CitizenKate

Kate

Good for you, jazznow! That would have made my day, too. But be careful with those knives! Kate

The dried leaves make a better impression, too. The only problem I've run into with dried leaves is, some of them tend to become brittle once they're dry. That's what prompted me to start experimenting with sealing the leaves with something to protect and stiffen them a bit. I mentioned lacquer earlier, but I had some other types of sealing finishes just laying around, so I've been trying them, and so far, I think I like the Minwax Polyurethane the best. I'm also hoping it will make it possible for the more delicate leaves to make a good impression, but haven't gotten that far yet... Kate

The dye tends to bleed more when applied to wet leather, so for this technique it's better to allow the leather to dry completely before applying dye. Yes, it is more difficult, but it does take some trial-and-error to get it just right. One other suggestion: don't put too much dye on your block. If you're getting dye into depressed areas, use less dye and work lightly over the surface of the leather. Kate

I tried that, and I would prefer to do it that way, but... Although each individual leaf gets a better impression at the time it is pressed, the previously pressed impressions get flattened out when more pressings are made. So now I just lay them all out together and press them all in one pass. Kate

What a coincidence that this topic got revived... I just happened to be in my shop pressing some leaves onto some checkbook covers. More pressure does help, and the longer you sustain the pressure (up to a point), the more detailed and persistent the impression is. Different leathers give different results. I also moisten the leather more when pressing leaves into the leather, compared to when I'm just carving and tooling. I get different results with different species of leaves. The best results come from leaves that are fairly thick and stiff. The really thin, tender leaves are very difficult to get a good impression from. It seems to improve the detail of the impression if you stiffen the leaf up a bit by applying a very light coat of lacquer all over the leaf and allow it to dry before pressing it. To get that color effect, use block-dying. I posted a tutorial on this technique a couple of years ago... http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2712 HTH... Kate

Hi Mike, Any chance of posting an image for us to look at? But without seeing it, one thing that comes to mind is to try a darker antique color. Also, when you're applying the antique, be sure to wipe flatly over the surface of the leather to remove the excess, so as to leave more of the antique in the depressed areas. Kate

When the site was hosted in a shared environment, that is one of the things we considered doing, and are still considering, and not just with the ads, but also with other script-generated content. Moving the site to a dedicated host kind of put that effort on the back-burner, since that alone sped things up considerably. I am getting typical load times just over 2 seconds, when forcing my browser to re-download everything: Using cached content, it's closer to 1.5 seconds, and the ads are taking up about 750ms of that. I'm guessing these are not the same page load times you're seeing at your location. So, while I think there are things we may be able to do on this end to improve what you're experiencing on your end, the real bottleneck may be somewhere between here and there. With the increase in membership from overseas (which is a very welcome trend), we have discussed a few ideas for providing better service in Europe, but since they are still pretty much in the idea stage, it's probably best not to share them at this point, because a lot will change between now and the time we implement anything. We are taking the issue very seriously, though. In the mean time, I would be interested in seeing more information about what you're seeing from your end. Would you be willing to gather and send me some data on the connection you have between here and there, such as a tracert report? (Please PM me if you're not sure how to do that, and I'll be glad to help you with it.) Depending on what we see there, we can go from there. Kate

Okay, but you asked for feedback... I used to work for a non-profit org whose main job was to plan an event on a similar scale to this one every year. It was a full-time job for a staff of 10 people, so I can tell you it is no small task to put together an event this big on a volunteer basis. I would say the show went very well, at least as well any events I've attended that were run by very experienced event teams. Registration was the easiest it's ever been (I really appreciated being able to do that online this year). Check-in went smoothly, all the paperwork was in order - no surprises, big plus - and there were enough people who knew what they were supposed to be doing to get everyone through the process in a timely manner. Your staff was showing some great teamwork. All the activities (the tannery tour, the classes, the banquet, the meeting, etc.) were well-planned and went smoothly and on schedule. The location was great - very easy to get to from the interstate (not to mention the airport - we had a great view of the runway from our room and enjoyed watching planes taking off and landing), and several different places to eat within walking distance. I was a little disappointed that internet access wasn't included in the room fee, and I am not willing to pay $13/day for it when I pay $1.30/day for it at home, and every other hotel I've stayed at in the last two years has included it with the room. Other than that, the accommodations were great. I know this was brought up in the delegates' meeting, but I also want to emphatically second the comment in hopes that people planning these events in the future will "hear": the exhibit rooms (and probably the vendor area, too) really need to have plenty of light. It was fairly difficult to see the work in some areas of those rooms. I would have had difficulty judging some of the work, and really couldn't photograph it at all without using my flash, which in many cases ruins the shot. Maybe it's no big deal that there wasn't enough light to take good photos of the work. I know your staff took properly lit photographs of all the winning entries, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. (We can post them in the gallery when they come available, by the way.) I think having enough light to support the judging process is a much more important reason to make this a priority, but also keep in mind that your biggest promoters for future shows are the people who take and share photographs of what they see at the shows (not just the work, but also the people, activities, etc.), and there was also a lot of work shown there that would not be included on the CD. That being said, all-in-all it was a very well-run show. I know you've no doubt got your own "notes to self" to pass along to future show planners that you collected from everything that went on behind the scenes, but the bottom line is, we all had a fantastic time fellowshipping with our fellow leatherworkers, we learned a lot, and came back home with our pockets full of business cards, a bunch of new tools in our bags, and our brains exploding with new ideas. Mission accomplished. Thank you very much for the great work you and your staff put into making this show a success. Kate

I hate those bottles they come in! I've managed not to spill any yet, but as soon as I got my first bottle I knew that was an accident begging to happen. And yes, I think a lot of people have had that problem. Like some of the others who have responded, I just transfer the dye to a more stable container, and I'm going to start ordering it in the pint-sized containers in the future, so that should eliminate that problem. Kate

I like it, Madmax, especially the inverted carving. That is just the sort of thing I would carry. Kate

The latest publication in Jan Schoonover's Sculpted Leather Art Series just went on sale today. In this lesson, Jan introduces techniques he uses to create very realistic textures of fish scales and fins, and like the others in this series, you are shown the techniques of sculpting the leather using extreme 3-D embossing techniques. These lessons are a collaborative effort of Jan and Clay Banyai, who is well-known in the Leatherworker.net family as a gifted teacher and leatherworker in his own right. To see more information and to purchase this lesson and others in the series, please visit Clay's web site: http://badlandsleatherart.com/schoonover.htm Kate

Good to see you back, Azmal. Your work is always a pleasure to see. Kate

That's okay, Joe. Just threw that out in case you hadn't looked there before. Kate

Hi Joe, Here's a couple of whip makers listed in the Directory that are in the US: http://leatherworker.net/pmd/david-morgan-signal-whips.html http://leatherworker.net/pmd/Otis-Leather-Company.html Kate

That is somethin' else! Congratulations! Kate

Sorry for the inconvenience, Mike. The last upgrade broke the feature, so it is temporarily unavailable. Johanna is working with the developers to fix it, but we may be switching to another chat program that is hosted on our own site. We had previously ruled out that option because we didn't think our (former) shared hosting environment could handle it, but now that we have our own box, it is once again under consideration. You should be hearing more about it soon. Kate

How big is it? Does he make McClellan style trees, by any chance? Thanks for sharing. Kate

Any dog wearing that will arrive in style! Nice design and clean, professional work. I like the little ornaments you used - not the typical ones you find from leather suppliers. Kate

Siegel of California also has leather designed for bookbinding - calfskin and goatskin, and if you call them, they might have other leathers they can also recommend. https://siegelofca.com/view_cat_product.asp?id=70 Kate

I've got one of those and have been looking for a replacement, since they are notorious for failing. Barry King told me he makes that stamp, but it's not pictured on his site. You'll have to call and ask for it. He said they also refer to it as a Geer braid stamp. Kate

Uhhh... was there something you wanted to discuss with me? :poofan: I do have an old site that is in severe need of updating, but lately have gotten as many orders as I can handle from locals and have not have time to update it. As for your difficulties with registering on this site, I apologize. We have moderator approved membership here, to help keep spammers away. If you made repeated attempts to join before receiving the confirmation email, that may have fouled up the process a bit. I will see what can be done to resolve that, and contact you by email in the mean time. Kate

Very cool! Congratulations, Ben. Very nice work, Ed, and a very nice gesture, too. Kate