“Go West, Young Lady” – Horace Greeley’s Sister

by Gene Fowler 

Jennifer Watchous, boss lady of Just Plain Crazy Leather Goods, stands in the driver’s seat of an old-time wooden wagon on the Kansas plains. Looking fabulous in a full-length purple duster, she gazes west as she holds the reins to two powerful, handsome Percherons that stand ready to magic-carpet-ride her away to a land of 21^st-century frontier fashion. Just Plain Crazy leather creations tumble from the wagon’s impending flight. 

Whither goest this arresting vision? 

Vegas, baby. Cowboy Christmas. More than half a million square feet showcasing over 400 exhibitors offering every unique iota one might need to embrace the ultimate modern – and traditional – western lifestyle. And you know that adds up to a heckuva lotta great leather goods. 

Cowboy Christmas is “the only official gift show of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.” Holiday shop it in Las Vegas this year from December 7^th-16^th. Admission is free and Shop Talk! will be in the house. 

Just Plain Crazy Jennifer made her first appearance at Cowboy Christmas during the Covid year of 2020, when it took place in Fort Worth, because of the pandemic. “Everyone there told me, you’ve got to go to Vegas. You’ve got to see Cowboy Christmas at Las Vegas.” 

So, she did. And the experience proved even more incredible than she’d imagined. One day in her Vegas booth, she was arranging Just Plain Crazy’s bags, belts, purses, firearm accessories, pet products, wallets, pony saddles, saddle stools, claw clips, placemats and other special leather items when she looked up to behold “three people who were blue from head to toe.” And before she had a minute to recall them as the “American performance art company” called the Blue Man Group (a Las Vegas version of the Wise Men?), someone thrust a microphone at her and the Las Vegas Review-Journal photographer flashed and popped his digital bulbs. 

It turned out, Jennifer and her Just Plain Crazy booth had won two of the three major awards presented in the 2021 Cowboy Channel Cowboy Christmas Best Booth Contest. At her first-ever Las Vegas NFR Cowboy Christmas! Two! For Best Overall Booth and Best Holiday-Themed Booth. 

Referencing her rolling shop on wheels that visits rodeos, livestock shows and other events, the Review-Journal reported, “The trailer-turned-tourist-stop-shop wowed customers and the decorating committee alike.” 

In a recent phone interview, I learned why Jennifer’s outta-the-chute wins are not so surprising. “I’ve always been a designer,” she explained. “Primarily interior design. Homes, barns, buildings; you name it, I’ve probably designed it.” 

That makes sense, but what – I know you’re wondering – what is the deal with the company name, Just Plain Crazy? “I design all my products, both custom requests and shelf products, here in Kansas, and the leathercrafting to make them is done by Amish in rural Ohio. So, the plain part is because the Amish pursue a plain lifestyle and the crazy part, well, that’s me,” she chuckled. “I’ve been known to be a little crazy.” 

Jennifer first met some Amish craftsfolk at a draft horse sale in Mount Hope, Ohio. “I love and respect the Amish people so much,” she said. “Their culture is deep in faith and we both were raised with not a lot of ‘give-up’ in our blood. We all work at something ‘til we get the job done right. They’re smart and open-minded, so they don’t object to my ‘crazy’ ideas.” 

While the shop is about 1,000 miles away from her Kansas home, Jennifer visits at least once every two months, and often monthly. And there is a phone in the shop. “So, we do a lot of FaceTime and send pics back and forth.” While the shop is fitted out Jennifer-style with barnwood, tin, hair-on-hide leather ceiling tiles, silver crystal conchos, rhinestones and swinging saloon doors, it’s more of a shipping point and special-occasion showplace than an open-door, brick-and-mortar shop. Most of the company’s business is driven through the website and shows. 

The Just Plain Crazy boss lady spends a lot of time on the road, not only visiting her shop or going to rodeos and livestock shows, but also to pick out leather. “I like to look at hides in person, put my hands on them, pick ’em out one by one,” she explained. She stops in at Texas Leather Goods in the Dallas area every couple of months and runs out to California for something specific. It’s Minnesota for metallics, and two or three times a year she makes a shorter run to Springfield Leather Goods in Missouri. 

The leather Jennifer selects is mostly cowhide. “We do use a lot of hair-on-hide,” she added, “and a lot of embossed.” Because her creations are geared to a western lifestyle, there’s also a lot of fringe on Just Plain Crazy products. “I was born and raised in a western world,” she explained. “My dad is a cowboy.” 

Like many leather designers I’ve spoken with, Jennifer especially enjoys the personal contact that comes with custom orders. “We get to be a part of people’s special events,” she noted. “I design a lot of leather bouquet wraps for weddings. We get orders from a lotta grandmas for pacifier keepers, diaper bag covers. Then there was a toddler’s rocking bull with a roping head with horns on the front that a grandma bought for her first grandbaby’s nursery. I designed a custom backpack for a girl going off to college. Things like that that are not mass produced and mark lifetime events are near and dear to my heart. They’re things that have their own spirit and they mean something special to people.” 

That personal family touch even extends to Just Plain Crazy’s leathercraft machines, most of which have their own names. “Our clicker is 60 years old and we named it Cledus,” Jennifer elaborated. “Then we have Fannie the Fringer – she runs by air. Our Adler 969 sewing machines are Big Mama and Big Daddy. A smaller Adler 1767 machine is Cinderella, because she does all the work.” 

The boss lady added that, although she generally likes to buy newer sewing machines, she did pick up one that’s about 75 years old at a leather auction in Ohio. It was originally housed in the Merle Grant Museum in Mansfield, Ohio. 

I was already convinced that Jennifer thinks “outside the box” before I asked about products in development, but her answer confirmed that she can also think “inside the box” or “on the box” when appropriate. “I started working on this idea a few months ago,” she explained. “Western caskets. I’ve spent my whole life in an area and culture that’s heavily involved with horses, cattle, oil and farming, but I’d never seen a western casket before. I got with a casket maker and they were open to the idea. They’ll be made from barnwood with leather on the sides, ends and tops.” 

Like the horizon on the plains, there’s no end in sight to the flow of inspired ideas from the Just Plain Crazy designer. “If something sits still long enough,” she oathed, “I’ll put leather on it.” 

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