Johanna

On the right side you will see "View New Content". You can set this option two ways. Click your name, choose "Settings". Scroll down the page a bit and you will see Search Settings and then: View New Content Method One choice in the drop down menu says "show me all content since my last visit" and the other says "show me all content I have not read". You decide what works best for you, then click the "update settings" at the bottom of the page. Hey, fill out your profile while you are in there. Give people your links, pics and some general information so you don't feel like a stranger. Now that we seem to have everything in order, I'm going to get busy with the new galleries. We also have three reknowned teachers coming here to help us- Paul Burnett, the first Al Stohlman Award Winner and top rate instructor, the one and only Bobby Park from Arizona who just knows stuff and doesn't mind telling, and Jim Beaton, "JimSaddler", a President of The Saddle & Harness Maker Association of Australia. There is more, but I can't talk about it yet. I'm excited about all the things going on at LW! None of this would be possible without our contributing members and sponsors- can they have a round of applause, please? LW is about to get even more fun and educational- thanks to all of you who make this possible. Johanna

Pete Gorrell has books for sale. "Floral Drawing for the Artistically Impaired", "The Basics of Saddle Fit" & "The Business of Saddlemaking". He graciously sent me copies of his books and WOW! There is a lot of useful, easy-to-understand info in all three of them. I didn't understand the saddle fit book much, of course, but my horse friends tell me it's excellent. I was really impressed with the drawing book. I learned a few things, and I admire the way he teaches. "The Business of Saddlemaking" has solid advice to run your shop without going broke in the process. The lessons and examples in that book could apply to any leatherworking business. To get the books, contact Pete directly, and tell him Johanna (or Leatherworker.net) sent you. Pete Gorrell Custom Saddlery 3000 CR570 Gardner CO 81040 (719) 746-2311 These are well written books worth the money- thanks, Pete!!

Steve- I'm so glad you post pics of your work! Moving this to Show Off where it belongs. We'll move the older posts out of Show Off into the specialty categories. Work like this goes in Show Off where it gets the attention it deserves- when it's posted directly into a specialty section, it can get overlooked. enough of all that. Thanks for sharing- I never get tired of seeing what you're up to! Johanna

I'll never forget the woman who came into the shop demanding 300 square feet of leather from one hide to redo her sectional couch. I don't wanna meet THAT cow. Johanna

I think that's part of the trick to getting the right sewing machine for your shop. What do you intend to do with your machine? How will it be used? What are your expectations? The manufacturers and dealers are getting better about providing more education and support for their products. They know that many of you, hard hit by the recession, are trying to take your business to the next level. Being leatherworkers, we're limited to what our two hands can produce. A machine can change that and get you out of "custom" and into "production", where the price may be lower but the steady check is there because of the volume. It is up to you, the consumer, to do your homework and find out what machine is going to meet your needs. Talk to the sellers, talk to the old timers, walk into a shoe shop, bring a pizza and ask questions. You may need an assortment of machines to get your jobs done. You may zip along with a new model if your needs aren't too specific. You may need a loving restored older machine because you like them, most of you are tool junkies at heart, and you don't want a "one size fits all model". The forum is an excellent place to bounce these questions around experts and experienced people. I have to say I admire the sewing machine vendors for their professional assessments without name calling, and fords and chevys arguments. They are being straight up- this what what my machine does, it works like this, and this is what it is for. Thank you guys for spending some time teaching, and helping the curious understand the mysteries of sewing machine land. I hope you sell a zillion machines to customers who made smart decisions by spending the time figuring out what was best for their plans and their budget. Johanna

Hi, Brad! I'm from Charleroi, and the first Tandy store I worked at was the old one on 22, closer to Monroeville. You've gotten some great advice in this thread-but especially "talk to Deb!" She can help you get what you need for what you and your kids want to do without breaking the family budget. Leather is a great hobby to share with the kids. Not only is it fun, but it can save your sanity during things like ice storms (don't ask me how I know this! ) Welcome to LW! Glad to have you here! Johanna

If other people were reporting problems with load times, I'd be looking for a pattern, but it seems that only you are having this issue. have you cleared your temp files lately? have you tried Firefox just to see if IE was giving you a problem? I need your help to troubleshoot this because I can't duplicate the problem on my end, and the other members aren't seeing long delays like that either. If there is anyone with the kind of problems electrathon is having, please speak up! Johanna

Aaron, I'm sorry you are having such difficulty. No other users are reporting the extreme problems you are describing, not even the ones on dial up. I'm not sure what advice to give you, but I will do some checking around. Perhaps the problem is not with the forum, but some other setting or hardware limitation? I don't know, but I hope we get it straightened out soon. I'm sorry you are having the inconvenience of the delays. Johanna

We are repairing the brown skin (comfy) that had some of the special icons. It slowed the board down too much for the IE users. This skin is lighter and faster, and we'll give people the choice when comfy gets fixed. Don't adjust your computer- we're still tweaking and testing. If it helps, threads you have read will show their icons lightly, and threads you haven't clicked on have the darker icons. Use the "Today's active content" above members online today as a substitute for "view new posts" until we get the comfy skin beaten into submission. I imagine comfy will be the default eventually, but this lighter skin can still be an option for those who prefer it. Johanna

Don't know what's with Duey- hope he's okay. Neil can sharpen anything. You can ship him a box and he will ship it back perfect, satisfaction guaranteed. He'a also a lot of fun to be around, so if you need sharpening work done, and done right, call Neil. Tell him Johanna sent you. Call Neil Cowan (Santa Claus!) 478-719-4711 Johanna

I'm working on it, guys. There are a zillion settings in the software, and none are where you would expect to find them. We'll get it back to "normal", in the meantime, try to upload pics under 1000K (1 MB) and we should be okay. Johanna

Paul has a leather resume too long to type- but it's stellar. When he offered to teach LW members, I knew you all would jump at the chance. I am grateful to Paul for giving us this opportunity and I'm sure you will all not only be delighted, but you're gonna learn something. He is an excellent teacher and a wonderful person, and I'm glad he agreed to share some of what he's learned over the years with us. Paul, and thank you again! Johanna

If the wallet back never had dye or finish applied yet, try washing it with a little diluted dish soap (I like Dawn!) and then let it dry completely. If you post a pic, maybe someone will get another helpful idea? Johanna

On the sidebar you see "topics I'm watching" and "posts I'm watching". That takes the place of the old feature. Plus, look for the greyed out logos in the lists of topics to see where you have been and where you haven't. Johanna

Tony- at the bottom of the page, right before the "members online today" is a link for "view today's content". That is the new version of "today's posts". If your skin is blue, in that same area you will find a drop down menu with "comfy2, lofi and IPB default (the blue). Click on your choice and use the skin you prefer. If you (ar anyone has any questions or problems, please let me know. No one wants this board to be "just right" more than me. Thanks. Johanna

I got an Artisan Toro 3000 this spring, and it is so straightforward even an idiot like me can use it sucessfully. It's well built, sturdy,and has all the bells and whistles (love that servo motor!) that anyone could ask for. I wish I would have had it back when we the had a custom leather shop ten years ago. It would have paid for itself quickly and taken the shop to the next level of income. I have had excellent supprt for the machine from Jerry, Wade (my dear husband) and even Steve, but honestly, I haven't needed much. It's a great machine at a good price, in my humble opinion. But by all means, talk to the other dealers and see what they have to offer too. They can answer your questions. Sewing machines are investments, and the dealers can help you make the right machine choice for what you intend to sew with it. Jerry (Artisan) 888-838-1408 http://artisansew.com Steve (Cobra) 1-866-962-9880 http://leathermachineco.com Ryan O. Neel (Cowboy) 1-866-507-8926 www.cowboysew.com HTH Johanna

That's a legacy from the old board which didn't display that additional information by the avatar, just in the user profile. I am hoping people take the time to log into their control panel area and reset things the way they want them. Not all the personal settings survived the upgrade, so check that your email is being delivered as you wish and all the other options you have available in there. Especially list your websites! LW can significantly help your Google rankings. I'm going to set up the gallery shortly which will be another opportunity for people to introduce themselves, show what they do, let us know what's for sale or in a museum, and upload lessons, videos etc. Our community is growing, and we want to give our members every opportunity to get publicity if they want it. You know what we say here on LW- "trying to keep leatherworkers from having to get day jobs..." Thanks for the feedback- keep it coming! Johanna

My reservations are made- I will be there from around lunch time Thurs to Sunday afternoon. Whoo-hoo! I'm looking forward to this show! Johanna

PMs are kind of a mess still. Some have been restored, some are there but are not wanting to display, and some are not converting to the new "conversation" format. grrr... We're working on all that. Meanwhile, permissions got messed up during the transition so I have to back and set all the user groups size mailbox, room for uploaded attachments, and all that other stuff you just set and forget...until the next upgrade. Until we beat IE into submission, I probably won't mess with the PMs unless someone needs them back or needs more room right away. If you figure out how to "archive" the PMs like the option we had before, please let me know. I haven't run into that one yet. I want to hurry up and get the leftover issues fixed so we can set up the Gallery addition. I think some of you folks are going to be tickled when you see all it does, and all the control you will have over your section. We've got some exciting things going on right now- Paul Burnett teaching, video chat and uploads, a link manager for the shoppers that wander in here, raffles (TBA) by Chan Geer and Pete Gorrell, and, maybe someday, ads that pay expenses, so we don't have to beg you wonderful members for money. LW needs a dedicated server now as it continues to grow daily. While you guys are waiting for pages to load, call or email your favorite suppliers and urge them to sponsor us. We have their target market, and we need their financial support. I'll keep you up to date on the PMs. Please- email me with anything I need to know about your PMs at admin@leatherworker.net and I'll do what I can to get you to the front of the line. Johanna

Bear we are working to bring the board back to its usual speed. We needed to do this upgrade for the improved security, and we ran into a glitch where the Internet Explorer browser isn't playing nice with the new forum software. Other than that, most people seem to like the new features and flexibility, and we hope everyone will give us a little time to fix the problems before they consider leaving. We have tried to build a board that is easy and convenient to use, and serves the needs of our members. Our first priority is making sure the leatherworkers are happy! Your patience is deeply appreciated. Johanna tip: if you need a LW fix, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the drop down menu to click "lo fi" instead of our default "comfy" skin. It's not fancy, but you can see all the content.

Joet!!! You can't imagine how far a little encouragement and confidence from people like you means right now. We think we have figured out the problem with IE, and will be glad when we can mark it "resolved" so that people can start enjoying the nifty features the new format has. i will be setting up the Gallery area soon, and I hope it makes all you custom leatherworkers a couple extra $$ by promoting your work and getting people to your websites. I'd rather focus on the good that will result in the security updates and the couple of bells and whistles we can provide for our community. As anyone who has tried to write code for Internet Explorer knows, it's not a day in the park. Thank you for your understanding and patience- and not giving up on us. You've been with LW since almost day one, and I appreciate your support of what we're trying to do here- education, entertainment and fellowship. God bless and best regards, Johanna

No offense at all taken, guys! No one wants this board to be down, least of all me. I'm grateful for the feedback from all of you, and the help coming from all sorts of unexpected places. I'm thankful to Kate for her patience and diligence. With some hard work and a little luck, soon we'll have a new and improved board with some better security features and a few bells and whistles to keep you all entertained. Thank you for your patience- I won't quit until I get everything in order for you all. Keep the comments coming- good and bad, so we can make better decisions for YOUR board. Johanna

The hover preview was a mod, and I'll get it restored when I get some of the other issues sorted out. I like it too- saved time. Thanks for all your help today, Dick! Much appreciated! Johanna