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TTcustom

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Blog Entries posted by TTcustom

  1. TTcustom
    What a marvelous weekend this past weekend was and not just because the time I got to spend with my wonderful friend. No, this weekend was a learning weekend. Sunday was a specially arranged class with Rocky Minster and Monday was a class with Tony Laier. Truly a couple of great days to sit with some knowledgeable people and see how they do what they do and pick their brains.
    I didn't have the $$ for Rocky's class but I did stop and join in on the breakfast and meet Rocky. What a great guy and he has such an amazing accumulation of patterns and pictures of his career. Really inspiring to see and ask questions about.
    On Monday Tony and Kay Laier were at the Tempe Tandy with Tony teaching and giving tips on laying out and tooling the new holster kits. He also gave a great EcoFlo demonstration that was very informative and dispelled a lot of distrust I have with the product. Tony's skill and and teaching style makes everyone feel at ease and he didn't leave any of the newer toolers (me) in the dust or bore the ol' hands. He truly is a national treasure and so is his wonderful wife Kay. I had a lot of fun in the class and asked as many questions as I could think of. Poor Tony! I also begged him to bring back the rams head edge tool. I hope that he bends the ear of the right guy and this tool is back on the shelf. This was a all day class and even with the lunch break it just went too fast. I can't remember when I had a more pleasant Valentine's day and President's day and I even had a old crown pop off my back molar at lunch Monday! It was a wonderful time spent with some really wonderful people.
    I am so truly grateful for the friends I have made in this hobby. Without something to keep my mind and hands busy this difficult spell in my personal life would have affected me very differently. I can't say that simply tooling some leather has made it easy to watch a twenty year partnership go down the drain. But the close personal friendships that have resulted from this "hobby" has lifted me up out of a very big hole in my heart. Probably beating the snot out of something stamping has helped a little bit too. The thing is that for me leatherworking is a part of a meditation in my day. Just shutting off the rest of that noise in my life and sitting down and stitching a project, stamping a pattern, lacing an edge lets me rest and rejuvenate my mind. Thanks friends, you know who you are and a big thanks to one in particular that made sure I was suiting up and showing up, you're the best.
  2. TTcustom
    My workbench isn't fancy and I feel for the most part a complete beginner so I don't have a wall of tools in front of me. Instead I have a southern facing window that looks out over a suburban horizon. The juniper, trumpet vine, honeysuckle and desert jasmine bushes frame the scene. I envy you basement shop carvers and toolers. Lately I have been considering boarding up that window because on days like yesterday I get nothing done. The sky was punctuated with pregnant rain clouds. The sun highlighting the cotton boll tops and contrasting the gunmetal bottoms. A couple of lizards were out doing push ups on the wall and the green and red flashing hummingbirds filled up on the honeysuckle nectar. Whatever I was doing was forgotten as I sat and stared out into my southwest. Some would say I have a bad case of ADD and they might be right but shoosh when God delivers up a nature show like that I have to watch.
    Someday I want to be able to translate these things about the southwest that I love into the leather I work. But it is overwhelming to me to try and imagine how to put those sunsets, the desert thunderstorms into a tiny piece of leather. A tip of the hat to those artists that can and do. Someday those lizards, those birds, that sky will move from my window to my benchtop.
  3. TTcustom
    When I walk into my studio... Ahahahahahahahaha! I love calling the spare bedroom where I keep my leather supplies and do most of my work my studio. Makes me laugh, the pretension of it! Moving on, the first thing I see when I step into the man cave is the book shelf with all the books on saddle making and leather working. Then there is my roll away tool box that I have all my leather tools and and some of the supplies. Scattered amongst all that is this project and that bits for that project. A giant bowie knife needing a sheath, a rope can needing covers, a badger pelt needing to be transformed into a sporran. Meanwhile I have done, started and completed too that is, several projects for other people. My own things languish on the bench around the room. Well that isn't exactly true. I never seem to run out of ideas of things I want to do for myself. Perhaps if I wasn't so prolific at thinking up new projects I want to try I would not have the daunting pile of things waiting and wanting my attention every time I walk into Manatopia. Well it is nice always having something to occupy my time and thoughts. Keeps me off the streets and out of bars... well off the streets anyway.
    I hope that I get to meet other LW people at Wickenburg. It sounds like a real good time. I will wear my kilt so y'all know its me and can steer clear or come up and say howdy. I hope that the people staying at the Best Western aren't kept awake all night from the peacocks screeching!
  4. TTcustom
    It isn't often enough for me that we get rain around here. I am not looking for Seattle constant drizzle mind you. No, what I want is a break from the ever relentless clear skies. Boring sameness day after day and in the summer it is a real oven. So with all this lovely inclement weather I thought is would be nice to sit on the patio and listen to the rain drum away on the tin roof. Just a zen moment, me stitching up the latest project as I enjoy something different. Small problem when I got home to put my plan in action. Patio is on the south side. Wind was gusting to 50 out of the south. Rain was sideways and the rain was drumming on the windows of the house as much as the tin roof. Oh...tin roof was last seen heading north. It would have been the same to strap me into a chair on top of the truck and been driven around on the freeway ala Granny Clampett. At least it wasn't snow though.
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