yaklady

I feel so lucky having yaks instead of dogs. They might drag home a pine tree branch once in a while, but they never knaw on anything but grass and yak snacks.

It was above freezing here all last week, but nothing is melting this week. The yaks think it's great, and the mini-moos have been ice skating.

Thank you guys, and gal, for helping me out with this! I knew this was the place to get what I needed. The class isn't till July, so I have plenty of time to gather, and the kids are quite young, so I need to keep it simple. I could give them the complete history of my yak hide, but I don't think they want to hear that! Kathy

I was asked to teach some kids a bit about the history of leather craft. That's hard to do when I don't know much about it. There has got to be a few people on this forum who know plenty. What can you share with the children? Thank you! Kathy

I've never made any UGG boots, but my boots sure turn out UGG when I go in the yak pen to feed the yaks!

I second Randy's method. The bigger the piece of leather, the bigger the sheep skin and the bigger the butter dish. Hit the leather hard and fast, with lots of dye at once, and don't spend much time in one place. Cover as much of the surface as you can in a few seconds. Kathy

If you can make it to Wickenburg in March, I'm teaching a Basics class there. We won't be making anything like bridles in the class, but the stuff we do has a lot of what you are asking for. I can give you specific pointers on bridles during the class. The class runs 3 days, March 9, 10 and 11. We could also get together that Friday and talk. It's a whole lot easier to show you in person than over the computer! Kathy

All that is in the mulesfoot is a pointy beveler with verticle lines, F910. It's called, "use what you have sitting around". It worked out okay. You guys have a pretty good grip on what the C might stand for, but the truth is, the last name of the people who ordered it is Coffey. That's a pretty boring explanation next to all of yours. I wish the yak would be featured on the Y, but there aren't many yaks in Celtic stuff. A yak is shaped pretty much like a Y anyway. I could funish the yak, but someone else will have to draw that crazy braid that makes me dizzy! See how the yak makes a nice Y without any help? Johanna, this is what the inside of the case looks like, and the fancy glasses are in one of them. It's all nicely padded so you won't break the glasses after you've downed a few strong ones. I guess we could put some of those curls on the yak Y and I could get stronger magnifiers and new lenses in my glasses. Casey, that's not offensive at all. George Gross works miracles with teeny tiny carvings, He would laugh at me for having one so BIG! Kathy

That has to be it. While I was at the stock show checking out the mean yaks that might taste good, my LCSJ magically appeared in my mail box! Guess I should leave more often.

Here I thought Jessi was only good with a gun, hunting those big bucks. She must have other big bucks she needs to keep safe. That is the most inventive checkbook cover I've ever seen! When you finally get around to making your daughter happy, you should put a big buck on it. Kathy

This has got to be the most tedious thing I have ever carved! My hand is killing me. It's part of an alphabet, of which I have never seen the rest. This one is about four inches high. I had my magnifiers on the whole time, and used Paul's purple swivel knife to cut it. That blade is pretty nice. This is the start of an Irish whiskey glass case. I can't finish it until I get some aqua colored velvet pig suede for the inside. I hope they don't want many more of these. They said something about 40,000 cases . . . Kathy

I don't suppose the halter is going on a zebra! That's really cool. My horse would be jealous. Kathy

This has got to be proof that you are way older than me, Clay! I'm no where near being a grandma! Except to a yak. Congratulations!!! Kathy Thanks for letting us know, Paul!

Doggone yaks! I wondered what the the huddle was about. Now my journal has yak poo on it!

When I'm not paying attention in church, I generally fall asleep! Okay, I have doodled with those itty bitty pencils, but nothing good has ever come of it. Usually, it's a pig chewing on an ear of corn. In case you didn't notice, both Jim's workshops are on the way in or out of Wickenburg. Why not make the trip a little bit longer and spend a couple days with this handsome man with gray temples? You're already down there, so why not? Besides, it's warm down there in March, enjoy it! Kathy

I just signed up for a free issue of Shop Talk, too. It's got to be a good magazine if they'll put Johanna in it! Maybe someday I'll get to see for myself that my article is in the LCSJ. Perhaps it's hard for it to come up this high in altitude. I never thought a magazine would be affected by such, but they always show up here last! Kathy

I'm glad that's not really you. Could you see the looks on the faces of the kids in the neighborhood?

Perhaps we should clone Jim by a million, then you could have your wish. He's already one in a million, but then he would be so literally! Bob should be cloned as well. He's got a lot stored up just waiting to get and be shared. It's a shame you live so far away, you would have enjoyed the evening, too. Thank you for the kind comment. I'd like to see what Jim would do with it. Kathy

Today I tooled the cool pattern that Jim Linnell drew. It's not near as good as Jim would do, but I try! Here's proof that Jim was here.

Since you guys didn't make it to the meeting, you could read the reort I did about it under Special Events.

It's a shame I don't have You Tube for you poor aliens! Jim Linnell and Bob Klenda out did themselves with the demos they gave. We had to feed them yak chili first, but that didn't make any difference. They are both brilliant and talented men. Bob gave us fantatic tips on drawing out floral patterns. Jim came with a pattern that he drew on the bulletin while he wasn't paying attention in church. If that's what it takes to draw patterns like this one, I'm going to stop paying attention! He took it home and tried a new techinque on the vein of the leaf, which he also thought of in church, and it's absolutely a work of genius! That was the only part of the pattern that he had tooled. I can't wait to see what he does with the rest of it. Sachiko, our Japanese member, made off with the leather, but Jim was kind enough to give me his copy of the original pattern. I'll share it with you in the near future. Jim dragged along a delightful man from Norway, Jan Dalhberg, who had attended Jim's class in Norway. The Lethargic Canine . . . I mean Phlegmatic Dog, a member of this forum, popped in to see what was happening. Also Paul and Glenna of Bee Natural came and enjoyed the yak. Anyone who didn't come really missed out. It was a blast! Yaklady Extraordinaire

That's a good idea. I should make one for my yak papers. The yaks don't travel, though. You need a better method of dyeing the edges. They got rather sloppy. A simple method is to burn a dauber, rub off the black stuff, burn it again, rub it again, and repeat till you get a tight, compact little head on it. Better do this outside, or your house will smell like a dead animal. Use that to apply dye to the edges. It won't hang over the edge and get dye where you don't want it. Other than that, the noebooks look very nice. Kathy

Are you coming? If you come up Sunday, you can come to our guild meeting. Jim Linnell and Bob Klenda will be there, and maybe Tony and Kay Laier and Arne Markussen from Norway. If you care to come, 6:00 Sunday, lewt me know and I'll give you directions. Kathy

Eco-Flo contact cement works very well, maybe even better than the old version, and the smell isn't over-whelming. However, IT'S EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE! I can't afford it! Go to Walmart to the paint department and you will find Weldwood contact cement. A quart is $5.95. Can't beat that price. There is no brush in the can, but there are cheap brushes right there. Put the brush in a jar of paint thinner and keep it there with the lid on. Wipe off the excess paint thinner before you use the brush. Or you can go to a large hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes and get either the Gel Formula or the Non-Flamable variety. It costs a bit more there, like $8. Still not a bad price. The Gel Formula can be applied with a cerdit card. You can get a thin, smooth coat that way. It smells just as bad as the regular formula. Keep your windows open no matter how cold it is. The non-flamable is runny and takes much longer to set, but it's not over-whelming. Weldwood holds as well as Tandy's. I used Tandy's concact cement when I made my first saddle as a kid, 100 years ago. I was lazy and didn't sew the end of the rear cinch billet, I just glued it. To this day, it's still not sewn, and it still holds, even after going through lakes and rivers. Good stuff! Kathy

Weren't you 100 last year, too! I'm 29 every year. I wonder which of us is really older.