedication has been largely in an effort to support Pop's dedication to passing on the tradition and nurturing the newbies of cinch making. In addition these effort have served to encourage veteran cinch makers to keep at it since all cinch makers have, at one time or another, experienced the difficulty of acquiring quality mohair cord.
In 2009 and 2010 Pop and Darin shared an educational booth at the Minnesota Horse Expo in Minneapolis. Folks sign up to make a cinch style key-chain, and even make their own cord with yarns on a hand-operated rope machine, before learning the basics of cinch knots to complete their key-chain in the short session. Some of Pop's students dropped in to work on cinches and pick Darin's brain on more advanced techniques.
As you may have noted from the YouTube videos, Pop's humor adds a fun angle to the art of cinch making. While Pop has developed his own style of left-handed methods for teaching cinch making as a project focused class, Darin continues to teach the progressive steps of cinch making. Think about it in terms of ground-work with an equine... better to cover the ground work early on than skip it and try riding in a parade! Darin's approach of providing students with proficiency of the why's and wherefore's, enables them to confidently fashion their own variations of cinches to meet the growing demand for custom creations.
The two have discussed possibilities of joint ventures to fill some of the educational requests by non-profit organizations and invitations from other countries as funding allows. The Alexanders have a determined belief that emphasis is best placed on folks learning the principles of custom technique to met the needs of their local regions rather than continued dependence upon the limiting models of mass production for import/export which have historically compromised the quality and diminished functional options. By sharing a vast array of items which can be fashioned with the cinch techniques, each maker can develop their skills more rapidly while designing products such as hat-bands, belts, suspenders, and even furniture.
2010 kept the Alexanders sticking closer to home to fill cinch and materials orders. This proved especially important given the substantial investment required along with the hours of developing a consistent system of yarn tightening, plying,and cord processing. Thanks to he engineering prowess of a good friend and discovery of a mill capable of meeting the custom specifications for yarns suitable for making superior cinches, orders have continued to be filled from around the globe. It has become quite clear that a consensus from fiber professional observations is quite true as they advised that "the mohair cinch cord requires a very slow process which can only be accomplished by hand or with equipment from the 1800's". The labor intensive nature of hand-plying the yarns and cordage continues to be necessary to maintain results of the highest possible quality until custom equipment can be developed since only one 1800's cord making system in the world is known to be heavily subsidized to maintain operation. With Darin's construction of a large capacity hand-spinning wheel for greater efficiency, Darin is able to hand-ply more than 25 pounds of continuous cinch cord with successful completion of 37 continuous pounds on more than one occasion.
Darin currently accepts students for individual training at the ArtCords studio and is also filling venue requests for group classes and personal training along travel routes for scheduled events. Those interested in hosting the Alexanders for a seminar or workshop in 2012 and 2013 are encouraged to contact them to determine specifics. Those interested in providing funding support for non-profit organization invitations can contact ArtCords about the opportunities available.
The following is a glance at several venues where Mr. Alexander has been honored to share the ropes of cinch making across the United States:
