TTcustom

That is a good looking sporran! Did you make the cantle?

I swear there has got to be one really round bird in my yard or several of them because that feeder gets emptied in no time flat!

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.

Please don't ever feature one of mine if I ever write something relevant. I prefer to be unobtrusive, not call any attention to myself. I almost feel like this is an admonishment for my loosely connected to leatherwork blog posts. I will try to keep all of these excellent guidelines in mind for any blog posts I might make in the future. Thanks for posting them. Another LW member and I just had a discussion about what to put here and you have answered.

The blogs hopefully don't have to be solely leather related. Well I figure best that I work leather, the blog is about me therefore the blog post is leather related. I haven't seen a jay in such a long time. I miss them. We have mainly the sparrows, grackles, starlings, doves and gila woodpeckers. A few years back I was taking the trash out and I startled a roadrunner out in the alley. It probably was the last one I will see in the city but never say never. Since the weather here is so mild I think the birds come here to winter or stop over on their way further south. Birds are another item I won't attempt to tool. I need to take my sketch book to the wash and practice drawing the wildlife I see there. Since the college kids hang around in that area some of the wildlife is really goofy.

I have no excuse for my lack of progress. The weather is good, my health is good, nothing to deter me. I even have a dedicated room and table to do create, but... I have never been able to do faces or people. The Geronimo portrait I did came out looking like Jamie Farr after a bee sting to the face and he is going into anaphlatic shock! I'll stick to the non animal stamping and tooling from now on thanks. I once was told if you can't draw it you can't tool it.

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.

Try this one. Cutting mats