ClayB. to share lost secrets of ancient leatherwork

[Clay]

Hey every one,

I just wanted to let every one know that ClayB. will be at the TLF in Rapid City, SD to demo his style of leather art on Friday Aug. 22 and Saturday Aug 23.

He will be there to support our one year anniversary sale. We will be celebrating for 4 days starting on Wednesday the 20th. If you find your self nearby please stop by and have a free bad cupa coffee and enter our drawing.

Here is the cool part that envolves all of you. ClayB. has been stumped for something to demo while he is at the store. So we are asking you all to come up with something for ClayB. to do. We reserve the right to say No Way!! so keep it clean and family friendly please. Also remember it has to be some thing that he can complete in two days with a minimal amount of tools. ClayB and I will look over your suggestions and pick out our fav ideas then we will let you all decide on wich one he will do. Please only reply to this topic to keep it easy to track.

Thanks every one!!

ClayM.

[freak]

I call first dibs on what ever form of a master piece he does while there !! DIBBBBS !! LOL

Man i sure do wish i was close enough to make it. It would be one of the high lite of me life i tell ya. How awesome would that be, to see the bert and ernie show live ??

Please for the love of all things living, someone get to this with a video recorder of any kind !!!!

Thank you

freak OUT

[yaklady]

Since freak has first dibbs on the finished masterpiece, I think Clay should do an embossed picture of freak's cute doggie with the big teeth. Some nice finger cuts around the subject would be good, and if you could add some doggie odor essence, how perfect a masterpiece! Oh yes, and make the hair look like feathers.

This is one demo I would love to be there for, the first of a new trend! It definitely needs to be video taped. If only SD was closer to home . . .

Kathy

[Clay]

Come on yall!! We need some help here!!! I don't want Ernie to be sitting there with his mallet in hand and nothing to pound on!! Give us suggestions.....

ClayM. aka Bert

[Hilly]

Come on yall!! We need some help here!!! I don't want Ernie to be sitting there with his mallet in hand and nothing to pound on!! Give us suggestions.....

ClayM. aka Bert

Why not have him do a figure carving of Bert and Ernie?

Edited August 10, 2008 by Hilly

[freak]

I'm a huge fan of the buffalo he did and i'm sure people would love to see him doing that live. I'm not sure how long it take to do that though. I know it would take me about a year or so.

I'm not sure it's a two day project but this is something i've been thinking of doing pretty much ever since i saw leather embossed. Seeing as how good Clay is at embossing, i think he could pull this one off and make it look great.

You know the classic drawing of the two hands drawing each other ?

I'd like to see that done but have them carving instead of drawing.

Then there's illusions i'de like to see done in leather. Like this one.

Or if you want simple, this is my line work for a project im doing now "deadoak".

Ok , i've started rolling the ball.....NEXT !!!!

[Clay]

You know the classic drawing of the two hands drawing each other ?

I'd like to see that done but have them carving instead of drawing.

Hmmm,

That is a cool idea freak!!!

ClayM. aka Bert

[Crystal]

I was going to suggest the bear paw - but I really like Freak's suggestion on the hands.

Crystal

[yaklady]

I have always admired the eagles that Clay does. Perghaps that eagle that Jim Linnell submitted for the challenge pattern last month would be a good subject. Or maybe one of his cool elk in the forest. Whatever he does, it has got to be some figure carving because he is so good at that.

Kathy

[anne newkold]

I agree with Kathy, what ever Clay ends up teaching it should be some thing he is good at instead of something that is a totally new challenge for him. I would go with teaching carving an elk scene or something like that.

[Johanna]

According to Google Maps, it is 1184 miles from New Knoxville Ohio to Rapid City, SD.

*sigh

Johanna

[ClayB]

Thanks you guys for the suggestions. I think we should save Freak's dog for Kathy to teach sometime. I do like the Bert and Ernie suggestion. I might just try that someday just for fun. Freak always has cool ideas, the hands are great and we actually found someone that was going to try and make up a pattern for them with swivel knives. Not sure that is something I'd want to try with an audience my first time. I think I could carve the buffalo in 2 days if there weren't any distractions, but I think distractions were kind of the point to this demo, so I think that's too big a project. It also is pretty much cutting feathers for one whole day and that would get boring for someone watching fairly quickly I think. The bear paw is do-able in a few hours, and so is an elk (like on a flask). So maybe a couple smaller projects that I know I could finish? If anyone has more suggestions, please keep them coming. If they dont work for the demo, they might be ideas for future projects.

It would be great to see any of you at Clay's store's anniversary. (sounds like you are gonna have to leave pretty early on Thursday if your gonna make it Jo)

Clay

[CitizenKate]

Pity I can't do any traveling for another couple of months, or I would be there. That is going to be an awesome workshop!

Kate

[yaklady]

According to Google Maps, it is 1184 miles from New Knoxville Ohio to Rapid City, SD.

*sigh

Johanna

You're letting that short distance stop you???

[ClayB]

Thank you for the suggestions you all gave. I tried to come up with a pattern that included a few of them. Sorry Freak, no skulls this time. If I can get through all the carving, I'll try and do some coloring on it too. I started on this one, eco flow dyes on the leaves and acrylics on the eagle, but just didn't have the time or energy to finish it up.

I'll be heading down to Rapid early tomorrow morning, hoping to be there when the store opens. It's would be great to see some of you there.

[Denise]

Beautiful, Clay. Have a GREAT weekend. I am sure that anyone who stops by will learn a lot.

[Clay]

I just wanted to let every one know that we had a lot of fun watching ClayB. this weekend. he did a great job showing his tallents. We did not get as many people in as we had hoped for but it was still a good sale. Had a big semi truck parked in front of the store for a while that did not do us any good. I did manage to get a few pictures of Clay doing his demos and answering questions.

If no one can tell ClayB is the one in the big hat......

THANK YOU ClayB for coming down to the store.

ClayM.

[superchute]

first things first I would like to thank both Clay's for a great afternoon it was a great time. I would like ever one to know Clay B is a great coach He helped me make my first elk and wow it looks like one I did not know I had that in me. Thanks Clay was a lot of fun.

Im a long ways from good but with a little coaching at least it looks like one.

Thank you both vary much

Russell Millar

[freak]

I bet that was a good time to be had rite there. Thanks for the pics Clay . THey really shed some light on a few things for . Mostly i've realized that i've gotta get a bigger hat !!

[ClayB]

I want to thank Bert for letting me hang out in his store for a couple days. It was a great break from normal life and I really enjoyed it. Things didn't really go as planned, but that was ok. I did carve most of the pattern that I had planned to carve on the first day. Didn't get around to coloring it the second day. Instead, I talked several people that came in into trying to carve an elk head. A couple of these people had very limited or no carving experience at all. Russ said he had never done any figure carving, but from the picture, you can see he did a nice job. All of them did a nice job of carving thier elk. It was fun to be able to work with these people and hopefully they got a little confidence in their ability to do this and will try some more.

Bert let me stay at his house while I was there and I had a chance to meet his parents and some the kids. The triplets made me feel right at home. They also had a lot of fun taking turns wearing the mask that Leatheroo sent to me. Too bad both Bert and I had left our cameras at the store.

Freak, I'm not sure if the hat will improve your carving, but it's nice to hide behind when someone wont put that dang camera down! Looking at the pictures Bert posted, I kinda felt like Wilson from Tool Time.

Oh, and there were doughnuts at the store!!!! I didn't bring them, so there wasn't any dog slobber on them, but for some reason people were still a little reluctant to try them.

I'd love to do this again sometime so hopefully Bert will let me come back again, but it's sure weird to have 2 Clays in the same place.

[Crystal]

After seeing the great teaching job ClayB did - and seeing the wonderful cover and write up in the LC&SJ that ClayM did... I think the two of them shoulda highjacked that rig parked out front of the store and taken the Bert and Ernie show on the road.

(Head East, young men - Head EAST.) Thanks for inspiring us all!

Crystal