Johanna

Fiebings even makes Leather Balm with Atom Wax in black. Just be sure to buff, then buff some more. Other than my own experience, I know the stuff works because I accidentally drowned one of Dave Theobald's seats on the way to a show (car trunk filled with water during a storm) and it dried fine and took a blue ribbon. Johanna

Ray- pretty pencils is one of those "DUH!" things I'm filing away for the future. Good idea! Johanna

For some reason, the makers of the software removed the archive PM function. I am looking for a mod to put it back. I would like to have one folder with ALL the adult section requests in one place. So, the answer is "No. but I am working on it!" Johanna

Yep, we've all been there, Jim! If I can stop laughing, maybe I can type. I worked for Tandy and discovered some people set rivets with a setter and an anvil. I thought it was done with a bottlecap and hammer. Try Googling Pennsylvania Dutch Art. Alot of it can be easily embellished for a fancier look. Johanna

DVDs are not recommended for long term storage. Neither are CDs. A hard drive is the most dependable back up. With the size and affordability of today's hard drives, compressing files is not generally needed. If you are considering leaving the external hard drive plugged all the time, it's cheaper to buy a second internal hard drive. Then you just synch your files (overwrite). It is a waste of time to back up your "C" drive (Windows operating system folders and installed programs. In the event of a crash, you can't use it. There is software that will allow you to clone your system like Acronis and Norton Ghost for an emergency restore. Be aware that on many computers your "My Docs" folder is on C by default. You want that folder- it's where Windows puts your pics, music, downloads etc by default. Don't forget to back up your address book and your bookmarks. There are online services like www.mozy.com that you may also want to investigate, depending on the sensitivity of your data. Putting family pics in the cloud is harmless- but you may not want to upload your office bookkeeping there. Johanna

I'll drink to that! Happy birthday UKRay! ~J

A scanned item is a picture. You can use any graphics program to reduce the size. Often, scans are waaaay over 1MB straight out of the machine. The forum will accept 1MB from regular members and I think 1.5MB from contributing members, and it will take standard formats like jpg, jpeg, gif, png etc. It will not take bmp w/o my help because too many people were scanning HUGE bmps (which is often the default on a scanner) and it was a problem. Sometimes to see the detail on a pic a higher resolution must be used, but not that often. A good size to shoot for is 300-800 KB a pic. This has nothing to do with the original subject (and you guys notice this thread is OLD?) but please remember not to scan copyrighted material and post it here withhout permission from the owner. If you need help locating the owner, PM or call me. If you aren't sure whether the material has a copyright, or you think that the owner won't mind, I will be glad to make a courtesy call asking for permission to post it. I have found that most folks are willing to share if we ask them nicely first. Thanks everyone for their help with this! Johanna

If you back up to an external hard drive, unplug it when you are done and store it AWAY from the computer. A fireproof box, your mom's house, the office. If there is a fire, you'll feel stupid losing your computer and all your back ups. I just got my mom a 750Gig ex hd for $50 from Tiger Direct. It's easy to use the software that came with it, or just copy files through Windows Explorer. If the thought of losing your stuff makes you feel sick to your stomach, buy an external hard drive. I can't count how many times people have brought me dead computers with their precious pics and docs never ever backed up and gone for good. Johanna

I know what you mean now, Regis- the nav bar. I used it a lot too. I'll put it back...somehow...give me a little time. ~J

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