ELY- When her pup’s leather leash started to rot after getting wet too many times, Mary Klem started thinking of better materials and designs to keep her two labs safe while out exploring in area bogs.
“I’ve lived in Ely the last 20 years,” she said. “We love the lakes and bogs and trees.”
Klem started coming to Ely with her family for summer vacations when she was 8 years old. And when her husband’s job made it possible, the family, including their three daughters, moved permanently to Ely.
Everything Klem makes is sewn at home.
“It’s just me doing everything,” she said, though her daughter helped her create her website, which features beautiful photographs she has taken of her products and her dogs.
Klem has been sewing for many decades, making quilts, dresses for her daughters, Halloween costumes, ballet tutus, and even some wedding dress alterations. She uses a Juki heavy-duty home sewing machine.
This year, she was ready to make the leap to having her own booth at the Blueberry Art Festival. She spent a few months getting her inventory ready, then the annual festival was canceled due to the July wildfires. She’s now gearing up to sell her wares at the Harvest Moon Festival, set for Sept. 11-13. It will be her second time displaying at Ely’s annual fall festival. She also has been bringing her wares to the Tuesday Farmers Market in Ely, as well as some other area craft shows.
In her interview with the Timberjay, Klem was excited to talk about her line of leashes and collars that she makes for both cats and dogs.
She discovered a leash material called BioThane, a coated webbing-like material, that is waterproof, sunproof, good in -30F as well as in the sultry summer temperatures in Arizona, where one of her “granddogs” lives. Her leashes come in several styles and sizes, as well as specialty leashes for training and service dogs, as well as a rainbow of solid colors or patterns. She uses brass hardware for durability.
“Brass is also so pretty and elegant,” she said.
Collars are made from a fabric made from recycled water bottles that washes beautifully and comes in dozens of patterns and colors. The collars are machine washable and feature a YKK slip lock and brass hardware.
Her business is called Bog Paws, and her motto is “Where beauty meets adventure.”
She will be well stocked at Harvest Moon with themed collars ranging from the four seasons to the northern lights, fishing, mountains, and more.
She chooses her patterns from fabrics that will work with the relatively narrow width needed. Each collar’s design may be a little bit different, depending on how it got cut from the larger piece of fabric, but she is careful to make sure each collar’s pattern includes the important graphics. “You have to be careful not to cut off any heads when cutting the pattern pieces,” she said.
One of her specialties is collars for larger dogs.
“My large and extra-large collars are the most popular,” she said, noting there often aren’t as many options in these sizes available commercially. Her collars come in sizes to fit tiny kittens all the way up to 200-pound dogs, she said.
Leashes come in 35 colors, and she currently makes collars in over 50 patterns. Custom orders are also welcome.
Her dogs are trained service dogs, and she sells long leads for recall training, as well as leashes with more than one loop handle, for training dogs to heel. She also makes special leashes for smaller dogs.
The leash material is rated at 500 pounds for the half-inch width, and even higher for the wider widths. The same material is used for horse harnesses, she said.
Collars are both durable and washable, and can even come clean after a skunk encounter, as one of her customers found out the hard way.
“Everything we make is ‘lab’ tested,” she said with a laugh.
You can find her entire inventory online at https://bogpawsllc.com/, and custom orders are available.