If the National Finals Rodeo tells you anything about agriculture, it’s that there is a fashionable side to our industry, and it dresses up and fits right in with our grit.
Women are leading this fashion movement with unique accessories and outfit accoutrements handmade by their favorite designers. I would be remiss to say that Burlap Bovine is a new designer delivering just what every ranch girl needs, but truthfully, this brand has made quite a name for itself in the western fashion world already.
Malorie Walker is the name, and creating beautiful, handmade cowhide accessories for her company, Burlap Bovine, is her game. She boasts an agricultural communications degree, with an emphasis on Animal Science, from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and has a long list of experience in the agricultural industry.
Walker grew up on her family’s commercial cattle ranch in Livermore, California. She raised show hogs, steers and lambs for 4-H and Livermore FFA, where she served as President, was a member of the Livestock Judging Team, and was the California FFA State Champion Prepared Public Speaking Contest in 2009. Adding to all of her early accomplishments, Walker also represented California as a State Beef Ambassador, representing Alameda County Cattlewomen, was a member of the 2010 National Beef Ambassador Team, and worked for the California Cattlemen’s Association as their associate director of communications and then their director of communications before she founded Burlap Bovine.
“I’ve called myself a crafty person my whole life. My first project for 4-H Presentation Day was a decoupaged bird feeder out of tera cotta pots! I started making jewelry in college, because chunky necklaces were popular at the time in the livestock world and I couldn’t find any I’d like to buy, so I made my own. It blossomed from there. I had made friends with my jewelry making mentor at the Alameda County Fair who demonstrated in the hobby building, which has been run by a family member for over 30 years and is currently managed by my mom.
“From there it grew even more! It went from me making jewelry for myself to friends liking my designs and wanting to purchase them from me. I started an Etsy shop in 2014 as a side-gig and I am now a full-time business owner since the Fall of 2017. But things have really taken off within the last year and a half.”
Taking an entrepreneurial path was not too far fetched for Walker, as her mother and late father were both entrepreneurs themselves. It came naturally to her and was a passion she knew she wanted to pursue. She feels that it’s her way of honoring her father’s memory and she strives each day to make him proud of her.
A cow of a different color
What set off her signature cowhide designs was an idea a friend asked Walker to make for his son; a baby mobile with cowhide ornaments. The rest is history, as they say.
“The cowhide came into play when a friend asked me if I could make baby mobile ornaments for his son, which is still a product I love making for customers to this day. I started by hand cutting everything, but after 4 or so years of that, I invested in some tools to help me cut my shapes, because carpal tunnel would have put me out of business faster than anything else at that rate!”
“My tagline is Differ from the Herd, and I pride myself on creating unique pieces. I use my dad’s old soldering gun from who knows what decade with the electrical tape and two-pronged power cord to boot and it works a lot better than the brand new one he got me a while back.”
Branding Season
Her unique sense of creativity amalgamates the traditional with the fashionable and creates pieces that are sure to fit anyone’s flare, and she continues to find new ways to help people express their style.
“I started branding the cowhide when I created personalized cowhide graduation cap toppers as a way for seniors to give a nod to their western heritage on graduation day and to keep for a memento after graduation! That branched into many other accessories from there.”
Beyond her adored branded designs, Walker introduces new styles constantly, each one leaving you wishing you could buy one of each from her Etsy store.
“My newest favorite creation has to be my “On the Edge” line where I’m pairing the unfinished and ratty edges of pieces of leather with cowhide. Usually I would throw those pieces away, but then one day I got the idea to incorporate them into my design. They’re just rustic enough they’d look really great with a pair of jeans at a local branding or with a sundress on date night! I also love my Happy Heifer line and new Hay Sweetie line, named after a favorite cow of my Dad’s.”
Cowhide Connections
When it comes to her business, though, it’s the connections behind the scenes that Walker truly loves.
“I love helping my customers pull off surprises. I love getting to know my customers on a more personal level, because mostly I care about what cool things they are doing with the pieces I create. I just love spreading joy with my pieces, because it brings me so much joy to create them!”
And partnering with other small business owners is a passion of hers as well and has led to some amazing opportunities and connections of people in the industry.
“Partnering with my friends has been the most fun in this adventure. Whether I’ve met them because they were Instagram friends first or because being business owners has allowed us to rekindle our friendship, or because we were booth neighbors at an event a couple years in a row, either way, it’s a blast to bring together the things you love with the people you love and create something special together.”
“I’ve worked with my friend Brooke from The Beef Boutique who afforded me the opportunity to have my pieces at the NFR in her booth. Kiah from Burley & Barley has been a huge partnership for my business, because she helped me create my herd of hand watercolor painted cows that I truly believed help bring me into the limelight of small businesses in the western world. I think I highly underestimated how much folks truly love a good water bottle sticker! And the ladies as Gomes & Rios have been my newest partnership. I get to make things with their beautiful turquoise and precious stone pieces.”
On the Trail
Burlap Bovine is well-traveled, Walker states. Her first shows being the Northern Exposure Jackpot in Corning, Ca, and then Western Bonanza in Paso Robles, she’s taken the “Mootique” on many different adventures since then.
“Last holiday season when I decided to hit the road…hard. I attended something like 23 booth days at 11 different shows from Oct-Dec last year. It was a lot, but so awesome to meet my herd. My favorite was when someone would show up from a town not very near where I was and say they traveled all that way just to meet me and see my products. That kind of loyalty is the secret sauce to the community that shops with me. And it warms my heart.”
The FemFort
If you think her jewelry designs are to-die for, then visitng Burlap Bovine at one of the shows is a must. Her booth set up is like Fixer Upper meets Trade Show Chic.
“I once rented a U-Haul, which we called the Moo-Haul, just to haul all the furniture I wanted to build out my dream booth at Flair on the Farm at Salinas. I started referring to my booth as a ‘FemFort,’ because it was like a SheShed without walls or a roof. I try to make my booth as homey as I can, and a lot of my visitors make comments that it feels like they’re coming into my tiny home to shop. My floor mat next to my register stand even says ‘Hooray! You’re here!’ I hand-pick the ‘skeleton’ of my booth almost as carefully as I create the pieces to sell in it. That’s another fun part for me!”
Herd Goals
“My goals are to eventually have a workshop or studio space that is outside of my home, so I can ‘go to work’ and separate my house and my studio a little bit more. Because right now, the line is so blurry, there really isn’t a line,” Walker laughs. “I have a ‘studio’ bedroom in our house, but if every single surface area in my house isn’t covered in a finished product or a piece of cowhide or leather, something’s not right.”
“I’d also love to maybe have a storefront one day. But honestly, I like it the way it works now. I’m a one-woman show because I love to be the maker, the designer, the marketer, the shipper…etc. But if one day down the road an opportunity presented itself, maybe I’ll be in a position to explore it!”
Find Burlap Bovine on Instagram, Facebook and Etsy @Burlap Bovine!
