Tyler Kerchal gets some Texas exposure for his leatherwork

    What better place to get some exposure for your western leatherwork than Texas?
    Tyler Kerchal, a 2007 Wauneta-Palisade graduate and former Imperial business owner, got just that the past week.
    He provided a pair of leather chaps to be auctioned at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo’s winter banquet held Friday night.
    The chaps, created in Kerchal’s shop in Curtis, fetched $1,000, he said.
    “I was tickled with that price. It was more than I would have sold them for,” he said this week.
    Kerchal said he was pleasantly surprised when a committee member with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo contacted him about the project.
    “She said she had seen some of my work through an acquaintance and wondered if I was interested in building a pair of chaps” for the group’s annual auction, he said.
    Of course he was.
    “This was the largest event I’ve ever sent a pair of chaps to,” he said.
    “This is a pretty huge thing.”
    The only request the committee had in how they were designed was inclusion of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo logo.
    When coming up with a design and coloring, Kerchal said he went back to his youth.
    “When I rode bulls I always wanted a pair of metallic purple and black chaps,” he said.
    So that’s the color scheme he used for Houston.
    He then added floral tooling with a basketweave design, and each leg features an outline of Texas with a silver Texas Star concha embedded in it.
    He was unable to attend last week’s banquet, but had a friend who was there.
    Once operating Kerchal Leatherworks in Imperial in 2017, he moved the business to Curtis, where he opened a main street storefront last fall, he said.
    “I am busier than I ever thought I would be,” he said.
    His custom leatherwork and personalized items, including chaps, represent about 90% of his business. Belts are his No. 1 request, he said. His wife, Liz, builds cinches and breast collars for saddles.
    He also offers saddle repair, and repairs to other leather items. His store features a number of Nebraska-made gift items for sale.
    He carries a line of leather gloves, Brandt’s Western Works jewelry of Imperial, Prairie Girl candles from Benkelman, as well as the Wild Ass Soap Company products from McCook and a line of silk wild rags from North Platte.
    He said it was his goal to feature Nebraska-made items in his store.
    Kerchal’s wife helps out in the business when she is home from her job as a traveling nurse out of Kearney. Their children, 12-year-old Halie and 10-year-old Lais also contribute, he said.
    Kirstin Cawthra of Benkelman, a first year Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture student, is also interning with his business.