Sharron Taylor's leather craft skills have taken her from humble, teenage beginnings to museum-commissioned restorations.
Story By Kathy Mexted
In a white weatherboard farmhouse on an unsealed back road in north-east Victoria, winter light pours through an aluminium window onto a workbench.
A World War I Light Horse saddle, thirsty for the rich oily rag and leather conditioner resting beside it, lies in neat pieces awaiting restoration. Stock whips hang along the back wall and, outside, the intelligent head of an Australian stock horse gently nibbles lush grass around the base of an original H.V.McKay farm gate. This peaceful place is Sharron Taylor’s home and workspace.
In 1989, as a young mother, Sharron found herself nervously staring at six kangaroo hides and contemplating a home-based business. “All I could think was that those six hides cost $200 that we really couldn’t afford to spend on non-essentials and how guilty I would feel if I weren’t able to sell anything I made from them,” Sharron says.
Sharron is now looking forward to seeing her handiwork on the big screen. She’s been asked to take 17 Light Horse saddles to create six complete, working ones for a film being shot this year.
This story excerpt is from Issue #93
Outback Magazine: Feb/Mar 2014
