And Now for Something Completely Different

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My mentor and very good friend, Cash Cooper, calls me one day with his feet kicked back in the California sand and says "Hey I've got a project I want you to be a part of.  I'm gonna take a side of leather and cut it up like a giant puzzle, then I'm sending the pieces to different toolers I know and let each of them tool one.  I'll get them all back and put the puzzle back together and put it in my shop as a showpiece."  Of course I jump on the prospect because I have seen some of the work that these other guys can do and it would be great to have my stuff displayed beside them.  So the end result of all of this is the top picture.  I'm waiting for a complete picture from Cash of the puzzle reassembled.  Word is that he entered it in a leather trade show out in Ventura, CA and won 1st place. 

A little later I was talking to Sam Cortina, from Kings X leather in Round Rock.  He is a member of the leather guild in Austin and we get to talking and they are doing what they called a quilt.  Same concept as the puzzle and, when finished, it will be displayed in the Tandy Leather store in Austin.  He invited me to also be a part of theirs.  What I came up with on that one is in the bottom picture.

I'm blessed to have these contacts plus the many other folks I've met through the leather trade.  There are a lot of good people out there beating on dead cows.  That sounds a lot more violent that "tooling leather", I guess we better stick with "tooling" so PETA doesn't get upset.  I've got some fully tooled spur straps on the bench right now waiting for oil and finish.  Hopefully I will get a spur strap column  up by next week.  Take care, RW