David Genadek

Johanne, People have loved to hate Tandy as long as I can remember. They are what they are which is an entry level supplier. I think what people get frustrated with is that there is no clear path to progression in the craft. You are a beginner or a professional and there is no place for the seriouse hobbyist. Compare that to wood working where you can can go to home Depot and get all the woodworking equipment you want at reasonable prices to make just about anything. The fact is Tandy/LF have kept this craft alive and with out them the craft would really be hurting. It would be nice if they offered services like clicking and splitting in thier stores and broader array of products for the serouse hobbyist but I doubt the numbers are there to make it pay. We should all support and help them in building the market. I went to my local Tandy dealer (not a corporate store)and offered to teach classes for free. David Genadek

Here are two shot of some of Bill Gomers work. This is back before anyone know he was a saddle maker. You can see in the one shot how he was using Cova paint. I can hear him talking about how you want to use colors that tie into the leather color. The indian is a good example of this. On the husky you will see that he is putting every color he uses on the picture into the eye. David Genadek

I agree that it is lack of care that eventually dry rots the leather. However, when leather gets cold you can see the spew come out which tells you the cold is sucking the life out of the leather. I live in Minnesota and we have major temperature extremes and frankly I don't know of anything that that does not require more maintenance because of the cold. If it requires more maintenance then that is proof that the temperature is affecting the life of whatever it is. It is also true that heat will do the same. You will have less maintenance if you keep it in a climate controlled environment. True if you maintain it, it will still have a long life. How many average horse owners will properly maintain their equipment? My experience is very few. David Genadek

Yes she does. She was also instramental in getting people thinking in terms of 3d sculpture with her orchids and she was also the one the got the leather jewelery thing going. I call her my leather mama so sometimes I forget what an incredible craftsman she is. The influence she has had has been great. So if I wanted to learn to use paint on leather she would be where I would go. David Genadek

I learned to use acrlyics form Carol Gehrman who was one of the real poiners of thier use. They can be used well if you thin them down adn get a grasp of color theory. Attached is on of Carols Pictures.

In my opinion it will reduce the life of the saddle. It is skin what would happen to your skin if you froze it and defrosted it a bunch of times? We have a climate controlled tack room. If you can't afford that then I reccomend to keep your tack in the house. David Genadek

I use Dream Weaver (now owned by Adobe). My web host offers a free site builder as part of the plan. I think many do, I don't know it they are worthe a lick but I bet others here might know. David Genadek

Brent, If Escher came to mind then you totally get what I am saying about the postive and negative space but then I am also trying to bring up the point that we as humans detect and understand relationships based on how things are touching or not touching. Below are two shots of some fouls. Which of the two shots has the most emotional impact on you? I will guess the ones where the fouls are touching because it gives your brain more information about the relation ship. The third photo is the same two fouls with more back ground added. Adding the background doesn't really help the shot it just adds more distraction. Now look at the shot of the horse. It is a pretty crappy shot and doesn't do much for you but then put him in the context of his enviroment and it becomes a pretty cool shot. So you have to know when and how to use the negative space. In the case of the strap by losing the boarder and inverting the design and then combining it with the stamp that was used you really could get an Escher type effect betweenteh positive and negaive space. Now that may not have been what Tina wanted and that is ok. The design elements in this strap are really cool so I would just like to present an alternative way of combining them.

If your serouse about learning you have to do it all. Books Tapes, Schools, classes, hanging out with people. David Genadek

I see the connector strap as essential. When saddles don't have them the front rigging wears out prematurely. It has to be tight to perform it's function and should be made out of very good leather. The pull may be down but the motion of the horse does puts forward and backward stress on the d and rigging. The connector strap stabalizes the rigging. If the client complains about to much bulk under their leg it is because they are not sitting correctly and in my opinion you should teach them how to sit rather than make structural changes to the saddle. David Genadek

Yep the flow line is the stem. I'm relieved, your not scarey now. David GenadekI did bad in English too.I did bad in English too.

Your doing an amazing job using that method. It is about a 100 times easier to lay the stem down first. If you can imagine putting all the punctuation down for a paragraph then writing the sentences you can understand how you are doing it now. The stems are the sentances and flowers are the punctuation. If you write the sentance first you have a lot more control. I just lay down a series of scrolls to work out the proportions of the design (I see that as my primary element) then I draw in the flowers then put in the fill. Clearly you have an inate design sense because you have created natural proportions using a technique that makes it nearly impossible to acheave. Give the other way go and you might scare your self. It is a lot funner too. David Genadek

I think it is high time this industry steels concepts and terms from other industries and applies them with the foundational knowledge of the craft. David Genadek

This is good! I'm guessing that your laying your stem down first then adding the flower. Am I right? David Genadek

Floral carving can be pretty abstract so let me see if I can explain better by using a real life example. I have attached two photos of a baby elephant. Lets say the elephant is the floral carving and the fence is the border andthe back ground is the back ground. In the one picture the elephant is not touching the fence so it is actually distracting and really has no reason for being there, the photo would look better with out the fence. In the second picture there is a relationship between the elephant and the fence because he is touching it. Takeing out the fence in that picture would really detract from the shot. David Genadek

My intent with my comments was to get people thinking about the relationship between the positive and negative space, thats all. Peter Mains work is great to study to learn this concept. He is one of the best I have ever seen even in his photo layouts he masterfully controls the movement from positive to negative space and vice versa. David Genadek

When you order from Weaver tell them what you need and they will hand select for you. Weaver is geared toward people that are making thier living with leather. For a lot of things Tannery run is fine but if you need better all you have to do is tell them and they do a great job of meeting your specific needs. They actually have thier computer system set up to put in your specifics. The Leather Guy in St Charles MN takes photos of each peice and puts them on his site so you can see the actual piece your buying. You do want to buy from people that understand leather. Stevenson Paxton is great about telling you if a batch has any issue and boy do I appreacate that. David Genadek

Ron, It depends on what your goals are. If you just want to do a saddle to say you did one then Dusty Johnson's work would be geared toward you. If you want to become a master saddle maker then that is a different journey all together. I spent ten years roaming around the country working for and with differant people. If your looking at really finding your own way then I think working with many people is essential. Gomer's school is a great place to start because Bill has a pretty broad perspective meaning he knows many methods of saddle construction from both the custom and production side of things. Which set of tapes and books I say get them all as you can. There is no: Here is how you make a saddle. Where do you want to go with it? "Philosophy now. I think a saddlemaker has to have a definite and personal experience with the type of purpose you are building a saddle for. You have to know the "whys" first before you can do the "hows". Bruce Johnson AMEN David Genadek

Tina, You have a nice flow line to your design. I would like to make a comment on the use of borders though because I see a lot of people on the forum doing it. That is as a general rule if you use a border you want the carving to touch the border. Then you back ground everything that is not a border or pattern. That grounds the design and clearly defines the space. If your after a more airy feel then it you might want to try to invert the carving. I have attached a photo of a guitar pattern as an example of bringing the pattern to the border. David Genadek

Gregg, That might depend on the country I have been able to fully cover the saddles to both Germany and the United Kingdom. I have found it depends on who is working at the post office too. I ship a bunch to a trainer in Germany and her husband is in the special forces so I ship to an APO. I was putting Germany on the customs declaration so they were charging me the full rate to Germany. APOs should only get charged the fee to the miltary base in the US. I had to get a postal employee that had been around for a long time to get it straight. On another package I was told I couldn't get all the insurance I wanted to a country I knew I had gotten it for before, turns out that one gal didn't know how to get it into the computer. David Genadek

I just replaced mine with Polymax flat sheet 1/4"x 48x120 for 62.95 a sheet from Farmtek David Genadek

I ship a lot of international and it is seldom over $150.00. I use the USPS because they seem to have the best rates and the paper work is easy you just fill out Customes Declaration and Dispatch Note CP72. Usually the duty is on the person recieving to pay. I just shipped one to Germany yesterday for $42.00 but it went to an APO. If you know someone in the military you can ship to it can save you a lot of money. Normally I pay about $80.00 to Germany. Keep your box size down because the dimensional wieght will send it high. David Genadek

I used to do about a thousand a month. When I started doing them I used a die to cut the part (you could use a round knife and do it by hand) then I would skive the area that attached to the watch with a cheap bench skiver (I kept the blade really sharp!) Hand glued then stitched them on Consew 206 RB did all the edge finishing by hand. As the contract increased I clicked out blocks of leather and pattern skived them on a band knife splitter glued the whole block then die cut the part. I used a power burnishing wheel. The tough part was holding the little buggers when we rubbed the edges( most band companies don't rub the edges they use products that are designed fill the edge and make it look glossy) so we made a fixture that they fit into. We applied the edge dressing by hand then sewed the buckles on by hand. So what do you need? It depends on how many and what type of leather you will be using. David Genadek

I run a Schawbe DVHD 25 ton. You can make it work for fenders and seats but if you were doing a lot you would want a double beam or a overhead clicker. Not getting the entire Die covered with the beam is tough on the dies. You also want to make sure you get the stabalizer bars so you don't get beam deflection. I started with a USMC model A and used it for many years but it groans on the big parts. On big parts I wouldn't get it with an expectation that it will save you a lot of time You will still need to block the piece out to bring to the clicker. You can wrestle the whole hide but the chance of mistakes goes way up. It will pay for it self on the little parts though. The clicker is the cheapest part of the game the die exspense is where the real investment is. David Genadek

Bev, Yes but I'm now in Spring Valley I moved from Spring Grove a couple years ago. I'm still not all the way unpacked though. Spring Grove is about an hour away from here so it is a drag when folks get it wrong. You would just take 90 to Stewartville and go south on 63 I think it is about an hour from La Crosse. Here is a link that has some directions just let me know when you plan to come. 800 449-7409 David Genadek