"The Art of Western Craft" by Lori Tobias Denver Rocky Mountain News Sunday, October 17, 1999

Nine years ago, 100 people showed up when three local woodworkers held their first show of Western furnishings at the downtown Irma Hotel.

Today, the annual sale – now called the Western Design Conference- draws a crowd of 3,000.

As the show has grown, so has its reputation. Last month, the eighth annual conference attracted Western art lovers from all over the United States and Canada who dropped thousands of dollars on one-of-a-kind pieces.

Sixty craftsmen-as many as the Cody Exhibition Hall will hold- showed their work and an equal number were turned away.

For woodworkers Mike Patrick, Jimmy Covert and Lester Santos, founders of the conference, success has been sweet.

From the time in 1993, when they borrowed $20,000 from a Cody bank so they could rent the roomier exhibition hall, to more recently, when national magazines such Sunset have featured the show, the woodworkers have kept the focus on craftsmanship.

Now, there’s talk of moving the show to even bigger quarters and of holding a second show in a big city.

And, don’t be surprised if the Western Design Conference has a Paris show next year.

. . . .

One of the first visitors through the door to the Western Design Conference paid $38,000 for a juniper and mahogany bed by a sculptor named Amber Jean and Colorado brothers Don and Steve Butts.

Amber Jean who calls the bed “Spirits Untamed,” carved a trio of horses in both the foot and headboards, then enhanced the carvings with a mix of layered stains. The Butts brothers, owners of High Country Designs in Frisco, built the log frame for the king-sized bed.

“What inspired the bed,” says Amber Jean, “was spending nights in the Pryor Mountains where I was a wilderness ranger. There on top of the world the elements are intensified. I envisioned a bed which would capture . . . wind, power, grace, beauty, color . . . a wild flowing bed without boundaries.”

She estimates the carving on the bed, which won both the People’s Choice and Best Western Spirit at the conference this year, took more than 100 hours.

Amber Jean can be reached at 406-222-9251