WALDEN LEATHER CO

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

JODY DOZIER STARTED CREATING LEATHER GOODS AS A HOBBY, EXPERIMENTING AND CRAFTING HANDMADE GOODS. FAST-FORWARD, DOZIER HAS CREATED HIS BUSINESS, WALDEN LEATHER CO., AFTER TURNING OUT HIGH-QUALITY AND FUNCTIONAL LEATHER PIECES.

You never know until you try — that’s a statement in which Jody Dozier believes wholeheartedly. After all, if the young craftsman hadn’t decided to go out on a limb and attempt something new, his leather goods business, Walden Leather Co., may not have ever come to be.

Dozier was only 15 or 16 years old when he first decided to try his hand at leather crafting. School was out for the summer and he was bored, he recalls, so why not take on the task of making a replacement for his father’s broken ax sheath? The then-teenager picked up some old shoe leather he had lying around and got to work on his first leather crafting project.

The product of Dozier’s boredom wasn’t quite as functional as he hoped it would be. “It did not work,” he remembers. His efforts and try anything attitude weren’t for nothing, though. He didn’t end up with a perfect product, but a realization: making leather goods was a skill and creative outlet he wanted to learn more about.

After that, the young maker purchased his first leatherworking kit from the local Hobby Lobby. Soon, more of these kits began appearing among his birthday and Christmas gifts, he says, and the dollars he earned mowing lawns went toward purchasing leatherworking tools. It was official: he was hooked. “It started with something silly, and I just slowly worked on it and started learning more,” he says. “It piqued and kept my interest, and now I can say I have a pretty consistent hobby that I can spend diligent time on and find fulfillment and fun in doing.”

Fast forward to now, when the hobby Dozier stumbled upon during his teenage years manages to do a bit more than simply bring enjoyment — it manages to put a few extra dollars into his

probably handmade wallet, too. As time went on, the East Texas native’s leather crafting knowledge grew, and his skills improved to the point of making high-quality and functional gifts, like wallets or keychains, for his friends and family. It was a cop-out to avoid spending money, Dozier admits with a laugh, but still, his loved ones were impressed with the things he made for them. They were so impressed, in fact, that they were convinced he could sell his products to others.

If he was going to start a business, though, it would need a name under which to operate. That, he eventually decided, would come from a man who had inspired him before: his favorite writer, Henry David Thoreau.

Walden Leather Co.’s moniker is a nod to the American naturalist and writer’s most famous work, Walden. The classic book, which was published in 1854, is filled with Thoreau’s observations of nature and simple living and was written while he lived alone in a cabin along the shore of Massachusetts’s Walden Pond. Thanks to extensive study in an English class, Dozier fell in love with the text and realized Thoreau’s comments on nature in relation to society and a higher power had struck a chord with him. “I really liked the way he was simple but profound and connected nature and being outside, which is what I love, to the way people work and the way life goes,” the literature lover explains.

This, plus the experience of reading Thoreau’s words in the place they were written on a 2018 trip to Walden Pond, was enough to convince Dozier that Walden was the perfect name for his business. “I just needed a name, and this book kind of unites all of my interests and inspires people to be creative and kind of gives the summary of the human condition through natural observation. So why not choose this?”

BAYOU ARTIST CONTINUED

In the winter of his freshman year of college, Dozier launched Walden Leather Co. via social media without any real expectations, just a desire to see if anything could come of his hobby. “I just made an Instagram page and thought, ‘If people like it, they like it, and if they don’t, they don’t,’” he recalls.

If Dozier was going to try to sell his goods, though, he was going to be certain they were good; his first goal was simply to create products people would be thrilled to buy. “I don’t want to make anything that people would not enjoy or would feel like they were being cheated out of something, so that was one of my goals: sell something that I knew wouldn’t break somebody,” he says. It didn’t take very long for Dozier to realize this goal was being accomplished. “A lot of people did start to follow it,” he says of the Walden Leather Co. Instagram account, “and friends were asking for gifts for their dads or their boyfriend or girlfriend. When it got to that point people that were DMing me for gifts, I knew they liked it, and they would deem it quality.”

Since Walden Leather’s establishment, getting messages for commissions and custom orders for the wallets, watch bands, camera straps, keychains, and desk caddies he makes has become business as usual for Dozier. In fact, the majority of the craftsman’s products are made to order, although Fine Line Supply, an art printing, reproduction, and supply store in downtown Ruston, carries a limited supply of Walden Leather goods in-store. In the future, however, Dozier wants to be able to keep his own supply of his items on hand so orders can be shipped to customers more quickly and sold at local events. This will not only help him sell more products, but also give the Louisiana Tech senior construction engineering technology major more much-needed downtime during busier seasons of the school year when his coursework and other responsibilities become particularly hectic.

More importantly, there would be more opportunities for Walden Leather Co. products to land in the hands of northeast Louisiana residents who may not have otherwise heard of the small business. With the built-up inventory of his dreams, Dozier can take his products from the mobile phone screen to the streets, setting up booths at local farmers markets and maker’s fairs — two prime locations for meeting people outside of his usual demographic and expanding Walden Leather Co.’s typical customer base.

“I’d be able to reach people that are not on Facebook or Instagram or know me or my friends,” he says. “I’d like to be able to expand past my circle of college people and some adults that are in on the stuff that I’m doing. I’d like to grow that, and I think once I get to that point, I really could have an open door to a lot of different avenues.”

Until then, though, Dozier takes things one step at a time, filling orders as they come and creating new products whenever he can. As he works to continue the one-man operation he’s begun, the craftsman can be found designing product patterns and stitching and dyeing the pieces of leather he sources from Tandy Leather in Bossier City. There’s probably music playing as he works, he says, and the songs on his playlists act as a “continual engine to keep me on track.”

A good soundtrack inspires Dozier’s leatherwork projects for sure, however, he admits a few catchy tunes aren’t the only things that motivate his making. The work of other artists, even those experts who work with other mediums besides leather, tend to play a significant role in his creative process, he says. “YouTube videos are really inspiring,” Dozier explains. “There are tons of people with too much time on their hands that are just making random stuff.”

All sorts of creations pique his interest, especially carpenters, but one video detailing a man making a guitar from colored pencils particularly stands out to the leather craftsman. He notes that though this stranger on the internet does work that’s nothing like his own, watching this artist share his work was a positive influence. “It’s not like, a one-to-one to the stuff I do,” he says. “It’s still inspiring to watch somebody make something out of an object that would be seemingly useless for the end result.”

Since Walden Leather Co. itself is the result of simply trying something new, Dozier encourages other aspiring creators, makers, and artists to step out of their comfort zones and do the same. “Don’t let your immediate hesitations deter you from giving something a shot,” he says. “It’s better to go into something, try it, and then fail rather than psych yourself out before even attempting.”

After all, you never know what your attempt could lead to, he says, adding, “I was bored and you know, I tried. And I have found something that I really enjoy. If anything, that’s what a hobby is there to do; to bring you joy.”

To find out more about Walden Leather Co., or to order a few handmade leather products of your own, visit @waldenleatherco on Instagram.

LIVE THEATRE RETURNED TO THE University of Louisiana Monroe with the Tennessee Williams classic, “The Glass Menagerie,” presented by the School of Visual and Performing Arts in the College of Arts, Education, and Sciences. The play was directed by Mark Ross Clark, DMA, Professor of Music and Theatre. Clark said this is the first play presented by VAPA in eight years. “For this occasion, we chose one of the classic plays of the 20th century, a play that has been revived on Broadway five times, ‘The Glass Menagerie,’ by Tennessee Williams. We held auditions on the evenings of the first two days of class, Aug. 15 and 16. It is a tribute to the devotion and talent of our chosen student actors that in five weeks they have rehearsed and memorized this substantial 116-page play.” The performance was double-cast, except for of the role of Tom, played in all shows by Kade Matkins of Monroe, a junior in computer science.

Amanda – Abigail McClung of Monroe, a sophomore in communications

Laura – Rebekah Johnson of Livingston, a sophomore in pre-Pharmacy

Jim the “Gentleman Caller” – Callan Saldutto from Canada, a sophomore in accounting

Amanda – Cherie Mialaret of Mandeville, a junior in public relations

Laura – Abigail Hawthorne of Monroe, a sophomore in pre-social work

Jim – Gabe Wright of Kansas City, Mo., a senior in pre-professional health studies.

Student production staff include stage manager Sarah Johnson, a freshman in CAES, and stage crew Jonathan Hannon, Brittany Penn, and Allison Newton.

ULM production staff are technical director Steven Burnside, costumer Margaret Hall, and producer Derle Long, VAPA director.

The music reflects the sounds from the post-WWII years of the late 1940s. Recordings of Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and others set the atmosphere of the family living in a one-bedroom apartment in downtown St. Louis, Mo.

Amanda, the mother, continues to relive her old Southern past; daughter Laura is physically and emotionally damaged, with a collection of glass figurines; and Tom, the son, is narrator, and brings home an old friend, Jim, as a blind date for Laura, who is still smitten by memories of him.

All of the scenes are snapshots of Tom’s own memories of what happened at this time in his family. It is called ‘a memory play,’ woven together by recordings of great swing music sounds of the time, Clark said.

UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA MONROE Student Radiologic Technology Association in the School of Allied Health, College of Health Sciences, attended the Louisiana Society of Radiologic Technologists Annual Conference in New Orleans in late July.

The students represented ULM in competitions, matching skills with other universities, and placing in several events.

The ULM quiz bowl team showed their skills by winning the championship. Quiz bowl team members are Madison Bordelon, Amber DeFatta, Gabrielle Marvin, Makiya Nettles, Sydney Rinehart, and Blake Stone; under the direction of Brett Bennett, Radiologic Technology Program Director and Associate Professor, who attended the conference with the students.

Sydney Rinehart won second in the Student Essay Competition with “MRI Use in Identification and Differentiating of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Parkinson’s Disease.” Blake Stone won the Joe Schwartz Memorial Scholarship and placed third in the Student Essay Competition with “When AI Meets Mammography.” The Student Radiologic Technology Association also won second in the Tee Shirt Competition. Student Jason Smith gave a lecture for technologists and students entitled “Common CT Pathology and Appearance.” Bennett was honored at the event for his service to the society as the executive secretary of finance. ULM Assistant Professor of Radiology Technology Rebecca Hamm was inducted president of the LSRT and will lead the organization for 2021-22.

Students attending were Alice Adams, Madison Bordelon, Maegan Callais, Amber DeFatta, David Gould, Sydnie Guidry, Rebecca Hamm, Maci Harris, Gabrielle Marvin, Raelyn McDaniel, Janet AkersMontgomery, Makiya Nettles, Alyssa Parish, Miya Reed, Sydney Rinehart, Blake Stone, Taejah Watkins, Courtnei Webster and Katie Wiley; and faculty members Brett Bennett and Rebecca Hamm.

DR. SHAWN CHEN, ASSISTANT Professor of Mechanical Engineering for Louisiana Tech’s College of Engineering and Science and Institute for Micromanufacturing, and Dr. Kristopher Harris, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, have begun research into improved energy storage systems, making space flight safer for astronauts, and extending their potential exploration radius within the solar system.

Chen and Harris are working with a consortium of Louisiana researchers to provide the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with a better, more efficient means of storing energy for long space flights. By improving power storage technology, the Tech team and their colleagues around Louisiana will develop an ultra-highcapacity battery that is safe for travel in lowtemperature and radiation laden environments as part of a NASA EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant.

Chen, Harris, and two Louisiana Tech doctoral students will work with researchers from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) and Louisiana State University, as well as Glenn Research Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, General Motors, and IBM on high-capacity anode development and testing, performance evaluation in a simulated space environment, and independent validations of the materials and batteries developed by the team.

Over three years, the Louisiana Tech team will develop a physics-based multiscale modeling framework to predict the longterm performance stability of the proposed batteries and use the University’s new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy facility to study proposed battery components as they change over time. As the Tech teams study the lithium metal/solid electrolyte interface behaviors during the plating process and the behaviors of the local battery structures, they will develop new processes and provide insight into microstructure design and defect engineering strategies for improved interface stability and cell performance.

The final product from the consortium will be a robust, solid-state electrolyte to promote uniform lithium plating that suppresses the formation of dendrites and prevents thermal runaway for safer, more efficient battery power on exploratory NASA missions.

Energy storage technology affects every aspect of a space flight, including the spacesuits that astronauts wear. Inefficient battery power can be dangerous, as it can prevent proper cooling, ventilation, and biomedical measurements. Because planetary missions will involve potential exploration in extreme environments, power sources must be able to withstand high levels of radiation as well as very high and very low temperatures. Through these battery improvements, this collaboration will provide safer, greener energy that will impact NASA and the energy storage sector for years to come.

Dr. Hisham Hegab, Dean of the College of Engineering and Science, said the results of this research will impact areas beyond space exploration.

THE AVERY SUITES SITE WAS ORIGINALLY BUILT IN downtown Monroe. It was operated by Cottom Haddad and the family as Monroe’s downtown super store with everything for the family from clothing to furniture to appliances to shoes. It later moved to Avenue of America. Many will recall that for a number of years, it was Charlie Calhoun’s Used Office Furniture. If you needed anything for the office, Charlie had it.

In 2018, Wayne and Kathy Williamson bought the 17,000 sq. ft. building and decided that it would be a great downtown office location for small businesses, sales people, attorneys, tax preparation agents and new start-ups. Wayne created the original design and TB Architects did the rest. Wayne and Kathy named Avery Suites after one of their ten grandchildren, Avery Robertson, an eighth grader at Sterlington Middle School.

The front 2,000 sq. ft. are corporate offices for the Williamson’s various businesses enterprises housing clerical, accounting and maintenance personnel with over 4,500 sq. ft. dedicated to Avery Suites 19 offices. They also have 54 climate controlled storage units under the name Will Stor. We are happy to be snuggled up next to Rustico’s boutique, except it’s too close for Kathy since she loves Kempa, the owner, and all of her clothing lines.

Avery Suites are executive office suites located in downtown Monroe, Louisiana. These offices are fully furnished and offer a friendly and professional atmosphere for entrepreneurs and businesses to work and meet with their clients. Each suite has a unique phone number, personal address, and a dedicated 8-to-5 onsite receptionist. Avery Suites has two locations–one at 601 North Fifth and a branch location at North 9th Street in Monroe.

Our executive suites are YOUR professional headquarters. Every executive suite comes with many amenities. From your very own climate-controlled office with a thermostat to our available conference room, Avery Suites is set up to help you succeed. Not only do you get a fully-furnished, top-of-the-line office to work and engage clients in, but we also have onsite personnel that is interested in your success!

Wayne and Kathy Williamson have over 40 years of experience in building and operating multi-million dollar businesses. We have the expertise to help you kickstart your career!

• Near city government and other prominent businesses • A variety of offices choices • Offices with window options available • Individual thermostat w/individual climate control • Accommodations for connecting multiple offices together • Located together with storage facilities • Close-by office parking

Avery Suites is a customized workspace for rent whenever YOU need it! Avery Suites offers ergonomic office furniture, a professional business environment, a convenient downtown Monroe location, and much, more! Go on-line to Avery Suites to rent a space or come in and we will take care of you.