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SIGNATURE MONTANA | 71 Kick off western art week with your friends at the Russell Museum! Get up close and personal at our exclusive art preview party and two nights of silent and live auctions – featuring contemporary, historical works, and other western collectibles. MARCH 17-18, 2023 The Newberry | Great Falls, MT AN INTIMATE ART EXPERIENCE 406-727-1939 | CMRussell.org Save the Date The Russell: A Western Art Experience August 17-19, 2023 Denise Czuprynski has been writing and editing her full career in marketing and communications. She feels proud and blessed to call Cascade, Montana her home. He uses a head knife, his main cuing tool, a leather skiver, dozens of hand tooling devices, and sinew thread. Books of paper paerns provide inspiration, though Hanson says, "A lot of what I do is freehand." He's also a collector of antique Western saddles, bridles, bits, and spurs. He finds rare G.S. Garcia antique bits and August Buermann spurs at "old-tique" Western auctions in Montana, Idaho, and Alberta. Much of his saddle collection comes from eastern Montana. "Miles City was one of the early cowboy towns—a big cowboy town. At one time, they had four or five saddle shops," he says. Hanson's collection includes an E.J. Owenhouse saddle with horsehair cinch, built before Montana was a state, and a fully tooled saddle, handcraed by Al Furstnow of Miles City. "Fully tooled," Hanson explains, "was prey rare back then. You had to have a lot of money." In restoring antique saddles, Hanson says, "You have to be very careful because buyers want them in original condition. You can't modify them in any way, and you can't put new stuff on there." Pointing to works in progress, he says, "ese will all be custom ladies' purses, with fringe, using one paern—maybe some with horsehair fringe. at's the kind of stuff we like geing into. One-of-a-kind things. It just blows people's minds." "Rodeo people like their chaps really fancy. The fancier, the better," Hanson says S MT

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