Sunday, July 14, 2024

Robb Report Article:Bang for the Buckle (original post Nov 1, 2006)

 John Winston, an artist who prefers to go by simply Winston, recently carved a 391-carat chunk of turquoise into the shape of an American bald eagle. The piece is an impressive example of his work, which involves carving depictions of wildlife or Native Americans from pieces of rough turquoise, mother-of-pearl, and other gemstones and minerals. As with his other creations, Winston did not intend for his eagle to be displayed on a mantel in its owner’s home; he expects the owner to wear it on his belt. Winston crafts unique belt buckles that are precious enough to become family heirlooms.

“There is absolutely no one in the world who makes buckles like him,” says Todd Rauchwerger, owner of the J.W. Cooper stores in New York City and Bal Harbour, Fla., which have carried Winston’s buckles for more than a decade. Rauchwerger says he could have sold many more of the $1,500-to-$6,500 buckles over the past six years if the artist had not spent much of that period living and working in an RV with no telephone or Internet access.


“I called him once to place a $6,000 order, and his phone had been disconnected,” says Rauchwerger, who searched for the elusive designer for months before he received a Christmas card explaining his whereabouts. “It said something like ‘Dear Todd, I got tired of people, so I sold my house, bought an RV, and set up shop in my mobile home.’ ” Winston recently established a more permanent address in Daytona Beach, Fla., but his flamboyant designs remain difficult to acquire because he produces fewer than 115 buckles a year. “I can see them doubling or tripling, up to $10,000 or $15,000 at least, with time,” notes Rauchwerger of the buckles’ value as collectibles.


Much like custom cuff links or a limited-edition watch, a belt can reflect the wearer’s appreciation for quality and workmanship and demonstrate a sense of style. “Unfortunately some men pay a lot of attention to their clothing, but attach less importance to their accessories,” says Beatrice Amblard, who worked at Hermès for more than a decade before establishing her own custom business, April in Paris, in San Francisco six years ago. “If a man has a great suit and a beautiful pair of shoes, and he wears them with a poorly made belt, it’s a good indicator that at some point his sense of style just stops.” Amblard produces understated 18-karat gold or sterling silver buckles that she pairs with simple, high-quality alligator or calfskin straps. Amblard says that acquiring a custom buckle and belt can require research and legwork, unlike ordering a bespoke suit or bench-made shoes, which are more widely available. Retail outlets for such belts and buckles are limited, and most of the country’s finest buckle makers—often artisans who learned the skills from their fathers and grandfathers—ply their craft in remote locales, often in obscurity.


Mona Van Riper fits that profile. She creates one-of-a-kind turquoise, 18-karat gold, and sterling silver buckles in a 10-by-10-foot utility room in her home located on a dirt road miles outside of Santa Fe, N.M. Mark Kielty shapes his streamlined, modern buckle sets in his tiny studio in a former Coast Guard station on Seattle’s Puget Sound. And James Stegman creates his Comstock Heritage brand buckles—complex, tricolor gold, Western-style designs embedded with diamonds and rubies—in a 120-year-old barn in Cars On City, Nev.

The buckle is only part of the equation. Usually, a custom belt necessitates the contributions of two craftsmen: a silversmith who makes the buckle and a leather artisan who manufactures the strap. The two components are sold separately, so the client or retailer must put them together to make the complete belt. That task can become difficult because, like some of the top buckle makers, at least two of America’s best strap makers, Bruce Erickson and Bill Niemczyk, prefer to remain out of the limelight.

In a nondescript building in a one-street town between Santa Fe and Taos, N.M., Erickson, the owner of Chacon Leathers, produces elaborate, hand-tooled straps from cowhide and nubuck alligator skin. Niemczyk—who owns Wm. Julian Designs and has produced prototypes for Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein—fashions custom belt straps out of crocodile, ostrich, and sharkskin, in the basement of his Granby, Conn., home. Of course, a few artisans—including Neil Hunt of NR Hunt Studio in Minnesota, James Reid of New Mexico, and the aforementioned Amblard—work with both metal and leather to produce complete belts.You will find notable differences in quality between such artisan-made belts and those that major luxury brands’ machines churn out by the thousands. Nevertheless, Kielty, a silversmith, points out that his handmade solid silver and gold buckles, which start at $250, sell for about the same prices as gold- or sterling-plated designer-brand buckles. “You can’t make 100,000 belts for 350 stores without eliminating some of the processes and the detailing that make them true luxury items,” says Kielty. In contrast to off-the-rack belts, custom buckles are almost always made of solid gold or sterling silver, rather than brass or nickel with silver or gold plating. A Mark Kielty gold Sonoma buckle has 17 beveled surfaces—a typical machine-made buckle may have six to eight sides—and Kielty can spend more than 36 hours just casting, grinding, and polishing a single buckle. “Now, how long would it take me to make 100,000 of them, even if I had a 100 people working on an assembly line?” he asks.


Silversmith Clint Orms references what he calls the “heirloom factor” when distinguishing his creations from mass-produced belts. “Sometimes when I compliment a man—whether he is in his 80s or a teenager—on his belt buckle, he’ll tell me it belonged to his grandfather,” says Orms, who was a bull rider until the early 1970s, when he began making buckles with an ornate style influenced by the designs of antique silver teapots and flatware and Victorian jewelry. Now one of the country’s most renowned buckle makers, Orms turns out elaborate, gem-encrusted buckle sets that have sold for more than $58,000. “To me the most important part of my business is making something that is going to touch somebody and be passed down from generation to generation,” he says. “And when you use solid silver and gold, the patina just gets better with age.”


A buckle maker usually employs the stamped, or bench-made, process to produce a Western-style buckle. He uses die stamps to cut the pieces that will form the buckle from sheets of nickel (in the case of inexpensive buckles) or sterling silver or gold for premium-quality designs. Then the buckle maker solders the individual pieces into a hollow, three-dimensional form before cleaning and polishing. For standard belts, the process ends there, but custom silversmiths then will add more elaborate embellishments that can include gemstones, scrollwork, overlays of sterling or gold, and engravings of figures, logos, or crests.

“This is not a machine-stamped process like most rack belts,” explains Casey Vogt of Vogt Silversmiths in Woodland, Calif. Vogt’s grandfather, a cowboy/silversmith who started out selling bits and spurs at rodeos, founded the company in 1969. “Every buckle is a very individual process, so there will always be differences, even if they aren’t obvious to the naked eye.”


Because they are solid metal, cast buckles involve a more intricate and often costlier method, depending on whether the maker is working with nickel, brass, sterling, or gold. First he carves a wax model of the buckle and encases it in a rubber mold. Then the craftsman pours molten metal into the mold and melts the wax to produce the raw metal buckle. Once the buckle has cooled, the buckle maker removes it from the mold, and then trims and polishes it, a process that can take as long as 56 hours. “Casting is a very technical process. It’s all about getting the temperature right to prevent imperfections,” explains Vogt. After polishing the piece, the buckle maker often will oxidize some areas of the sterling to create color variations before adding adornments such as gold wire or band edging. “Typically with cast pieces, there is no real engraving to speak of,” adds Vogt, whose company makes both cast and stamped designs.


Vogt is an anomaly in this regard; most belt makers specialize in one or the other discipline. Kielty, for instance, makes only cast buckle sets, while James Stegman, owner of Comstock Heritage, considers casting a cookie-cutter process to be avoided. “With casting, you make a rubber mold from an original, and everything after is a copy,” he says, dismissing the fact that the belt makers still customize each casting. Instead, the third-generation silversmith works with 6-by-36-inch sheets of sterling, and cuts from them fanciful, often ostentatious Western buckle sets incorporating floral embellishments, filigreed gold overlays, and, in the case of a current design priced at about $12,500, diamonds. Such elaborate work is a radical departure from the inexpensive nickel trophy buckles that Stegman’s father and grandfather originally made for rodeo prizes. The company continues to produce the prize buckles in addition to its bespoke offerings. “I do everything myself but the engraving,” says Stegman, whose hands touch every custom buckle that leaves his four-man shop. (READ FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE)


Sunday, July 7, 2024

Museum-Quality Turquoise Sculpture by Winston 106,000 carats

  Presenting a magnificent and unique work of art by renowned gemstone artist Winston. This museum-quality turquoise eagle sculpture stands as a testament to Winston's meticulous craftsmanship and his dedication to Southwestern art over the last 50 years.

About the Eagle Sculpture:

  • This exceptional piece features a majestic eagle carved from a 106,000-carat turquoise nugget, with an intricately detailed Native American face emerging from its back.
  • The eagle is adorned with Picasso marble feathers and bronze claws, adding to its stunning visual impact.
  • The sculpture is mounted on a Lucite base, enhancing its elegance and stability.
  • Dimensions: The Eagle Carving is 36” Inches Tall, 24” inches Wide, 6” Depth. Mounted on the Lucite Base it stands 44” inches Tall, 26” inches Wide, 14” Depth.
  • Materials: Turquoise, Picasso marble, bronze, Lucite
  • Style: Southwest, Native American, Western Art

Artist’s Legacy: Winston began his carving journey in 1976 as a hobby in his garage and has since evolved into a master artist, known for his intricate and lifelike gemstone carvings. Over the years, he has moved across the United States, running three successful retail stores in Fountain Hills, Arizona; Laguna Beach, California; and Ruidoso, New Mexico. Now based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Winston continues to create stunning pieces from his home studio.












Featured Native American Faces

This masterpiece also includes intricately detailed faces of eight famous Native American leaders, each with their own unique story and significance:


  1. Crazy Horse: Mouth open, Lakota chief, leader in the battle of "The Little Big Horn," Sioux Reservation.
  2. Red Cloud: "Red Cloud’s War" at Boseman Road stopped the Gold Rush (Oglala), Sioux Reservation.
  3. Cochise: A great leader of the Apache Chiricahua tribe who led many guerrilla war raids from a Mexico-base home.
  4. Osceola: The great chief of the Seminole tribe in what is now the state of Florida. Known for his defiant fashion of signing a peace treaty with his knife driven through it and the table it lay on, Osceola was imprisoned and later released to cause havoc and death for many troops and settlers.
  5. Geronimo: Following the capture of Cochise, this Apache leader, also of Chiricahua descent, was a fighter of the Calvary beyond all compare.
  6. See-Non-Ty-A: An Iowa medicine man, one who searches for new lands, moved from Iowa to what is now Northern Kansas.
  7. Curley: A famous Crow scout for Custer, hated by Crazy Horse, and one very lucky scout that lived to tell of the famous battle, "Little Big Horn."
  8. Chief Joseph: A famous Nez Perce leader of his Sioux clan, fighting all the way to the Canadian border only to admit defeat for his people. "Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
Notable Clients and Recognition: Winston’s creations have been featured in prestigious magazines and are owned by notable individuals, including Tom Chauncey of Arizona. Ten years ago, the novelist, Patricia Cornwell commissioned a custom belt buckle from Winston, which is prominently featured in her book “The Scarpetta Factor” she’s wearing his custom buckle on the back cover. His works have attracted high-profile clients such as Bon Jovi, Pat Sajak and Wayne Newton.

Photo taken when Winston's Eagle Carving was featured at the Sears Tower in New York City.

Watch Video of Eagle Carving: 

Authenticity and Replicas:

The sculpture being sold is the original turquoise carving, a true masterpiece that showcases Winston's talent and dedication. It is important to note that Winston also created three replicas of this original carving using Mineralite™, a man-made stone that mimics the properties of real turquoise. These replicas were crafted to share this extraordinary artwork with a wider audience while preserving the exclusivity of the original piece.



Certificate of Authenticity: 
This sculpture comes with a certificate of authenticity, validating it as a unique creation by Winston. The certificate details the history of the turquoise used and the significance of the piece.



Price: Own a piece of art history. This sculpture is priced at $1.2 million, reflecting its uniqueness and the artist’s lifetime dedication to his craft. For serious inquiries and further details, please contact us.


Supporting Articles: 

Explore Winston’s extraordinary journey and his celebrated works through articles and features on his blog: [http://winston-belt-buckles.blogspot.com] and website: [https://winstonbuckles.com] Discover the stories behind his masterpieces and his unique carving techniques. 


Youtube video “The Making of Scarpetta Buckle” (watch now)



Winston's custom belt buckle worn by the Novelist Patricia Cornwell on back cover.

Patricia wears the custom buckle featured in the YouTube video above. The buckle is made of Silver, Gold, Jade, Turquoise and Mother of Pearl.

Featured Article Robb Report - Style: Bang for the Buckle

Winston's Eagle Carving featured on the front cover of Rock & Gem Magazine (Aug 1987)


Contact Information: For further inquiries or private viewings, please contact us 

email: winstonbuckles@hotmail.com


Policies: Please refer to our shipping, insurance, and return policies due to the high value of this item. Item will be shipped using custom freight with tracking in the United States. Outside of the USA contact us for shipping details.

Friday, December 8, 2017

Cowboy Christmas Gift Show in Las Vegas

Winston in as many as 25 years has once again returned to the National Finals Rodeo Cowboy Christmas Gift Show here at the Las Vegas Convention Center.


Pulling out of retirement his old six shooter nick name  "The Carving Cowboy" wooden carved cowboy hat, Winston will be bringing his original three foot tall turquoise eagle carving to the show as well.  The 106,000 carat stone carving has already received rave reviews on the first day of the show.


Be sure and stop by Winston's booth at The East Door Entrance of The South Hall in the Las Vegas Convention Center.  They have in addition a 55 inch vertical screen showing pictorial slide shows from his now 41 year career.


Winston's three foot tall turquoise carved eagle with eight famous Native American faces featuring Carrara Marble tail feathers and bronze claws. This rare gemstone weighs in at over 106,000 carats and is valued at ten dollars a carat just for turquoise.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Treasure Found: Winston's Balloon Airlift Eagle Hunt


When the news finally came in that "The Eagle Has Landed" that's code for Winston's balloon airlift eagle treasure has been found. It was a dreamlike feeling to say the least because Winston's experiment actually worked. When asked why he did it Winston replied "The movement I was thinking about when I launched the Eagle was called Random Acts of Kindness. That was my reasoning behind a different type of delivery of the act. A balloon launch for whomever found it. Then I was not singled out for giving to anyone charity or person. My act was open to the world or at least someone in the United States, Mexico or Canada."

Original Takeoff Of Eagle in
Valley of Fire State Park, NV on 9-24-2015

Pictures of Original Eagle Airlift from Nevada
watch the video on youtube of
Winston's Airlift Eagle Head Treasure Hunt

It was found high in the White Mountains of NM at the
end of the Argentina Canyon Trail.
It was found 703 miles away from it's takeoff spot in Nevada. Chuck Oliver (the finder) notified Winston via Email he had found the carving in a capsule while riding his horse along the Billy the Kid Trail.  Chuck sent Winston a photo of the carving and the COA as you will see further down this post.  Read Chuck’s personal account of the treasure recovery below.
"To: John Winston
We just got back home here in North Idaho, so that's why haven't gotten right back to ya.  We had googled the launch and watched it.  Pretty neat.
We took a trip this spring to escape the snow and mud. Wanted to check out the Capitan, Fort Stanton, Fort Sumner and ride in "the footsteps" of Billy the Kid. We heard about some nice trails in the White Mountain wilderness so we rode there a couple days. When we were on the Argintina Canyon trail, near the top, we spotted your treasure. I saw the mylar balloon and ribbons, not much left of the other balloons. It was fairly open with grass, trees and brush (will see if one of us has pics of near there and send some to ya and of horses ect). The treasure was probably 80 yards off the trail in some brush. I have to admit my first thought was, damn people and there mylar balloons. See them, or what's left of them, quite often way out in the woods, go out of our way to go over and get off and pick them up. So went over to pick it up and when I got a hold of it saw the tube and said hell there's something attached to it. Opened it up and Wow, what a surprise. We decided it was Karma paying off for all the balloons and trash we pick up when we are riding (beer cans are the other big one we find way out there, they must get heavier once they're empty, because they pack em in full but once empty people can't pack them back out)
So thank you for the nice surprise and treasure."

Chuck and Teri Oliver

Picture taken by Chuck and Teri Oliver
was emailed to Winston.
Their picture shows the Eagle and certificate
were perfectly preserved when they found it.
Shortly after the initial balloon airlift Winston had speculated that the eagle carving was missing and swept away by jet stream and landed in a remote area of Mexico or top a high mountain because the capsule would loose altitude somewhere over 500 miles southeast of the launch. He had even contemplated the carving would never be found in his lifetime and gave up thinking about it's whereabouts after a year had gone by with  no word.  In hindsight he wished he would've added a GPS Track-R device  to the precious hand carved eagle. Time passed and Winston chalked it up as a lost project.

The balloon airlift carried the eagle treasure 763 miles
into the White Mountains of New Mexico
where it landed and was MIA for 17 months
until it was found by Chuck and Terri Oliver.
Finally 17 months later it was found. Winston said "After I heard the eagle was found by horseback in the White Mountains I started crying" It was an emotional experience for the Artist, his family, customers and many Facebook followers because everyone who knew about the balloon launch wondered if the eagle would ever be found. Well folks it was found. Like a Alien mylar ballon beacon calling out to a horseback riding stranger...Look over here..Over here. It was like the universe was connecting cosmic karma dots with a horseman who takes personal pride in the cleanliness of our National Parks. Chuck mentioned Karma in his email. Winston couldn't agree more. If he were to walk up to someone and give his art-work to them as a Random Act of Kindness, knowing how Chuck treats our mother earth he would be candidate number one. Winston feels in his heart that we are all connected as humans to mother earth and everybody deserves to own a precious piece of art from her that they can hand down to their children and generations to come.  

This December Winston is planning on releasing another hand made piece of art via balloon airlift. 
Look for future Treasure Hunt in 2017

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Winston Retires From Carving 2016

Winston has officially retired from carving gemstone. He announced "I've decided that at 68 years I need to preserve my hands for carving the remaining 98 pound turquoise gemstone along with one remaining 86 pound Bluebird Mine Azurite Malachite gemstone."  Both stones have been in his collection since 1987.

He also said "In fairness to my collectors and personal friends I will continue to take custom orders through the end of this year, 2016."

All of his works on his website are sold.  Only the 106,000.00 carat turquoise eagle sculpure is available at Gilbert Ortega's in Arizona on 5th Ave. & Scottsdale Rd for a current figure of $1.2 million

Currently Winston has a few promised carvings he's working on and a dozen different carvings that need to be mounted in silver and gold that he's had in his collection for a couple years. He will be posting these works for sale one at a time on Facebook and the front page of his website.  Should you want something special for yourself or a family member custom made, PM Winston in the next couple months.

Thanks so very much for your life long patronage to Winston and his Art.

Winstonbuckles.com

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Saber Tooth Dinosaur Bone Carving


Since 2007 Winston gets a special order by Staci Gruber for her married partner Patricia Cornwell usually for a birthday or anniversary gift. This latest carving commissioned by Staci is special in many ways because it's  made of actual dinosaur bones. The couple discovered them on Dan Aykroyd's Canadian Ranch a few years ago. After discovering and digging  the bones up they brought them via helicopter to Winston. 




The first piece he made for Patricia was a Dinosaur Bone Necklace shown in the photos above.




The second carving was a T-Rex Dinosaur Bone Belt Buckle. Here is a picture and a link to the article if you would like to see more.

The third carving from the ancient dinosaur bones was recently hand carved into a Saber Tooth Tiger emerging from the Brea Tar Pits and if that's not cool enough the carving is mounted in Sterling silver, with mother of pearl teeth and 18K hand fabricated tar bubbles.



Last but not least on the back of the buckle is a 22K Gold anatomically correct heart to go along with Patricia's forensic profile. The buckle is all sterling silver hand-made except for the 18K Gold.


On the back of buckle Winston hand engraves it with a title and date, officially making it one of a kind.


Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Picasso Buckle by Winston

"Everything you can imagine is real. Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." ~ Pablo Picasso 


As a 50th year birthday gift to his wonderful better half Kelly, Winston hand carved and made this one of a kind belt buckle. In honor of the great Artist Picasso.


The buckle is hand carved and made of thirteen different pieces of precious stones including mother of pearl, picasso marble, turquiose and multiple colored jem stones. This original by Winston is one of a kind and here is a step by step process on how the artist put the beautiful buckle together.


Finally the finished piece is mounted into
a handmade silver picture frame.



Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Balloon Airlift Eagle Treasure Hunt


On October 24th 2015 Winston Packaged this Hand Carved Eagle into a sealed canister and sent it flying high into the Las Vegas, NV jet stream.


The Eagle is Hand Carved by Winston and is one of a kind.


The Gold Lip Mother Of Pearl Eagle is mounted into a sterling silver frame and can be worn as a necklace.


Deep in the Nevada desert Winston walks to the highest peak to release the eagle carving via orange and black balloons and one sparkly alien head balloon. 



The balloons are attached to a protected capsule with Winston's hand carved eagle and certificate of authenticity safely inside.



Winston does a preflight check before lift off.


Below is a video posted on youtube of the event on 10-24-1015



Winston Treasure Launch 2015 Video



Tracking the jet stream on his Phone the carving flew 150 degrees South East. Headed for Flagstaff or possibly as far as Southern Arizona


Above on map one Winston marked the exact coordinates of the lift off. They launched it from The Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.


From the compass in the image above you can see which way the eagle flew in a South East direction at 150 degrees towards Flagstaff, Arizona. However after recalculating the jet streams Winston believes the capsule went South East at 50 mph only to hit a 80 to 100 mph jet stream headed north east meaning the capsule could be anywhere in  the mid west from Texas to as far north as Michigan or Maine.


Here is the certificte of authenticenty and a picture of the eagle that were placed in the protected capsule and sent into the sky. Be looking out for a cluster of orange and black balloons with one sparkly alien female face balloon. Stay posted for more info on where the eagle landed and who found it.


Winston and Kelly wish you best of luck and may the one who finds this eagle carving be blessed.