If you're reading this, than your story along with mine, is still being written! Each of our stories are as unique as we are. As much as I'd love to hear each of your stories, I can't, so here's a fast forward version of mine. 

       As far back as I can remember, I have loved creating things... all kinds of things, but especially beautiful things! I'd notice the colors and ever-changing shadows of the beauty and creation around me and ponder how I could re-create that same beauty to bring inside with me. As time went on, I found great joy in putting my budding art and craft skills to work fashioning gifts for my family and friends ( I'm not sure they were always as excited to receive them as I was to give them - but, of course, they were always gracious ). Along with my love to create beautiful things and share them with those I loved, was a growing desire to start a small business selling what I had so much fun designing! Fast forward fifteen years and now I'm happily married (thankfully, still happily married ) with three little munchkins at my feet. As my kids grew, I threw all my creative energy (and trust me, there's a lot of that) into raising and educating my children as a home school mom. We did everything from ancient frescos to salt-dough maps and cardboard castles. As a result, I have passed my craft craziness onto my kids which now means I can never find my craft supplies because they've been swindled for their own personal projects! Speed through five years and now we're moving from our home town of Pennsylvania for the great west.... the gorgeous state of Montana! Surrounded by such glorious creation by the Master Artist, a renewed vigor arose in my heart to start painting and creating again! Then, like a little dormant seed sprouting to life, my long-ago dream of a personal business started to blossom. It started with regular comments of, "You should sell this stuff!" and my husband’s encouragement to start small and "see what happens"! So, that's what I did. No harm in trying, I figured. To my absolute shock and amazement, what began as "an outlet for my creativity" turned into a booming success! I’m still in awe! 

         All along this journey I can see God's hand leading and intertwining my story with so many other wonderful, skilled, beautiful people! While a lot has changed over the pages of my story, there is much that is the same. I'm still regularly inspired by the beauty around me; the textures, colors, and designs! I still love making beautiful things for those I love and so many others now! I'm still homeschooling my kids and hopefully teaching them through my story to take those scary, intimidating steps towards following after their God-given dreams and talents! 

         Who knows where all this will take me... but for now I'm having a blast creating pieces that reflect the beauty around us that others can take with them and feel a little extra special! I hope that wherever your story is going, you will keep growing, keep learning, keep dreaming, and keep taking one little step at a time. Who knows where that might take you?! These Montana mountains have taught me that the best views often come after the hardest climbs!

         Thank you sincerely for supporting my small business, my sprouting seed. I hope you receive as much joy in wearing these pieces as I have had creating them!

Melanie Southall, owner and designer

The best products start with the best materials, which is our leather!

We buy our leather from many different sources, the majority of it coming from Montana tanners. Our buck hide is organically retrieved from the deer my husband kills and gets tanned locally. The softness of this leather can’t be beat! It takes different textures, thickness, and finishes to create the unique pieces we have here at UYM. Some leathers are more processed, giving them a smooth, shiny finish, while others are not and have a more “wrinkled” appearance to them. No two leather pieces are quite the same, which is why we have fallen in love with them - can’t get any more unique than that!

The metals we use, chain, earring hooks, clasps, are all locally bought here in Montana, supporting local businesses. They are all lead free.

I have learned a lot from a local leather craftsman near my Montana home, and he has taught me so much about burnishing edges, staining leather, picking the right piece of leather to create the nicest product, and how to finish and condition the pieces! So here is a “nutshell” approach of how I tool and engrave the leather bands, key chains and hats you buy.

First I start with a piece of blond, untreated cowhide. I wet it to prep the surface for tooling. At just the right time, I take my leather tooling knife and outline the lines I have pre-sketched with pencil. Then with different tips, I use the wood burner to add the rest of the engraving and detailing. This is the nerve wracking part, because there is NO room for error when you’re literally burning dots and lines into leather!!! Deep breaths and lots of prayer accompany this step! All the patterns, stencils, styles, etc. are original and made by myself. Then, depending on the style I’m going for, I have a specially mixed leather dye that I carefully apply to the engraved patches and key chains. Once this is dry, I finish off the leather with a protectant that keeps water and dirt from staining it.

As for the hand painted elements… now that’s a lot of fun! Using acrylic paint or leather stain, I paint away doing my best to replicate the original, but as any artist would know, you can’t reproduce art exactly. So each piece is truly hand crafted, one-of-a-kind and uniquely yours! The paint wears well, not fading or rubbing off.

As you can see, a lot of careful thought, work and skill goes into creating each piece you see here at Uniquely Yours Montana in order to give you timeless, beautiful jewelry and accessories!