yaklady

That's looking good so far! I think the iris is an interesting subject to carve. Here's one I did. The pattern came out of Lora Irish's Great Book of Floral Patterns.

Dink, you can recognize me by the curly black hair and the handlebar horns.

I've been buying my leather from Dave at Stevenson-Paxton for some time now, at $99 a hide. My customers like the blemishes that the #2 leather has. It gives it character, they say. Dave sends it out real quick and I get it in 2 or 3 days. One time I was forced to buy from Goliger because Dave had no leather in stock. The side cost me 50% more, it was considerably smaller, it had big holes in it, and it took a week to get here. I'm sticking with Dave! Kathy

Sorry Razz, I didn't see it before. It's pretty impressive. What kind of color did you use on it?

I've experienced mini-vampires like that! We (my daughter and I) were camping in Montana near Yellowstone last summer. I thought the teeny tiny little bugs were going to pick us up and carry us off! Josh, you have aged a great deal since yesterday. You look as old as John Wayne now. You should do like I do and take a year off your birthdate every year. Maybe that would help! Kathy

Scotland looks to be a beautiful place. Got any more pictures? I showed these to my daughter, and she's getting more excited to go. Thank you for posting them! Kathy Is Dracula small in Scotland?

Hey Ray, Thank you for sharing those beautiful pictures. My daughter is doing a study abroad program in London next July and will be going to Eidenberg (spelling?) as a part of the program. Maybe she will get to see some sights like this. Care to see what it's like in Conifer, Colorado right now? We had three feet of snow over the weekend, and our electricity was off for two days. We built up lots of muscles trying to free ourselves. That's a truck under the huge leaning tree! Fortunately, the tree did not break. Six others on our land did. There was so much snow, the wildlife didn't like it and came up on the deck to avoid it! He had to climb five steps to get up there.

You go, Girl!! That is absolutely beautiful! Kathy

When it snows all day, there's nothing better than doing leather work all day. I finished painting the other side. Now I have to figure out how to put this case together!

If you have a few extra hundred dollars, just get them all! If you accidentally get one you don't like, just send them here, I'll dispose of them for you!

That's so cool, ClayA! You don't loose your expert touch even when no one lets you carve. Let us know what the website is when it's up so we can all see! Kathy

Thank you, wonderful people! I didn't have to do much thinking on the colors, I just did them (almost) the same as in the original picture I have. Clay, I'm sorry you can't come up with any snide remarks. I was looking forward to that. That's the only reason I post stuff on here. Kate, I wish I could do the airbrush thing! I have never learned to use one. On this horse, an airbrush wouldn't have gotten the same effect, anyway. With the Hi Liter on first, the shadowing is already there. You must avoid painting over the shadows. I water down the paint and go easy with the amount I put on. It required two coats, but it really wasn't hard. The only problem is the horse is not textured at all. Textured leather is much easier to paint. It worked out okay, though. I have a feeling Sheena won't reject this one, but I'll let you know if I need your address, Tina! Kathy )

There, I got it done! Coloring can be such a pain. I spent most of yesterday doing it. First I went over the whole piece with Briar Brown Hi Liter, as that's what my daughter wants as the main color of the case. Over that I used acrylic paint. The white is a mixture of White and Antique White. One was too bright, the other too yellow. That was watered down and drybrushed on so as not to cover up the shadows created with the Briar Brown. I used a mixture of Phthalo Blue and Pine Green behind the horses. Pine Green makes up the darker green in between the horses, while Medium FoliageGreen is the lighter. Antique White was added to the center to lighten it more, while Phthalo Blue was added to the Pine Green to darken the outer edges. Above the horses, I used Cinnamon. The varying shades were accomplished by adding Antique White in different strengths. The eyes and nostrils are Black, and of course, the high light on the eyes is White. I had to touch up the white a lot when I was through with the other colors. Now I have to figure out how to paint the fair yak! Kathy

Thank you for your responses. I have brought up what you two said to my mother, and she actually agreed to raise the price. My next step is to get a decent contract written out. I never thought about people sueing when their horse gets hurt, and horses get hurt all the time. Any specific suggestions you have for me there would also be appreciated. Kathy

Here you go, Clay, a Celtic pair of yaks. Now you can tool this. Have fun with that! Kathy

My mother owns acreage on which she has boarded horses for around 35 years. Back then, she started out at $25 a month. She has finally raised the price to a whoppin' $45 a month! I have been pushing her to riase prices for many years, and she feels sorry for the tennants and won't raise the price. She has to spray for loco weed in the summer, or it takes over. That costs hundreds of dollars. The pasture needs to be fertilized and reseeded. That's a huge expense. I've been trying to find examples of other pasture prices, but mostly what I find is boarding facilities, and that's not the same. There's nothing fancy about her place, just good fences, grass and water. Down the road is a public arena which boarders can use. I want to know what other people are charging for pasture. Of course it will vary in other parts of the country, but any input will help my case. I know of one pasture near here that costs $250 a month, for grass and water. Do you know what they charge in your area? Frustrated, Kathy

Okay, Bert and Ernie (or is that ClayA and ClayB? I know of twin girls whose names are TwinA and TwinB. Those are people, not yaks. How would you like to go through life with a name like that?) If you notice, the yak with the cross has little bitty horns and long hair. Girl yaks have smaller horns than boy yaks, and they are more graceful (note the beautiful form she has). When you two come to the guild picnic, you can kiss the yaks and see what wondrous things happen! Maybe if you kiss the baby he will turn into a girl yak. Then you would be useful. I'll try to hold Daddy back! How hard I try will depend on how nice you are. Ken, I got the fairy pattern out of Lora Irish's Great Book of Celtic Patterns. The horses were on some website that my daughter found. It was on a blanket on the site, and I have no idea where it was. I'll ask her. She's in bed right now, the lazy bum. There were some other interesting patterns on blankets, too. You are welcome to print the picture and use it as a pattern. It's pretty straight forward to use in this manner. I'll post more pictures if the pieces come out the way they should. If not, well, I have a big trash can! Kathy

Okay, here are somebetter pictures. It's a boy and I am calling him Norman. I could have used a heifer, but he is strong and healthy, so I'm very happy with that. Kathy

There, I got the other side tooled. I like the horses better. The fairy's face is weird and needs more work. Now to figure out how to color them. Oh joy! Kathy

What a cute horse! Looks to me like the pack saddle fits perfectly. What are you going to pack on him? Need a yak to throw up there? Kathy

I'll be there, I love it there. Besides, I have to see if ClayB's resolution to not pick on me in public will really hold true. Kathy

If you end up in Denver, stop by here to see the yaks. There's plenty of beautiful scenery around here, and much bigger mountains than you have down there. We have some pretty cool wildlife, too. No, I don't mean ClayB, he's not Colorado wildlife. Kathy

Timbo, we could pretend the yak was born today. I don't think it would matter any to him (or her). Happy birthday! Yaks have a way of doing what they want when they want. They don't listen to me at all. I would have told them to have the baby in June like last year, but no, it comes in a blizzard! My brother wants name it Peanut Butter. I guess that's better than Snowball or Snowflake. How about Stormin' Norman? Happy Grammyak, Kathy

Thank you everybody for the positive feedback. I'll have to work hard on this to get it done, now. Just don't hold your breath, okay? Clay, I didn't know you made that resolution. I haven't seen any indication of that. I may just do what you said, and put yaks in there. That would prove to be pretty interesting. That could go on the other side. I'm sure Sheena would like it. Could yak horns twist into a Celtic knot? Kathy

Not bad! Now you need to cover the ends with some beautifully carved leather.