For more than 30 years Jim Patterson has been working on developing products and designs for horns. Jim and his wife Cora, both horn players, own and operate Patterson Hornworks, which repairs, designs, and handcrafts French horns in Las Cruces.
Jim Patterson says he handcrafts his horns in a "old school" way.
“It’s becoming more popular…There’s a number of people like myself that are making handcrafted horns. It’s directly related to what happens to the bigger companies. The larger companies buy out the medium size companies, and all of a sudden there is nothing in between. So it leaves a little bit of a nitch market for us custom guys."
Making custom-made horns is something that requires patience. Jim Patterson says each horn may take weeks to design and build by hand.
“It takes a lot of handwork to do it, and it takes a lot of time. Probably the number of hours to build a horn is in the 40 to 50 range, depending on which one your making, but it’s not like you can start a horn and 50 hours you’ll be done; that has to take place over a larger period of time. So it probably takes two to three weeks to build a horn,” says Patterson.
Cora Patterson says that the Horn business is a competitive one, and it took time for the couple’s business to take off. Cora Patterson says that the company was hit hard by the recession in 2008, but with the help of a local group of retired small business executives the Patterson’s pushed harder to market their products. Today, the Patterson’s have goals large enough to fill the spacious concert halls where their horns are played.
“We’re thinking about higher, and higher dreams of getting our horns in really fantastic players hands all the time around the world. I think our horns are better than they have ever been,” says Cora Patterson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEHopdjQ0jE&feature=youtu.be
Musician, and NMSU Horn Professor Nancy Joy is a customer of Patterson Hornworks. She purchased a horn from Jim and Cora Patterson a few years back. Last year, her horn was stolen and was badly damaged when recovered; Jim and Cora Patterson rebuilt her horn. Joy says she loves the sound of her new and improved horn.
“I think all of us have a sound concept in our heads that’s how we make our sound, we have this sound concept, and it just really helps when the horn really allows you to do what you have in your head, and that’s what Jim and Cora have done with this horn,” says Joy.
Jim Patterson says that they’ve been able to achieve the sound profile that musicians are looking for through the handcrafted methods they use. Something he says can get lost on a large company’s mechanical assembly line.
“When you get into the more automated methods, the more machines you use. It seems like you lose that special quality of the instrument,” says Patterson.
Musicians, from around the world continue to look to this local business to find that special quality for their horns…A quality that has is handcrafted in a small home workshop in Las Cruces.
