ClayB

I hope the philosophical discussion you had with Charley wasn't anything like the one he had with Kathy and me. Ours wasn't fit for mixed company. Come to think about it, it wasn't fit for any kind of company. I think I may need therapy after that one!

Hi Charley, So Al likes your hat and Pete doesn't. Guess we'll have to wait until next year for the tie breaker. Your hat is just as "unique" as you are, and it looks just fine on you. And just so's you know, I only pick on the people I really like, so I must like you a lot!!!!!

I'm am glad that you guys and gals are enjoying the photos. I really like being able to see pictures from the shows that I can't attend, so I am just trying to pass that on to those of you that couldn't attend this one. Sandy, I am pretty sure I have it set so that you can save the pictures off that album to your computer. If it doesn't allow you to, just let me know which ones you want and I can email them to you. Myriam and Ken, yes, the Noah's Ark is a pop up book that opens and closes, just like a pop up card does. These are pretty big books with a lot of detail in them. This one was displayed on top of a mirror so you could see all the carving on the back from underneath. The others I have seen will close flat and be about an inch and a half thick. Richard told me how many hours he had in this book but I cant remember. I am thinking it was about 300. I think I have pictures of some of his other pop up books somewhere and if I remember where, I'll try and post them. Kate, I think Tony was going to try and hire that little boy next to him. I wish I would have taken the video camera for that class. There always seems to be at least one kid that keeps the crowd entertained.

[quote I can't believe I forgot this guy who was there. We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Charley "Three Dozier Knives" Bay. Geez Bruce, I can't believe you could have forgotten Charley either!!!!!!!!!! He's known as "MRE Charley" at our house, but that's a whole nuther story. I am really sorry we missed seeing you at the show. I looked for you, but never did see you anywhere.

Ok, I'm gonna try this again. See if clicking here works. Thanks Myriam for pointing people in the direction I was trying to send them. I couldn't find the album on my own photo site this morning, but I think I have that fixed now. I'll try and get the photos burned to a CD soon and send them off to Johanna so she can make them more easily available to everyone. I'll also try and add captions to the photos on my dotphoto site as time allows. As for the pictures you mentioned, the angel is from Peter Main and took a blue ribbon (again). It really is an amazing piece of work as you can tell by the close ups. The "Noah's Ark" piece was done by Richard Passey from Salt Lake City, Utah. One of Richard's specailties is pop up books out of leather. He has done several of these in different themes including one for Oprah and one for one of the presidents of the Morman church. He also does some really nice extreme embossed pictures. There seem to be more and more people using a lot of swivel knife cuts to decorate their work. I tried to get some close ups of some of this. Some of these people are doing some really great stuff with just a swivel knife. Charley Bay had asked me to make sure I got some pictures of Akieko's(Kathy help me out with this spelling please!) half size saddle and I tried, but of course those pictures had to come out blurry. So did all of my pictures of Cheryl McIntyre, the 2008 Al Stohlman award winner. Congrats to Cheryl!!!! Kathy (Yaklady) and I had a nice talk with Cheryl Saturday afternoon. I have been trying to convince Cheryl to join our forum for quite some time now and she finally said she would, although she said she didn't think she would have much time to participate. It sounds like she is VERY busy teaching leatherwork all around Australia. Hopefully we can get her schedule posted here so those of you down under can have a chance to catch up with her someplace. Cheryl is also the organizer of the Dimensions in Leather conference held in Australia every other year and the next one will be held in July 2009. We'll post more on that as information becomes available. Cheryl also said she would send some pictures of some of her work, and those will be posted as soon as I get them as well. Quite a few of the pictures I posted were from the kids class held each year in Sheridan with Jim Linnell and Tony Laier, thier wives Denise and Kay, and a bunch of volunteer assistants. This year, Rick Vine, a Columbine Guild member who happens to live in Sheridan, did a lot of advertising for the class and the unofficial report was that their were 43 kids in attendance. Jim and Tony do an awesome job of introducing these kids to leathercraft and as you should be able to tell from some of these pictures, they were really having a great time. Going by one of the pictures, some of the helpers for the class were Cheryl Katzke, Phil Keller, Rick Vine, Tom Katzke, Kathy Flanagan, Charley Bay, Leon Sevier, Dave Smith, Kay (something that I think starts with an O) and the two Japanese ladies, one is Akieko (again HELP Kathy!!!, I know I spelled that wrong and cant think of the other one's name at all) I know there are others that weren't in the picture that deserve to be mentioned here too. This trip to Sheridan was way to quick. I missed seeing a lot of people, like Bruce and Rundi, Denise and Rod, and probably a whole lot more. I did get to spend some time with really good friends like Kathy and Charley and that is priceless. I also got to spend some time with Richard Hidalgo and it was really nice to see him again. I met Johan, what a great guy and he was a really good sport at the banquet!! I got to talk to Bob Beard and left a little more drool on his sample racks of tools. It sounds like Bob spent a lot of time at this show apologizing to people for being so behind on his tool orders, but his good friends and loyal customers know that when they finally get thier orders, it will be worth the wait!! In the booth next to Bob was Jeff Mosby and WC. It was nice to see both of them too and Jeff said sales were going really well. At the banquet on Saturday evening, two people from our table recieved awards for their show entries. CherlyKatzke got a second on her braided reins. I hadn't seen them yet at that time, but when I did, I was really impressed. I had no idea she did that kind of work. Kathy Flanagan also took a second with the gun case she posted pictures of. Kathy makes some of the neatest cases I have ever seen. She also had her mule picture in the show (from the Wickenburg competition). It didn't take a ribbon which tells you how tough the competition at this show was. I would have hated to have been one of the judges here. I tried to get a bunch of close ups of this piece because the work she put into the details is just amazing!! Yeah, Kathy is a special friend so I'm a little predjudiced, but this was one of my favorite pieces in this show. Sunday morning was spent taking pictures of the show entries and picking up the few things I needed to buy. I had a chance to share some of my work with Jan Schoonover and his wife Alice, and also with Bob Beard. Jan and Bob have taught me so much and I owe both of them more thanks than I could ever tell them. It was really rewarding to be able to show them how I have used what they have taught me and get their opinions of how it turned out. Even though it was a short trip, it was a lot of fun and I am already looking forward to next year.

Hey everyone, doing this quick before work. For now you can see my pictures from Sheridan here. Or not, I'll try again tonight

HI Marlon, I bought several sides of this awhile ago when they had a really good sale on it. It does tool, but differently than regular leather. Seems like it's really tough, but also stretchy. If you glue it to a backing and practice a little, I think you'll be able to do some decent tooling on it. It makes great linings and that's what I have been using it for the most. I also want to try it for making the leather roses that some people showed on here awhile ago, and some leather feathers.

Hi Tom, You did a great job on that mask. It looks very realistic. The detail on the wings is really good and I like how you added the little feet. But the best part of the picture is the look on your face. Looks like you are really enjoying your work!

Hi Kathy, Looks like this turned out really well. I'll be inspecting it REAL close this weekend. All those recessed and raised areas you worked into it make it really look classy. The design and coloring all work together really well. See ya in a couple days. Clay

Dont just soak it in water, that could ruin your carving. Maybe try going over it with a wet brush, but don't just soak it.

Robert Beard makes some filigree chisels. The ones I have seen are straight in a couple sizes and curved in a couple sizes. They are going to be a lot higher priced than the ones Hidecrafter carries. He could probably make other shapes too, but I dont know of places that carry them as leather tools. I wonder if there might be something available to woodworkers or some other craft that might work??

Hi Caroline, I think when a project doesn't turn out just like we imagine it in our heads, it's hard for us to accept that it still turned out nice. I have had a lot of experience with that and have found out that it sometimes helps to walk away for a few hours, days, or maybe years! I carved a really large picture about 20 years ago and started to paint it. I didn't like the way it was going at all and put it away in a closet. It stayed there for a very long time, buried under all kinds of stuff. When I finally pulled it out years later, I thought, "well, that doesnt look that bad at all, wonder why I gave up on it". Maybe someday I'll finish the painting, even though the picture has a few battle scars from it's years in the closet. I had another experience where I was donating some checkbook covers to a benefit auction. I had purposely left out one cover with roses carved on it, painted really awful bright red and green. My wife told me I should take it because you never know what someone else might like. It turned out that was the first one to sell and brought the most money (and I was really glad that I didn't have to look at it ever again!). So my point is, dont get discouraged. Even though this mask may not have turned out like you imagined it was going to, it still looks really nice. The rest of us wouldn't have known that wasn't what you had planned unless you told us.

For years, I thought the safety skiver was a big waste of space too. But when I started to learn how to make saddles, I was taught how to use it, and now I use mine all the time. The blades need to be changed a LOT more often than I would have ever thought. They can also be taken out and stropped to get more use out of them. I think the thing that helped the most was skiving on damp leather. It works 100 times easier than trying to do anything dry. If you do change blades in the middle of a project, you have to be really careful because the new sharp blade will take off a lot more leather than the dull one did.

Hi Johan, Looks like a sculpted plug to go behind an embossed picture. What the plug is supposed to be, I have no idea, but will be waiting to see what you are making.

Hi Clay, Thanks for sharing the pictures from the class. There might not have been as many students as there were supposed to be, but it looks like you all did a great job. The pictures of Jim's other work is always fun to look at. I see you even got one of the sunflower for me. Wish I could have made the class, someday it's gonna work out for me to get to learn some things from Jim.

I dont think it matters a whole lot which brand you use. I started with Liquitex because that's what Silva Fox uses in her video. I learned a lot about coloring from her. I also use a lot of Delta Ceramacoat because that's what Jan Schoonover used in all the classes I took from him. You can get them at Wal Mart and places like that and they are pretty inexpensive. I really wish I could take credit for some of Kate's abilities, but that wouldn't be fair. She does really cool stuff with color and I have always been really impressed with her work.

Myriam, The biggest draw back to acrylics is to try not to make it look like you are painting a house, getting the color without completly covering up the leather. I just dilute them with water and apply more coats until I get what I want. They make extenders (or something like that) that are supposed to dilute them, make them dry slower and blend better. I have some and have tried it a couple times, but it worked different than water. I need to play with them more to figure out how to use them. But water seems to work just fine on the pictures I do.

Over the years, Craftool discontinued a lot of stamping tools. Then later on they used some of the numbers over on completly different tools. I dont think it was done a lot, but I know of a few where different tools have the same numbers. Some of the discontinued tools were brought back at a later time as special offers, or maybe just added back to what was being offered currently. It isn't uncommon to have several of the same numbered tool that have slightly, or very different shapes.

These tests pieces you all are doing is really interesting. The fading that occurs with spirit dyes is why I decided to concentrate my efforts on learning to color with acrylics. But I really like the effects I can get with the eco flows on certain things like oak leaves. I find them really easy to use and blend. When I use them, i usually dilute them up to half with water and I wonder if that will make them fade even more? It will be really interesting to see what happens as time goes on. Thank to those of you that are sharing the experience you have had with them so far.

Hi Kate, Your game boards are so nice looking, it almost makes me wish I liked to play games like that. Your work is always so neat and clean and your colors are always so rich. Everything goes together to make an awesome finsihed product. Somebody is REALLY gonna love having this piece of your work!

Thanks for sharing this. Those guys have a lot of creativity going on in their work, and sooooo much variety. I really like what they did with that tiger book, probably because it is closest to what I usually do, but with some neat twists. But you cant help but get some new ideas from looking at their work.

Hi Ken, The first time you did skulls with floral, I thought it was a great idea. But this time, WOW, that is a really GREAT project. Your work gets better and better each time you post something and I think this is the best one yet. On a carving that looks this good, I would suggest you consider keeping the natural look, maybe just oil it and then a coat of neat lac. If that is too light for you tastes, then add a coat of antique. Whatever you do though, it's a really cool piece!

We had a couple inches of snow last night, but a couple feet would have been welcome. We are officially having the driest spring on record.

Chris LeDoux (my son just got his latest CD/DVD collection, watching the videos makes us miss him more than ever) Waylon Jennings, Trick Pony, Dixie Chicks (they may be idiots, but they can sing) Dr Hook, Chris LeDoux, Meatloaf, Cher, REO Speedwagon, Chris LeDoux, Neil Diamond, oh and Chris LeDoux

The most watched movies in our house are Top Gun, Con Air, Armegedon, The Rock (the one with Sean Connery) and Tombstone. It's kind of a joke in our house, when flipping through the channels and one of these comes up, someone always says, hey we haven't seen that in a couple weeks, so we see it again. My all time favorites, Lonesome Dove, The Man from Snowy River (1 and 2) Quigley Down Under. And to watch with the wife, Benny and Joon, Erin Brockovich, Pretty Woman.