Courses with Paul Van Dyke
Not everyone can spend two weeks in the shop in Sheridan. These online classes are a way to get the same instruction in smaller pieces — start where you are, work at your own pace, and come back to the videos as often as you need.
Each class is taught by Paul Van Dyke, who served two traditional saddlery apprenticeships (Ron Silverman and Don Butler) and has been building custom saddles on his own since 2004. The emphasis here is the same as it is in the shop: not just how, but why.
3 Course Bundle! Save $50
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Intro to Drawing
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Swivel Knife Course
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Getting Started with Flower Stampin
Intro to Drawing — $75
Start where the work actually starts — on paper. Drawing flowers, building layouts, and understanding flow, with printable practice PDFs.
Good for: Anyone stuck on where to begin drawing, and anyone who can draw a passable flower but wants to refine it and understand what makes a layout work.
Getting Started with Flower Stamping — $75
Every tool, in the order he uses them — watched all the way through a rear jockey, from first bevel to finished piece.
Good for: Anyone ready to move from drawing and cutting into actual stamping. Designed to follow Introduction to Drawing for Flower Stamping and the Swivel Knife Class, but it also stands alone as a complete introduction to the tools and how to use them.
Covering the Keetch
Style Horn — $75
Step by step through a covered horn — leather selection back at the cutting table, fitting and installing the belly and filler, the cap and wrap, sewing, slicking, and wings. The details that add class to the work, not just the sequence.
Good for: Saddle makers who want their horn work to look finished rather than merely covered. The principles aren't specific to the Keetch — they apply to any horn you set out to cover.