Johanna

Just to clarify- Betty is selling a book by her dad, Harry Adams, called "The Saddlemaker's Shop Manual". This book is considered a classic favorite for anyone wanting to make a living with a saddle shop. Email or PM Betty directly by clicking her name above, and choosing from the options. LW has no connection or interest in the sales of these books, other than to let people know this is a book worth the money. Johanna

It looks very stylish, and the braided rein between the clips adds functional elegance. I like the contrast with the natural leather and the black, too. Thanks for sharing! Johanna

Very nice, Victor, as usual, and nothing is wrong with black and gold- those are STEELERS colors! Thanks for sharing! Johanna

Yep. Rugged elegance. I like it. Johanna

Press control and p for the print command. Clay, would it help if I converted the pattern to another format, like a pdf? Johanna

KIP The hide of a young animal usually a calf. Kips are thinner, smaller and less blemished than adult hides, and more expensive. SPLIT The under portion of a hide, split into two or more thicknesses. It may be either sueded or pigment finished and embossed. Maybe someone else can talk about tooling on them? Johanna

Editing title and moving to Braiding for a wider audience. Excellent job, Drac. Thank you thank you for sharing such a well explained and illustrated lesson! Johanna

Just curious, guys, how was it done in history? Have saddles always had rawhide covered trees since trees began to be used? Which horse culture thought this up, the Spanish Moors? Uh-oh, this might need to be a different thread. But you guys have me curious now. Johanna

We have almost figured out the next LW contest, stay tuned! We'd like to do more contests and challenges, and any sponsors who are interested in being featured, please send me or ClayB a PM. Providing prizes and incentives to eager-to-learn leatherworkers is a great way to indroduce yourself, and the services your company offers, to a huge Internet audience, and spread goodwill and cheer! Look in the contest forum soon for an announcement for the next leather challenge! Johanna

There are only two so far, Carl. http://leatherworker.net/tipstricks.htm Johanna

Holly, your rose turned out very nicely! This is a good project for children and adults. Here is some more info about molding: http://leatherworker.net/moldingworkshop.htm Johanna

using image tags

http://tutorials.photobucket.com/tutorial_74.html It looks like photobucket has different links for different uses. I think the "image" link is the one you need. Further on down in the instructions is how to enable these functions for an account if they are disabled. I tried to edit the links above, but got a "cannot use dynamic image in a post" error. I think we need the image tag, and I am going to try an experiment with my new photobucket account after supper. Johanna

Hi Dave! I think I counted 16 Daves or Davids on the forum, and it was about the same for Mikes and Steves. Of course, that was just ones I knew for sure. Glad to see you again, haven't heard from you in awhile and hope life is treating you well! Ladies and gentlemen, this is my friend Dave Anderson, who has lots of beautiful things posted in the pre-crash invisible posts. (Oh, how we wish we had them back for everyone by now, but the database is pretty broken, and the repairs aren't done yet.) I hope you've had a warm fire this winter, it's been extra cold here in Ohio. I am so ready for Spring! I know you are really busy, but if you have time to post some pics in the show off section, the folks here would love to look at your work, Dave. I bookmarked your website ages ago, didn't I? Peace & all the good stuff, Johanna

I like "Functional Elegance". Or "Elegant Simplicity" or "Simply Elegant" "Superior Elegance" "Built-in Elegance" "Sturdy Elegance" "Practical & Elegant" "Sturdy and Simply Beautiful" Johanna

Welcome to leatherworker.net, Tammy! I liked the story of the lonely table. There are lots of great people here, and you'll fit right in. Johanna

It's a tweak. It's kinda complicated, so I was holding off until the old posts come back. I liked it, too, and I'll restore it soon. Glad to know someone else noticed! Johanna

That is Rod and Denise Stanger, and they are awesome artists, aren't they? I love the way they integrate two art forms, and I like the bright vivid colors of their unique designs. Thanks for the reminder. Johanna

There are some pics that need to be rather high res to see the detail, and most pics would be just fine in the 100-300K range. We depend on the forum members to use their best judgment. In my experience, often the people who don't use good pic sizes just don't know how to reduce photos. If someone (hint Wolvie hint) wants to write a good "how to get pics the right size and post them on the forum" tutorial, I'll make it a separate page with circles, arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. Not including the aerial photography. Johanna

I haven't noticed any slowdowns, and I just checked logs. They are clean. Johanna

Azmal, that rocks! Love all the extra touches. Johanna

I like your work, but of course I am partial to spiderwebs! I fixed your link to be "clickable". Welcome to leatherworker.net, glad to have you here! Johanna

Good advice, Alcove, about making lessons and instruction as painless as possible for the institutions. When I was with Tandy, a similar strategy was used for camps, churches, schools, etc. There is a big interest in leather, but its perceived high cost and complication can be intimidating to the people that are responsible for implementing these kinds of programs. No one wants to spend a gazillion dollars and then look bad to their boss when they don't know how to do the craft that was presented. We were happy to take the lower profit margin in exchange for the higher volume sale, and (with luck!) some repeat customers who were intrigued by the whole thing, as a result of the instruction provided. Many leatherworkers have learned the art in institutional settings...military, hospitals, prison, schools, camps, and so on, and continued after the initial exposure. Tandy has traditionally been the source for supplies and teaching, thus perpetuating leatherwork as a viable therapy, or other learning, alternative. Johanna

Piece of cake. Click your name to the left "find this member's posts" OR click your name where it shows you are logged in (top of page) to show your profile, posts you've made and topics you've started are listed there. Johanna

I would say the average American consumer appreciates the value of real leather, but can not distinguish synthetic from leather, or hand tooled from embossed, or handcrafted from mass production, the majority of the time. Al Stohlman, via Tandy, has influenced more leatherworkers in modern history than any one person in older times ever did. Now leatherworkers have the Internet. Johanna