ClayB. to share lost secrets of ancient leatherwork

[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.