There will be an auction at Top Hat Leather, 1150 West 26th
Street, Erie, PA, on Saturday, October 15th at 10:00 AM.
I dont know how many of you knew and/or remember Ed Isrealson, a former
member of the Pitt Pounders, who unexpectedly died of a heart attack almost two
years ago. He was a good friend of Jeff Carns, and Jeff would often give lessons
and do work for Ed. It was Jeff who let me know about the auction. So look else
on the last page of this newsletter for a listing of some of what will be
auctioned off, and if there are things you would be interested in, plan now to
make that trip! I do believe that Carol, Eds wife, and their children can use
the proceeds from this auction.
And if you do make it
to the auction, make sure you bring your purchases (if possible) with you on
Sunday the 16th, to our meeting so you can show everyone and tell us
how you beat out the competition to claim your prize. Thats right, our regular
monthly meeting is the very next day. So it may be a full leather weekend, and
some traveling, for some of us.
Speaking of traveling,
we had another Ohioan join us at our last meeting. (Sorry Buckeyes, were much
closer than Columbus!) Chris Brown, who is new to leatherworking, came by to
check us out. He brought with him a billfold that his grandfather had made.
What a beautiful piece! From the tooling to the hand cut interior, this was a
quality piece of craftsmanship. Its too bad that Chriss grandfather died when
Chris was only six years old.Chris, I
hope we didnt scare you off. We can carry on and get a little crazy at times,
but you can learn a lot from many of the people who regularly come to our
meetings. We sure hope to see you again!
One of those people we
can all learn a lot from is Terry Moore. Terry will continue teaching us all
how to make some really nice leather jewelry this month. (With a little help
from a Rene Berends DVD.) A few of us got real close to finishing our
bracelets, so we look forward to seeing how that is done before we jump into
the necklace and making gemstones from leather. Make sure you bring along all
of the supplies that you have, and if you dont have everything, it usually
works out that someone will have some extra for you to use. We will put a photo
of the finished bracelet in the news letter. It is very unusial.
If you did make it to
the meeting last month then you know that we will be co hosting the 2006
International Federation Of Leather Guilds Annual show at the Days Inn
Conference Center, Butler, PA. This location has served us well in the past for
our last few Jamborees, so we look forward to working with them again. Obviously
the IFOLG Show is a MUCH larger show than anything we have done so far. So
dont try to figure out how we are going to get everything into the banquet
hall that we have used in the past. This is the smaller of the two halls in the
hotel. And yes, we will be using them both, as well as a number of smaller
meeting rooms as classrooms.The cost
of the sleeping rooms is a bit less expensive too: $57 /double, $62 /king. All
in all, this should work very well for us.
One last note about the
show, if you were at the last meeting you saw the cornucopia centerpiece that
will be on each table at the awards ceremony. The goal is to have these filled
with 8 different leather items to be given away to those at each table. Kevin
showed us the 21 key rings that he has made so far for this project. If anyone
reading this is willing to make approximately 30 of any one item for the
centerpieces, please get in touch with Peggy Gabauer at 724-846-5602 or myself.
Your help is appreciated!
Because we took the
summer off, there were a number of things that got missed. For some folks, its
paying your dues. Without those constant reminders and being at the meeting to
give Joyce the money, some of us simply forgot. If you are one of those folks,
its $20/individual, $25/family. Make your check out to the Pitt Pounders
Leather Guild, and mail them to Joyce Wedge at PO Box 38, Evans City, PA 16033.
Thanks!
Another item would be elections. This being an odd year, we are looking
for nominees for the Vice President and Treasurer positions. And I would like
to nominate Kevin Cohn for the position of VP. I believe Kevin brings more than
just knowledge of leatherworking, he brings a desire to see this guild succeed.
He has shown that in his active participation in our past shows as well at each
meeting. He is also involved in a number of areas with our upcoming show.
Kevins a fun, knowledgeable guy, and he cares. I believe he will make a great
VP.
We
will take nominations for both positions at this meeting, (If you cant be
there, get in touch with me one way or another.) The nominees will be listed in
next months newsletter, and elections will be at the November meeting.
Lastly,
I dont want it to sound like we are an aging guild, but Id like to give
everyone a quick Health Update:Kevin
Cohn is back to work and is recovering well from his cancer surgery. Lois
Silvis is using a cane, but getting along fine after her hip replacement. Gary
Draper looked like a movie star with his wrap-around sunglasses at the meeting,
and is recovering well from his eyelid surgery. Bob Munger is out of the
hospital but hopefully doing well with some type of heart problems. And Paul
Burnett is cancer free for 12 months now! May you all continue along on your
road to recovery!! (Maybe we should have our monthly guild meetings at the
hospital ed)
If
I dont see you on the 15th in Erie, I hope to see you the 16th
in Zelienople.
Your Friend,
Christopher
.
October Meeting Project
This
month we will be finishing the bracelet we did last month by completing the
leather button and closure strap for the bracelet.To complete this you will need to bring a piece of lace about 8
long.It should be a minimum of 1/8
wide.If you have wider lace, that
would be better.You will also need something
to cut on, either an X-acto knife or scalpel, and a modeling tool with a
pointed stylus end.This should take
about 15 minutes to complete.
We
will also be starting the leather gem stone.We will not be able to complete this part of the project in one
meeting.It will take two meetings to
complete the gem stone and if anyone wants to make the necklace, it will take
another meeting to start the layout and preparation to completely finish the
entire necklace.
You will
need to bring the following to this months meeting to work on the gem
stone:
1.A hard surface you can pound on.
2.Scissors to cut leather.
3.Smooth faced steel hammer.
4.Modeling spoon which will be used to mold the leather.
5.Scratch awl or medium grit sandpaper.
6.White glue and a brush.
7.A sharp knife or scalpel which you can use to round the edges
of a couple pieces of leather.
8.A pen or pencil to trace a pattern onto leather.
You will also
need to bring leather to the meeting.You
will need one piece of leather which is 5/6 oz to use as a base piece of
leather.You will also need a stack of
leather pieces that are 3/4 oz or lighter to build the gem.The thin leather will give your gem more
lines which give the visual appeal.It
doesnt say in the DVD, but it appears you can use both veg tan and chrome
tanned leather.All the pieces should
be 2 x 3.When you stack the base
piece and the layers of thin leather, you should have a stack about ½
thick.This is a good way to use all
the leather remnants you have on hand.
TERRY
`
TOPHATLEATHERAUCTION
The auction being held onSAT.10/15/05 t 10:00am.
It will be at the TopHat Leather store:
1150
West 26th St. Erie, PA..
FROMPITTSBURGH,
ONEWAY;2HOURS,AND IS 125MILES
All
contents will be available for viewing about an hour before the auction.
