Back in the shop

Well I finally made it back into the leather shop. It's been about 3 weeks since I got home from Billings and today was the first day I've had the time and the ambition to work on something. I cut out a piece of leather so that I could start on another grizzly bear. I want to do another one on my own to see if I remember what Jan taught me. I've got lots of pictures and some notes to follow. I got the pattern traced, cut, beveled and over half of the hairing done and it's all coming back to me fairly well. I am seeing places where I could have taken better notes, so I'll be adding to them as I go. Hoping to get a little more done today unless I decide to go for a ride with Jake, or a drive with Stacy. Looks like it's going to be another really pretty spring day outside.

I had a message from Denise Nikkel a few days ago giving me a progress report on my saddle tree order. Rod had them done "in the wood" and they were getting coats of varnish. It sounded like the rawhiding might get started this weekend. Rod and Denise have been really great to work with. Rod called me when I placed my order and went over everything to make sure we were both on the same page. That helped me out quite a bit since this is the first custom tree order I've ever made. Rod seems like a really nice guy and we talked about a lot of things besides the saddle trees. It was interesting to learn a little about his background and where they live up in Canada. Then once they actually started working on the trees, Denise called me one day to talk about some changes. There were some things that they thought might not look quite right trying to replicate a really old style tree to fit on a more modern horse. They had some ideas as to how to fix this problem and wanted to make sure I was okay with the changes. Having that communication going encourages me that this project is going to turn out really well. It was fun talking to Denise too. We've known each other for a couple years through the forum on Leatherworker.net, but this was the first time we've actually talked, and we talked about a lot of things. Rod and Denise are going to have a booth this year at the Rocky Mountain Leather Trade Show in Sheridan. I wont be able to make the show this year because Jake is graduating from high school that weekend, but I hope some time in the future I get the chance to meet them in person. Check out their website, rodnikkel.com .

And while I'm plugging websites, check out my friend Kate Dubiel's new business website, Studio 2-Dawgs. Kate's website design business is a year old now (but her experience is a lot longer than that!), and she's finally had time to get her own website up and running.

Okay, time to go see how the bear is doing. Happy Easter everyone!