It’s been 50 years since Tigger Leather Silversmith opened, and owner Peter Dombrowski sees no end in sight. 

Dombrowski moved the business to 1 Commercial St. in 1981 from its 1978-1981 location, in the building that is now Coastal Dog. 

“I’m selling stuff to the great-grandchildren of my customers when I first came here,” said Dombrowski. “I’ve been belting families for years.”

Dombrowski does all the custom leatherwork, including belts, bags, wallets, sandals, holsters and knife sheaths. Everything is also hand-stitched. He explained he often receives praise from customers for the durability of his products compared to box store items. “Customers come in not because (the belts) wear out but because they either get too big or people get tired of them,” said Dombrokswi. He’s been wearing his own handmade belt since 1979.

Dombrowski fell into leatherwork unexpectedly when a friend who owned a leather shop offered to let him make a couple of belts. Then in 1972, Dombrowski and his brother Paul opened a store in rural New Jersey. 

The “Tigger” in the name of the longtime business comes from the brothers’ hyperactive Irish setter, named after the iconic “Winnie the Pooh” character. They also had a small hope Disney would sue them for copyright infringement. 

“The amount of publicity it would have created would have been incredible, (a) little place being sued by Disney and Disney was famous for suing people,” said Dombrowski. But the lawsuit never came, and Dombrowski hopes it never does. “It'd be a nightmare now.” 

Dombrowski has worked on countless memorable projects, from making ice skates for a donkey – efforts to get the donkey to skate failed – to a chamois bikini for a Playboy bunny. One of the nicest things Dombrowski said has made was a double holster gun belt for a man in a Roy Rogers fan club.

“He brought in a comic book from the ’50s, and it had a holster set and (he) said, “Can you make something like that?” The project, which combined Dombrowski’s leather and silversmithing skills, took over 70 hours. 

Dombrowski also does all of the silversmithing by hand. He usually starts with a large sheet of silver and cuts designs out of it. 

One technique he uses is tooling, which involves a hot metal tool cast or cut with a decorative motif being pressed into silver to create a design. Dombrokswi has to make special tools for each pattern. “It's a lot of intricate work.” 

Similar to his leather products, Dombrowski offers a wide range of silver items, such as earrings, necklaces, charms, money clips. The one exception is rings as Dombrowski doesn’t have the time to keep all the sizes in stock. He hopes to change this in the future. 

Most of Dombrowski’s time is spent working, usually staying up until 1 a.m during the summer months. But, for him, it's all worth it because Dombrowski loves what he does. 

“I’m going to be doing this until I can’t,” he said. The shop is open seven days a week, from noon to 5 p.m. Call 207-633-5432 or visit www.maineleathersmith.com