Johanna

The board doesn't remember how much you donated before January 2008. Anyone who was blue for any amount at the time of the crash is blue forever because I am not willing to go back through PayPal and a calendar and old emails and recreate all that stuff. BLEAH! Any Contributing Member can PM me and be entered in the drawing. Some of you have been very generous, and it wouldn't be fair to call on you for more money just to win ClayB's prize. I don't like standing here holding a tin cup, and I deeply appreciate Clay's gift and the other offers we have had to generate support for the board. The fact is though that it costs money. I have to contract with a reliable webhost and our "Live Chat" feature also has a monthly fee. We have been kicking around plans to upgrade to integrate video clips in posts, and establish a leather topic Wiki for members as a teaching resource. But, the better software costs money, and because many of you go into the shakes when we go offline, I want to make sure the board is stable. I put a donation button on our main page and any amount you can give is going to help. All money donated to this site goes into expenses. Everyone here is a volunteer. Thank you all for you kind support. Johanna

I'd be willing to paint my bike if I won that seat. Good job, Shirley- Johanna

I had a dog that could not wear a veggie tanned collar with a raw inside (not waxed or finished) or he would lose hair and scratch at his raw skin. I made all his collars lined with Cabretta, laced nice and pretty, because, hey, I could. It's the flesh side that usually irritates, not the grain side. Deerskin sometimes makes me itchy, especially in the heat. I remember wearing a deerskin dress to a Pow Wow in Georgia- and taking a Benadryl on the way home for the resulting hives. My Cabretta tops and skirts have never bothered me. Upholstery leather and most chrome/alum tans don't set me off. Wet a piece of suspicious leather and hold it in the crook of your elbow for 30 seconds. If you react to it, you have identified a problem leather. Johanna

I do. Some leathers will give me the blisters, some just hives, some I have no reaction to. Wash your hands a lot! Never pop or scratch the blisters because then they itch like crazy. Cortaid cream helps. When my hands itch really badly, isopropyl alcohol helps. I am also very allergic to raw pine, so I've wondered if the two are related...i.e. am I sensitive to some leathers because pine is used in the tanning process? I can't predict which veggie tanned leather will bother me- I have had high and low priced episodes. Only one hospital visit though- and that was because I had tiny little holes in my hands from sewing while unpacking a shipment of hides from Argentina. Don't rub your eyes while working, ever. I can't stand gloves. The more I'm around leather the less it bothers me, but the last time I went into a Tandy store I broke out in full body hives within an hour. I know it's because I am seldom around leather any more, and I just had to touch everything. Go figure. Johanna

I like the way you snuck your logo into the design. Please tell me this seat isn't destined to be black....sigh... Johanna

Good find! I sent a message to the site owner offering to exchange links and offer cooperation between our sites. Thanks for posting this, rdb! Johanna

We had to let 4 days worth of posts and new members go to be sure of the integrity of the site's database. Hopefully, leathercraft.cn will join again and repost the pics. Meanwhile, I will search the archives for the attachments. People hack websites for fun, not money, and they can often do it anonymously. It's a shame that criminal charges can't be pursued. Johanna

Our webhost was hacked today by someone who replaced our database tables with malicious files. We have lost everything posted after about 9:30 pm Sunday July 13. If you registered in that time period, you'll have to do it again. If you posted something, please repost. We couldn't take the chance on corrupting the database, so we sacrificed a few days' worth of posts and info. I know many of you went through withdrawal during the 13 hours we showed "IPS driver error", and I'm sorry. It wasn't easy for me either! Kate and I are taking measures to improve security to prevent anything like this happening again, or at least lose a little less. Unfortunately the Internet is full of people and programs that wreak havoc in new and unexpected ways. Thank you for your patience and support- this has been a trying day. Johanna Beaverslayer- put the doggone tinfoil hat on, please?

Mary Combes is the wife of Bill Stockil (Billy 2shews) and she is an amazing artist that works with watercolors. Here is her latest, "Nguni Cattle". Visit her website to see some more of her paintings. Johanna

John- http://www.leatherworker.net/tipstricks.htm scroll halfway down and look at the IFoLG guidelines/rules pages. ~J

Roo- I know exactly what you mean. I was 33 when I became a parent, and remember having my privacy very well. I love it when Wade takes the kids somewhere and I have a few hours to work or play- it's just good to be alone sometimes. I truly love my family, but I appreciate having the house to myself occasionally. When I get overwhelmed, I go to one of the nearby cemeteries and walk around until I get my head together. Most of the time I am the only one there, but I've noticed that people just nod as they pass by, and don't try to engage in any conversation. If I call my sis from my cell phone, she'll ask me which one I'm at and comes if she can. Wade and I have a blended family of my two kids, two of his kids we do "shared parenting" with (don't get me started about that!) and a grown son that lives here in town who never lacks for drama in his life. I used to be a retail manager of stores that were open 24/7 and I sometimes had the responsibility of 100 employees, but I usually read for an hour in a bubblebath every night. On the rare occasions I can lay in the bathtub now, I slip a tableknife in the door so no one can come in and ask me dumb questions like where are my socks? Will you drive me somewhere? What's for supper? Can you give me some money? NO I can't do anything like that- I am in the bathtub, are you paying attention here? I used to fire people that annoyed me and make them go away. The cemeteries are peaceful and no one says dumb things like (and yes, this one I heard yesterday) "Mom, will you drive me around so I can find my bike? I can't remember what friend's house I left it at." and stupid conversations like: Kid: Wah!!! he hit me! Me: why? Kid: I knocked him over by accident and he got killed on his Nintendo Me: why don't you go outside and play? I'm with you, Roo. A real vacation for me would be for all of them to go camping for a week and leave me at home...and I'd miss them like crazy. Motherhood is a paradox. Johanna

Thank you all! It was neat- last night I got a PM from Australia (It was already my b-day there) and then Europe and UK started waking up and posting, then the east coast messages began coming in this morning...I told Wade I received birthday wishes from around the world today, and showed him this thread. My family got me a 4 gig MP3 player (how cool is that!?!) and we had a party at the local park and pool that we do every year for the whole family, but usually seems to fall pretty close to my birthday, so I always joke it's "my party". I am a lucky lady to have such good friends with good wishes for me. Thanks everybody- you are the best. Johanna

Charley- I hear you loud and clear! The "critique my work" forum is for the brutally honest stuff, but not everyone wants that kind of feedback, which is why it is its own forum. You would be surprised at how many PMs (private messages) that do get sent when someone asks for honest help. I get cc'ed on some of them, and people do say their piece if the poster genuinely wants to hear it. ClayB is one of the experts at carefully wording a "how you could have done that differently/better/more professionally" and there are a handful of others who will tell you exactly what they think if they you ask them to, if they think you can take it. Some people respond to criticism by taking their tools and toys and going home, and some use the advice to improve. Sometimes people hesitate to say, "Wow, a cow had to die for that piece of crap you made?" (paraphrased from Al Stohlman) because they are polite. I suggest that when a member wants to hear what others think, and for them to be frank, that they say so in the post, and don't get offended if it isn't what the poster wanted or expected to hear. I agree that a lot of the competition judging is subjective, and often doesn't help the person learn how to not do the same mistakes again. I've seen it. It's also true that there are some guild lists that will moderate you if you type the truth as you know it and the original poster doesn't like the answer. We don't do that here. When the criticism is constructive, we all learn something and improve our skills. Good topic guys- thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Johanna

I wondered what a rope can/case was, never saw one before and still am not real sure if the rope actually goes inside? I asked Bruce, and of course, he knew. Thought I ought to share with anyone else who didn't know either. Johanna

Why does a calf rope have to be so special? You use it to catch a calf, right? That has to be easier than roping her mother or father. Can't you just rope calfs with plain rope from Home Depot? When you rope a calf, what next? Do you lead it somewhere, drag it around, get charged by its enraged mother, or what? Does the rope go around the calf's head, feet or where? Roping calves has to be easier than roping adults. I can understand wanting to rope (catch) a calf, but not sure what happens next. But can't you just coax a calf with a dog or some other oersuasion? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, I just never heard of putting talc on a special kind of rope to catch a baby animal. Understand I'm in Ohio where a herd is probably 40 dairy cows, and they don't look like they move very fast or are particularly smart. When they are led from the pasture to the milking barn (usually across a road which blocks traffic) they seem to move in an orderly fashion, just slowly. (trains pass more quickly!) I know they do take calves from their mothers almost immediately, long before they would wean if left alone, and the bewildered mother lows a little and gets restless, but the farmers say the cows forget quickly. My grandmother used to wonder if cows were either so smart they knew where their own stall was, or so stupid they wouldn't think to go anywhere else. ~J

This is from a personal friend of mine who lives in IL. Shipping a pool table is not practical. Anyone local enough and skilled enough to tackle this job? PM me if interested. Johanna

Holly- a man will use every available dish in the kitchen to simply fry an egg. It is easier to feed a a man than clean up after him. Jordan- at our house, the lid goes down, or the dog thinks he has a flavored water bowl. (YUCK!) Art- his still isn't done, all mine needs now is the snap. I just went downstairs and put all my tools away in their proper place after he quit for the night. I think I will take the kids into his wood shop tomorrow and let them make things with his tools and wood. I wonder if he'll get the same knot in his stomach when he sees the kid pounding nails into his gourmet wood like I did when they were pounding 3D stamps into that piece of leather I had that had a JA brand in it that I'd been saving for, oh, 12 years or so, for just the right thing. I will also make sure they dump his hardware into several large coffee cans so the next time he needs a screw, he can root through the whole thing like I did for the four pieces of the snap I wanted to use. Ha ha...guess he won't be screwing anything any time soon. Johanna

My daughter cut out all the inserts and put them in the jewel cases. I didn't have the heart to tell her they didn't fit in right, and I knew Billy would get a kick out of her helping. I sent out 5 more today. I hope everyone enjoys them. Russ- hope your wife is feeling better soon. Johanna

LW has been pleased to work with PSLAC since our website began. At the bottom of every page on the forum, under our banner, click on "The Rawhide Gazatte" to go directly to the website mainained by PSLAC. They have an enormous archive of educational material, and the people there are generous with their time and expertise. Bob Stelmack publishes their newsletter every month and includes news, patterns, specials- whatever interesting things are going on. PSLAC is a great organization, highly recommended by LW members. Johanna

Do you mean The Leathercrsft Guild in California? Robert Ambriz, president? http://www.sbearstradingpost.com/LeathercraftGuild.html Here's a list of leather guilds we know of: http://www.leatherworker.net/leatherguilds.htm Johanna

Exactly. His box, made of leather or wood, would be technically perfect and correct. But those 4 90 degree corners he will have to sew and get to match will not come easy with leather, and everyone here is nodding with me. It's gonna be crooked, no matter how well he measured it, and how exact he was. And he was exact, I'm sure of it. I've watched him in his wood shop and every angle and miter is perfect. He likes to make things the old fashioned way, like our house is built, with no nails. But leather has different properties, so you work with it, rather than fight it. I wet the inside piece and shoved her box in there to give it a nice form fitting shape. He is making a straight up and down box that the game will sit in. It will take 10 times longer to do, but is will also be 10 times nicer than mine when it is done. Johanna

Daughter wanted a case for her Nintendo. Wade and I decided to make one. He headed into my shop and designed a box. I came down a few hours later, and tried to keep my mouth shut. It's not easy making a box out of leather, and I've known experienced leatherworkers who don't do them. Wade has a background fabricating with metal and wood. Metal and wood do not flex or bend, and the measurements, if done precisely, will always match up. Ha ha...leather doesn't work like that. I did this one: Neither project is finished yet- still working on the fabrication. I need to round off her flap and set a snap, then dye it or let her stamp on it. His needs sewn together, and I know that no matter how careful he is, it isn't going to line up like he wants,and it's not going to satisfy him. I give him credit for the extreme detail of the design- it's all carefully thought out. I drew a free hand pattern and sewed one piece on- zip zip- I was taught time is money in the shop, and old habit die hard. If his goes together, she will want it as a jewelery box, but mine will be done first. I tried to explain gently that he may have overcomplicated the project, and he didn't like that, so he was back down there last night working on it. I warned him to count his holes and punch them exactly right the first time, no second chances. I'm no genius at leatherworking- I'm no artist. I can make scrap just as easily as the next person. But all the years in the shop have taught me that KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) is the best way to approach fabrication issues. Wade is gifted with spatial thinking, finely honed from years of woodworking and metalwork. He makes things at work within point ten thousandths tolerances. I know leather. I can feel it and tell how it will stretch and act, and I understand and accept that it won't be consistent, even in the same hide. I thought this was an interesting experiment in how men and women solve problems. He will create a masterpiece, after sweating each detail in the shop for hours. I made a quick case for a kid and am cutting grass this afternoon. (Oh, my bad hand is sore from the lacing!) I thought this was an interesting comparison of how men and women approach problems. Both ways are "correct", one is just easier than the other. Johanna

12stones: look here http://leatherworker.net/ for more lists of leatherworker links, suppliers, guilds, tutorials and picture galleries, etc. Semper Fi Johanna

Hmmm... now we have to call you "frog-huntah". Congratulations! Johanna

Yep, it's gorgeous and practical. I want one too. Make sure you spell my name right. You rock, freak! Johanna