Post It Notes From The Edge.....of Sheridan

[DoubleC]

Thanks Randi. Actually I had fun writing it, not so much living it at times, LOL. I had forgotten how much I enjoy writing. And of course sharing this journey along with my friends was a good feeling. We'll know what to do next year Cheryl

[dirtclod]

What classes did you take ?

[DoubleC]

I took making interiors with Chan Geer and beginning tooling with Ed (Bearman) Labarre. I didn't realize how fast you lose that ability when you aren't using it. First time I held a swivel knife in over a year. And the results WEREN'T pretty. But taking a swivel knife with me tomorrow to the farmer's market and some scrap and just gonna practice while I'm there in between people. Chan's class was easier in concept but harder than even tooling for me because of my shaky hands. But I'm looking forward to putting the knowledge to use, good use I hope. Thanks for asking. Cheryl

[WinterBear]

Well, obviously work "ate my lunch" and I didn't get the pictures uploaded. I'll try to address that tonight.

As I said before, it rained pretty much for the entirety of the drive. There was a brief respite just before I got to Sheridan, but it didn't last long.

So, the Mill Inn is a former flouring mill. The rooms are on the long, low wing, while the "tower" portion consists of the hotel laundry on the lowest floor, and offices for the rest, excluding a small exercise room for hotel guests on the top floor consisting of a basic weight bench, a treadmill and some sort of exercise bike. It was remodeled into a hotel in the mid-70s or so, and it shows in the quirky layout of the rooms--it very much has a "roadside motor hotel" vibe going on. I had one of their single rooms, and it was very small--good thing I wasn't there much. The rooms have a small microwave and a teeny dorm-room refrigerator, but I had to unplug the lamp to plug in the microwave--older motels just don't have much in the way of plugs. That being said, it is super clean and pretty quiet. I've paid a lot more for accommodation that was a lot worse, to be honest. I'd happily stay there again because it is clean, it's pretty close to the convention center without being smack-dab in the middle of things, and I bet the views would have been nice if it had ever stopped raining!

I don't have a lot of pictures from the Sheridan Leather Outfitter's Reception--it was raining and the light wasn't very good, so most of my pictures didn't turn out, and they're pretty blurry. But I think enough did so I can at least give you all some idea of the neat stuff. Not shown are the rows of glass cases with the tools (rein rounders, pinking punches, bag punches, strap end punches, awls, etc.), all of the leather in bins along the back wall, and the tent of leather they had set up outside.

[WinterBear]

Saturday dawns, and C and I scramble over to the convention center and find the room where we both will be taking the Billfold Interiors class with Chan Geer. Cannot say enough nice things about Chan, or about Chan's work that he has for us to look at. Once class started, we all find out that the list of suggested tools on the web wasn't accurate, so there aren't enough scissors--we pass them around and get our patterns traced onto some beautiful W&C leather, and get all of our parts cut out--the first part of the class is an interior for a checkbook-type or clutch-type cover with card slots on either side. We learn how to fold ribbon to make the card pockets and how to glue everything down. Skadi spends most of her time on the feet of the man behind us--Pat. Pat lets me look at and try out his Knipshield pull knife. Oh mama, I'm impressed by that blade (I get one of my own before the end of day). Once we have our interior built, Chan brings out some russet W&C, and we build a second one while he's available to help with any difficulties, but we all are pretty much doing the whole thing on our own. We break for lunch (Note--the Holiday Inn Convention Center does not have a microwave--it you bring a sack lunch, you have to take it to the restaurant staff and have them heat it for you), gobble it down, and try to take in some of the trade show before return for the second part of the class. This time, we'll be making the insides of a billfold, and this one has a sort of sliding hinge that will allow the wallet inside to be fitted to a wallet back.We also make a second of that style in the russet leather for a second attempt on our own.

The first style of interior, as made by Chan.

Oh look, you can make it out of ostrich too...

Traced pattern and the ribbon pockets.

Both sides finished.

My classmates.

Pat and Chan.

Well, there's a familiar face! Look who wandered in...

[WinterBear]

During lunch we managed a quick gawk around part of the trade show.

I snuck in to see some of the competition pieces (very crowded, wasn't able to see the saddles at all!)

Ok, I have a few more of the competition pieces (but not many, I wasn't able to see even half of the pieces), and then I'll add the pictures from the second half of Chan's class, and then start with the photos of the Award ceremony. But that will have to wait as I'm out of steam again.

[DoubleC]

Cubby what a wonderful array of pictures you chose. I would have been lost trying to make this decision. And I know you've still got to be exhausted. Thanks so much for sharing this. Cheryl

Edited May 24, 2015 by DoubleC

[leatherwytch]

Great pictures! I need a million dollars to go.

[WinterBear]

By the way, if on any of this, feel free to correct me if I got any part of it wrong, or not quite right.

Ok, where was I? I was somewhere in the Debut pictures when I reached the limit of pictures I could add to the post, so here are the rest of those:

After lunch, it was time to hustle back into Chan's class. This time we did a billfold interior. As before, we made one in natural leather step-by-step, then made one in russet W&C more or less by ourselves.

It turns out that Chan also taught a lacing class, and these were some of the different patterns. I'll have to take this one next year if it is offered.

Later that evening was the awards ceremony for the Debut. Quite a crowd altogether. I saw a lot of people who up until that point were only names on a forum or in a book to me until that point. That was a lot of fun. The winners in each category are up on the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal website (http://www.leathercraftersjournal.com/wld2015.html). Not a lot of pictures came out on this because my camera isn't so good with the lighting hotels and banquet halls seem to favor. Plus, a lot of people were wearing dark jackets, predominantly dark cowboy hats, and dark jeans, so they sort of blended into the black background behind the stage.

immiketoo got up to talk about the leatherworking community. He then spoke of a piece of Al Stolhman's work had been put up for sale, and a bunch of leatherworkers had banded it together to buy it--the plan was to present it to King's Saddlery, but unfortunately, it was packed up in a box and accidentally left behind--they'll be working on getting that sorted out. So maybe by next year there will be a new piece of Al's art in the Museum.

Bobby Parks was presented the Al Stohlman Award. (unfortunately, I did not catch the name of the young man who won the Ann Stohlman award, and he was not present). Afterwards, they had all past winners of the Stohlman Awards on stage.

That pretty much takes me to the end of Saturday, so I'll add that to the next post.

[WinterBear]

Saturday, C didn't get the wake up call so I hustled down to the convention center with the idea that I would take notes and swing back by to pick her up later. I started out by telling Ed I was going to hug the daylights out of him--it turns out he and C had cooked up a surprise for me - a swivel knife that C had given me on Friday, but I had not been able to chase Ed down until that point to tell him how much I liked it and to thank him too.

I don't have a lot of pictures of Ed LaBarre's (Bearman's) class as I was trying to keep the camera out of the way of leather conditioning fluid, hammers, and other tools.

Ed shows the fat marks he looks for in leather here, along with his work from the previous class on tooling realistic leaves so you can see what a marvelous look the fat marks give the leather. The project we were going to work on was a small notepad holder with curved basketweave and oak leaves, like his example.

But first he went over selecting the leather, preparing it by taping the back and securing the taped leather to a plastic sheet to prevent stretch, and casing the leather. Now, it wasn't properly cased as he would have preferred, but we weren't able to pop the leather into a bag overnight, so we all did the best we could. We had also covered the back of our patterns with contact paper, and we traced our patterns onto the cased leather.

It was right about this point that C called looking for me, and I ran out to go fetch her. I'd been preparing her leather as well as mine, so I was hoping we could both keep up. We started cutting and tooling with the tips Ed gave us. I'm still really choppy on my beveling, and my swivel knife work needs more practice, but overall, I saw a pretty big improvement, and learned scads more than what I'd been managing on my own.

The next day, C. headed back towards Cheyenne then to Denver (and she's posted her trials with the return trip--gads, almost as bad as the trip out here), and I got in my car to head back as well. I did have to stop in Casper for a catnap. I was tired and didn't want to risk falling asleep and running off the road. Bad weather (again) dogged me most of the way home, so I was a bit of a ragged mess when I got home, and then got wrapped up in my normal week early the next morning--job, OA, dance class, Adopt-A-Block downtown cleanup, and all, and here we are at the end of the week.

In a nutshell, would I go to Sheridan again? Absolutely. Do I feel I got my money's worth from my classes? Definitely. Would I take more classes from Chan and Ed if the classes were available? Trick question--of course I would, and in a heartbeat.