Johanna Report post Posted July 22, 2006 I am going crazy looking for more (better) pictures of the motorcycle Billy did in 1995. I will find them. Johanna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shirleyz Report post Posted July 22, 2006 Johanna what ever happened to Billy? I heard he was sick and moved back to S.A, is that right? Have not seen any new work from him in a while. Shirley Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johanna Report post Posted July 24, 2006 Billy came to the US confident that all the folks who promised to sponsor him and his workshops meant what they said. No one made any attempt to put together anything meaningful for him to do, and after a year of living in Goshen, Indiana, working out of a flea market type shopping center, he went home for a visa renewal and to see his beloved wife, Mary, terribly disappointed that the people who said that they would do things, didn't. I doubt he is ever coming back to this country. Meanwhile, he had a lung transplant. Billy is not doing leatherwork right now, but he is very interested in the classes that Wayne Christensen and Frank Zaharek are teaching. He never finished his website, but you can see what did get done at www.2shews.com (use Internet Explorer, not Firefox- I've never gotten around to fixing it since he "quit" on me.) He keeps in touch, but he's more interested in graphic arts right now than cowhide. He doesn't read leather mail except for what I forward him. I think perhaps he feels like a dream died? Johanna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shirleyz Report post Posted July 25, 2006 Very sad because he was one of my biggest inspirations. Our loss. Shirley Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ClayB Report post Posted July 25, 2006 perhaps he feels like a dream died?Johanna I really hope that his dream hasn't died. Billy has a great talent. He has also developed something new and exciting with his transfer technique. It's going to be fun to see what happens when more people start using it. I have tried it a couple times, and need to play with it more to get it right. I am sorry that things didn't work out for him here in the US. I do know it's really hard to set up classes with any of the masters. Not that the masters aren't willing to teach, but that it's tough to get enough people interested in learning to gather in the same place. Even at places like the IFoLG show or the Sheridan show, some of the classes don't get enough students signed up. Billy has a lot of fans out here. I hope that someday he will get back into working with leather. I always loved seeing what he had come up with next. Until then, I pray that he and Mary are both well and happy. Clay Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johanna Report post Posted July 26, 2006 I met Billy on his first trip to the US at my first (and his) IFoLG show in Springfield, Mo. He and my first husband quickly hit it off- recognizing that they were eccentric kindred spirits (sounded better than "crazy old men"!) and among the very best toolers in the world. I remember going to bed on one of the nights, very late, while they were still happily carving, talking and drinking in the bar. Since Little Jon didn't like or trust too many people, I knew right away that Billy was special. I was so green to the art of leatherwork that I had no idea how good either of them were. I was more concerned with getting the fledgling Georgia Leathercrafters' Guild accepted into the IFoLG, and God bless Blanche Byrne for her graciousness and patience, as she introduced and guided me through all the subtleties of the cliques and companies. Like Little Jon, Billy's life is naturally interesting- neither of them ever had to embellish a tale. I enjoy Billy's wit and wisdom about life even more than leather stuff. Maybe he is such an artist because he interperets the world a little differently than the conventional mainstream? The technique he developed came from wandering into a Hobby Lobby during a break from that show, and being curious about how the custom t-shirts were being made from people's personal pictures. The fabric to leather transition was a natural progression, and since he already possessed the skills to do any kind of leather decoration, so he knew he could dress up the coloring (tooling and embossing) pretty easily. Then he looked around and realized that no one had thought of this yet in Leatherland. My husband would have loved Billy's new technique, because it allows quality results at a faster production time. Little Jon knew he was limited by what his own two hands could produce. His earning power was dependent on time spent at the bench, which is why I got the delegated dyeing, lacing, billing and other duties of the shop. Time is money, huh Shirley? You are doing seats now, and the time you spend away from the shop is not putting cash in your pocket until you have a waiting list (and if you keep getting better, looking at the work you are doing now, after only one year, you will have a list as long as Santa Claus) you will not worry about paying bills. In fact, you will have to raise all of your prices just to make that list shrink some! Wayne Christensen has been sucessfully teaching classes using Billy's technique. WC is also a very accomplished tooler, and he uses the transfer mainly for emphasis. I'll ask him if I can share his pics here for those of you that haven't seen them because you don't belong to the Yahoo IILG lists. He did a tribute to Chuck Smith and one with John Wayne that are pretty exceptional pieces even without the extra personalization of the transfer. (In my humble opinion, WC is one of the top ten toolers in the world today) Frank Zaherek is supposed to teach a class at the IFoLG show in October, and I will be interested to see how the students do. I promised Billy pictures, too. Johanna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
