Radio Silence...

...will end soon, I promise. It's been a wierd week. I haven't even seen Bucky since, I dunno. It's not like they really need me around every day irrating them.

I haven't had much time to do anything in the studio this week. I got roped into working for my trainer this week. And it was sooo hot again. urgh. Like sweating standing still hot. Got to see a nice "rope flick-er" guy work on a "problem" horse. Yup, still not sold at all on that crap, glad it wasn't *my* money being wasted on her. The best thing I could say about it is that the guy has his own line of bull pucky, and isn't a full on Parellibot. But it was all about rope snapping alright. I got sick of seeing her tossing her head up. I bet that made her back nice and sore and got her plenty confused.

I should have some photos from the Sussex County Horse Show on Sunday. The "plan" is to go for the Grand Prix on Saturday night. Two caveats there. One, my camera sucks and it's a "night class". Ya know, those night classes are a major PITA when you've been at that darn show since before 5am. Second, I may just go home after PM feed. There is NO quick way to Sussex Co Fairgrounds, even if you LIVE in Sussex County. It's like a "you can't get there from here" joke. I have bagged the "plan" in the past; when already tired from the day's activities and then faced with an hour and a half drive to Augusta. One way. Yup, I'm a wimp sometimes.

I can't write a post without a photo.... Here's my Riesling at NAN last month! Squeee, a cookie!

Meet Bucky

Well, if you read MH Blab, you might know that my SO's Standardbred mare, Princess, had an "unauthorized" encounter with a palomino QH colt. It's a long story, and let's just say that one should never underestimate a motivated colt. Especially if your mare is a bit of a hussy to start with. There was a gate involved and it did not survive.

While we were all dreaming of SR ticket lines and the Ninja Pit of Death Sale, she had her foal. It's a colt, and my unimaginative man has named him Bucky.

Apparently Palomino + Bay = Buttermilk Buckskin. I totally did NOT see that one coming. I figured on a chestnut filly with a big blaze and 4 white feet, because that's the kind of thing kharma likes to do to me. (sometimes I think I may have been an axe murderer in a past life and that this life is the payback)

Yeah, he's pretty darn cute. He's not too keen on that halter since it's got that grab strap on it. Much easier for me to catch the little bugger!

Ooh, that's better!

Back to that brass clincher browband.

I never did like that first attempt, but I was at a loss for a different thing to try.

I stopped at the Mal-Wart closest to the barn to "drop off photos" and get some Corn Chex and cat food. Hungry barn kittens where out!

Since they are in the middle of a major store remodel, I took a stroll. Mostly to figure out where they stashed the crafts and fabric section, which apparently they have gutted and butchered to a mere shadow of the original. Lemme tell ya, it already sucked, now it's worse. The ENTIRE selection of yard goods has disappeared with pre-cut, pre-packaged fabric in it's place. Great. With the Rag Shop gone, I'm left with the tinsy selection at the Washington One Stop in Warren County, or Joanne's which isn't close at all.

But I digress. The beading stuff caught my eye; I've got a high ferret factor for shiney things! Then it hit me. Crimp beads. These are plain 'ole crimp beads squished with smooth jaw pliers. I then strung them on heavy thread and sewed the whole string to skiver, as well as glued them down so they stayed in line. A channel was then cut in another strip of skiver and glued over top, just like how I do crystal browbands. Trim down and poof, problem solved. Damn if it don't look real.

Final Countdown

This is it. This is the saddle line up for NAN, and now I'm finishing up the bridles too. Some of my horses already had bridles, others have been sold off. And I'm short on a couple pairs of boots as well. And probably a reference card or two.

Hell no am I ready for next week. Good thing that AR/CM performance goes first, I'll likely be putting stirrups on saddles IN the show hall.

But all these saddles are for sale immediately after the performance divisions at NAN. Better photos and prices, etc. will be posted on MH$P before we climb in the van and head to KY.

VERY far behind, so much more to do. Not just tack and stuff, but getting the "kids" in order too. Between horses, cats and the dog...

Back on track

Tell ya what, it feels great to be back in a groove. Getting those 2 saddles banged out got me out of that rut.

I like to try new things. Some are just utter FAILures. Then once in a while, I hit on something that *really* works.

There is a style of double bridle that uses a single buckle at the crown to adjust the curb bit. There are no buckles for that bit, only for the bradoon, cavesson and of course the throatlatch. I decided to give it a whirl for a bridle for myself for NAN.

><>As I mulled the general concept, I realized this was a way to simplify putting a bridle on a model. In full scale, it goes on exactly the same way as a bridle without the buckle at the crown. But for this one, I took it a step further and "fixed" the straps for the cavesson and the bradoon to the crown piece. The end result is that the bridle can be taken on and off with that crown buckle and that's all! Once it's on, just wax the bits in place and DONE.

Here it is laid out on the bench, crown open. Yes, this does mean that a bridle like this is going to fit a limited number of heads, perhaps even only one model. But the reduction in wear and tear on the leather and my precious sanity, that's worth it!!

The only mistake I made is that the buckle on my references goes the other way. Small matter.

I tried to get a link for the reference, but the Euro-American Saddlery website is not likeing me tonight. The Passier "Rome" double bridle is the inspiration. http://www.eurosaddlery.com/

AAAAAHHHHHH!!

The event set refuses to be finished.

I've messed up the saddle twice now. TWO TIMES I've had to re-do something. First it was the seat. After the glue dried I looked at it closely and realized the cantle was twisted. It's pretty easy to do because I "eyeball it" with this tree. Proof that I should make a resin tree of my own. In that pic, you can clearly see the crooked cantle. I peeled it off the tree and thought it was funny that it held it's shape so well afterwards.

Then it was FINISHED. Really. A fully complete saddle, save one thing. The keepers for the stirrup leathers don't have placement marks on most of my patterns. Sheer laziness that I haven't dealt with that. I usually decide on the placement *after* the thing is finished and I'm putting on the stirrups. It's akward to do it then... So, I'm cutting the slots to pass the keepers thru to the back of the flap, and I cut one side BACKWARDS. If it wasn't so embarassing, I'd take a photo.

I had to rip apart a completed saddle for ONE small but unfixable mistake. 99% of it came apart neatly, only one piece was hopelesly destroyed, but I expected that. The knee pads and the front piping came off as a unit which was fun to do. The flaps have been cut out and dyed again. I just hope I can get this all finished and MOVE ON.

I did move to another project in the mean time. I have to get my mojo back, I've got to make tack for myself for NAN. I tried a novel idea, tag teaming two saddles at once. It's working out rather well, assembling 2 at once. They are the same saddle in different sizes. I've worked each one out to the same stage, sealed them and then move on to a different set of parts. One is a little ahead of the other after last night. It was getting late and I stopped before I screwed something else up.

A question of scale.

Is it in scale? A simple but so very subjective question. And I mull that very question tonight.

I'm leaning towards NO. I'm making an eventing set. The customer has a specific look in mind, and while flexible, really wants that look replicated.

The bridle is supposed to have a "clincher" browband. I got 3mm "matte gold" squares from TWMHC. They just don't look right to me on a browband for a pony. (this is Flash) Maybe on a larger horse? Or one of those "oversized" models? Clinchers should have a bit of leather peeping out above and below, but I trimmed it to the size of the brass. Any wider and it really would have looked stupid.

Oh, my hat is off to the tack makers who use these blasted things all the time. I don't even have 10 of them on there and it too freekin forever to get them on the leather, lined up, an not glued to ME instead. Nobody has to worry about taking ANY of thier costume making business, EVER. GAH!

URGH. I really need this set to be DONE. I've got to get myself ready for NAN and I'm running behind on that in a big way.

Too darn hot

Title says it all. It was pretty bad today, tomorrow will be much worse. Ohh, and I get to go to a horse show and nanny my trainer's Irish horses. In the sun.

I've been stuck without my *own* car for a while now. I've actually had to drive around my mom's conversion camper van. It gets 6 gas stations per mile and on the highway it sways like a galleon on the high seas. It's quite ridiculous to drive this thing around every day! Today I abandoned all remaining pride and plugged her into the barn's power supply and turned on the big AC unit. On HIGH. If I got too hot, I just plopped my behind down in the van and read The Chronicle of the Horse for a bit. Won't have that luxury at Monmouth tomorrow!

No pix of the Irish horses yet, I've only seen them in person once since they got out of quarantine. So here's Kim on Casey (Atlantis) instead. Casey was Zone 2 Champion for 2009 in the Second Year Green Working Hunters. I've told his owners that if he ever goes missing they should just look in my barn first.

Wiederholen Sie, bitte.

Begin again please, or repeat please, in German. I heard that alot in 8th grade German class. I liked that teacher, but man, he did like to have us repeat stuff until we got it right. And wiederholen we did. He was also the club advisor forthe D&D club. Yeah, he was nerd-cool.


Begin again. This is the mantra of pattern making, even if you are simply reworking an existing pattern.
For the NAN sidesaddle, I wanted to do a bunch of things, some just different and others need to be better. One portion of the pattern that has been bugging me is the tail end of the near side flap. Never laid the way I wanted and doesn't 100% reflect the various references I have. So, wiederholen. Paper patterns are great, but in some places, you have to use leather, which will mean waste. I hate wasting leather but paper won't always lay the way you need it to.


The brown piece at the top is the original pattern. See the curve to the tail-like portion? I took a paper pattern, judged where the curve needed to stop and go straight, and made two intersecting lines to carry the pattern along in the new direction. The first undyed piece is the result. Close but still wonky. And now I'm not likeing where the flap/safe curves around the leaping head. grrrr.


The second piece is better. I fixed the wonky tail. I filled in that curve on the safe. Not bad. I got smart and use very flawed leather to cut out that piece, so I had to copy/cut another one to actually *use.*


Wiederholen. I cut a new piece out of a lovely new hide I bought at the beginning of the month. I start to cut the slot for the fixed head and the stirrup area. Then I notice the obscenely large flaw in the leather, smack in the middle of the flap. Crap. Useless. Completely useless.

Yup, one more time. The dyed piece at the bottom is the one that is actually on the finished saddle. Took 5 hours to get there. The off side flap went thru a similiar process, but it wasn't such a saga. I think I only had to cut it out twice to get that one right.

About "my" patterns

Two semi related topics today. Would be messy for one post alone.

Yes, I do use, in part, Kerioke patterns for saddle making. Carrie Olguin is a master pattern maker. I am not. I'm pretty good at re-shaping her patterns to suit new styles and various desires. I'm more than happy to pay Carrie for her time in creating patterns I can then further manipulate.

On the left is my notebook of patterns in sheet protectors, on the right is a copy of Carrie's 4 sidesaddle patterns. Typically, I will sell off a book once I've more or less mastered a pattern, but this will be staying for a while. I have yet to attack the western patterns. May never happen as I still don't know how to tool leather!

Carrie's method of pattern transfer is simple and very effective. Copy a pattern to paper, rub a glue stick to the reverse, then apply the pattern to the flesh side of the leather. I like using the 3M brand "restickable" glue stick. Easy to pull the paper off, even days later! This method allows for easy "scaling" of the pattern to the various scales of models.

This is a pic of a page of Carrie's originals (left) and my altered pieces. I actually need to do some work on my pages, I've changed a few more things that I actually have to hand draw every time. Most of the significant alterations are to the saddle flaps.

Next, all about the alterations!

The Road to Hell.

Hmmm. Yeah. The plan was to finally use this thing. A nice post about my NAN Auction donation.

I wanted to also do work on another project with a hard deadline; letting the sealer dry while I type. Whilst searching the drawers for a q-tip, I knocked my ENTIRE tool carousel on the floor. Crap every where. I should have taken a pic before I picked up everything, but all that stuff next to it belongs IN it. I'm so happy I saw the two exacto blades in the carpet before any curious cats came to investigate. The little one, Gidget, is already obsessed with the drawers, so much so I have to bungie them shut with rubber bands when I'm not home.

This is Gidget. Supervising. It is rather hard to work with a cat perched on your knee. And that IS her happy face.

BTW, if you don't have one of these carousel things, you NEED it. Really. I don't care if you just make a couple of things here and there, you NEED it. They are a little pricey ($40+) but if you have a Michael's or an AC Moore near you, just use a 50% coupon. The coupon makes it downright affordable. This one is from "Making Memories". Even if you don't "scrap", the scrapbooking aisle is a fab place to find storage and organizing stuff. Hmm. There's a future post right there!

So, I'm going to clean up the rest of the mess while the sealer dries. In the mean time, the "official" pics are on my website. http://www.opengatefarm.biz/