Timeline

2001 – Monty begins to learn working with leather, and creates his first original designs of leather cases for cell phones, knives, multi-tools and eyeglasses. Lynn made earrings, necklaces and bracelets using beads, semi-precious stones and polymer clay. This work they did in their home studio workshops at their Guadalupe River riverfront home in the Horseshoe Falls Estates subdivision at Canyon Lake, Texas.

July 4, 2002 – Following many days of very heavy rains, Canyon Dam Reservoir overflowed its spillway, causing catastrophic damage to homes downstream. The first to be hit was the Horseshoe Falls subdivision, and many homes were completely washed away. Monty & Lynn’s own home was severely damaged. Their workshops had to be completely rebuilt.

2003 – Back into production, Monty & Lynn named their fledgling business “Horseshoe Falls Studios,” and began selling products at markets in south-central Texas, including Gruene, Wimberley, Boerne and Blanco. Lynn transitioned from using polymer clay to leather, creating her own original leather stamping designs for her earrings and necklaces, and also devised her own original painting compound for her leather products.

2007 – Monty & Lynn sold their Horseshoe Falls riverfront home and moved to Sequim, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. No longer Horseshoe Falls Studios, the business was renamed “Mondalyn Studios,” and continued to create new products for markets in the new location, primarily, the Sequim Open Air Market.

2009 – Monty & Lynn returned to Canyon Lake, Texas. Continuing as “Mondalyn Studios,” they resumed making their products and selling at Gruene Market Days, in Gruene, Texas.

2010 – Lynn was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. By June, 2012, she could no longer work. November 19, 2012 – Lynn's battle with cancer came to an end.

2015 – Monty had been unable to work shows since Lynn’s death. Mondalyn Studios was effectively discontinued. Then in 2015, Monty started a new line of leather products – leather hot air balloons – and he began to design the first prototype.

2016 – Monty moved to Yucaipa, California.

2017 – Monty began to put together his home leather workshop, and continued to develop prototype leather balloons.

October, 2017 – The Leather Balloon logo was created October 22, and on October 24, 2017, The LeatherBalloon.com website was launched.

June 17, 2018 – The first leather balloon is offered for sale – B1, nicknamed “The Inaugural Leather Balloon.”

The collection continues to grow!

In November, 2019, I was back to doing shows again for the first time in 7 years since Lynn died. First was the Carlsbad Village fair, the largest one-day street fair in the country. After that was the Encinitas Holiday Street fair where I sold my first Leather Balloon, Balloon B20 (Style B9 with heart-dome variation).

January 7, 2020, I completed the first smartphone case which displayed not only new colors and new tooling, but also was made with official Leather Balloon branding, depicting the Leather Balloon logo in the 4 official Leather Balloon colors - green, blue, white and black.