Ernie Marsh

Bit & Spur Maker and Silversmith

2025 NEA National Heritage Fellow
Lovell, Wyoming

Bio

Ernie Marsh’s passion for ranching, horses, the American West, and cowboy culture inspired him to pursue the arts of bit & spur making and silversmithing. Characterized by high-relief engraving, engraved steel, and French Gray finishes, Marsh's work is instantly recognizable. The balance of function and beauty in his pieces has earned him the respect of horsemen, collectors, and fellow makers.

Marsh was born in Mountain View, California, in 1962, though he primarily grew up in Washington State. After spending his youth as a bull rider in amateur and professional rodeos, he was working as a ranch hand in Southeastern Washington when he first developed his dream to become a bit & spur maker. In 1990, he took part in a four-week apprenticeship with mentor Elmer Miller.

Today, Marsh maintains the bridle bit & spur making tradition himself through both his own practice and by mentoring new generations. He has participated several times as a master artist for the Wyoming Arts Council's Folk Art Mentoring Program and provided public demonstrations at events including the Big Horn Basin Folk Festival in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Marsh and his wife Teresa have recently converted a house on their property into a bunkhouse for students so they can spend extended time under Marsh's tutelage.

Marsh is a founding member and previous president of the prestigious Traditional Cowboys Arts Association (TCAA), which was founded in 1998 to preserve and promote traditional art forms associated with Western cowboy culture. Through TCAA, Marsh has devoted years to teaching about the significance and finer details of bit & spur making. In addition to having his gear used every day by working cowboys, Marsh also has displayed his work in several places, including By Western Hands, a museum and education center in Cody, Wyoming; the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada; and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his work is shown annually at the TCAA show.

In 2000, the Academy of Western Artists honored Marsh with the Will Rogers Award for Spurmaker of the Year, and in 2016, he received the Katie Weitz United States Artists Fellowship.
 

Work Sample