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Hello from the gulf coast in Sarasota, Florida! I'm so excited to finally have joined this group after such a long time ~ My name's Janelle & I'm a leather sculptor for a little over 10 years (: Some of you may recognize my work from Sheridan, WY at the World Leather Debut or the Leather Crafter's Journal which I've written for a few times... My specialty is leather wet-forming and kinetic sculpture, particularly of articulated skeletons- mostly dinosaurs!! I'm obsessed with my work as I imagine most of you are, too- so it's gonna be a lot of fun to be able to talk with other leather worker friends on here and get some critiques & advice, which is great to have access to. I graduated from Ringling School of Art & Design in 2005 with a bfa in illustration and also studied metal sculpture & digital design. After many weird art jobs over the years which took me all over the country & Canada, I now make leather dino skeletons which sortof combos all of what I have learned- and it's been really fun (: !! I was real scared when I travelled to Wyoming to compete in the leathershow for the first time- but then I couldn't believe I placed 1st in untooled items for the World Leather Debut, and ever since then I've had the drive to keep on creating new models & even miniature ones. Last year I taught a workshop in Sheridan for Skelosaurz, mini leather dino kits and since have been working further on producing leather wet forming kits for others to enjoy. (below are Skelosaurz, mini dino wet-forming kits) I look forward to learning more in these forums from the masters of the craft; especially since I never got the real training that some luckier carvers got who grew up learning how to manipulate leather. I'm originally from St. Louis, Mo and now live in the gulf... an awesome place for fossil hunting on the beaches & mojitos (: lol I hope to share my work with all of you & please visit my Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/J.V.BeckerLeather?fref=ts & here's my site too (: http://www.beckerleather.com/ My other leather obsession is in antique & vintage tools; something I never get tired of learning or posting about (: *Meet Swivelsaur! A good friend explained to me how due to his short stumpy fingers, his work was made difficult and this species went into extinction during the late Sheridan period. You can find its fossils buried within the layers of tapoffs. (he carries a vintage carvertool cadet swivelknife/of plastic&fiberglass which shows well against the vintage marx dino plastic)