About Shel-Don

Shel-Don started to develop his creative skills from an early age. In high school he started making clothing, designing stage sets and creating floral arrangements. Afterwards he moved to Chicago, and in 1967 attended the Ray Vogue School of Professional Arts where he received his degree in fashion design. For a while he worked in the antiques, fashion merchandising and floral design fields.

Then one day in 1987 he saw a help-wanted sign in the window of one his favorite Chicago stores -- Male Hide Leathers. He walked in, applied for the position, and shortly after started working there part-time with owners Frank Goley and Bob Maddox. During the first six months of his employment there Frank kept asking Shel-Don if he would come to work for them full-time, and so he did. And this was the start of his career as a leather artisan.

Working closely with him, Frank showed Shel-Don everything about sewing leather. Later Bob said, "Frank has never shown anyone so much." It was a great working relationship.

In May 1994 Frank passed away. Shel-Don wanted nothing more than to continue creating with leather just as Frank had taught him. He wanted to keep the legacy of Frank alive. And so he continued to work at Male Hide Leathers for a total of 14 years.

In addition to creating his custom leather work, Shel-Don has also been in several publications, done product demos, quoted in Jack Rinella's The Toybag Guide to Clips and Clamps, and even played Santa Claus (of course he would tell you that he is Santa Claus!). He has also clothed many of the contestants in both local and national contests, as well as judged numerous contests around Chicago and Michigan.

To this day, Shel-Don is still creating custom pieces using the original patterns that Frank designed as well as some of his own designs, even boots for animals (the four-legged kind).