Success!

I've been delving into braiding recently (my inspiration is Susan Bensema Young: http://pages.prodigy.net/sbytsii/tsii/). I've figured out how to do a Spanish Ring knot and a Pineapple knot from her book, The Guide to Making Model Horse Tack. However, I knew that if I really wanted to make braided tack, I'd have to learn how to interweave knots. Today, with the help of this site: http://khww.net/articles.php?article_id=34, I finally did!



This is made from dental floss and embroidery floss. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some of the thread SBY recommended soon, though.

For scale (you can see that it's not quite small enough for a model horse):



I'm not sure what went wrong with this side:



Still, I'm so excited! This is a huge breakthrough for me :)

Workspace Organization

I haven't posted much lately because I've been busy with exams and haven't done a lot of tack making. I have, however, done some organizing. My workbench was becoming unpleasant to work at because it was cluttered with so much stuff:

I just realized how horrendous these photos are. Sorry about that!

Now my desk looks like this:

Better, right?

On the weekend, I made a stop at Michael's to pick up some supplies. A snazzy organizer:

And some tools and materials:

-Round-nosed pliers (the packaging said "sparkle pliers". I had no idea why until I opened it--the handles are purple with blue sparkles!)
-Green wire snips (hopefully they'll work well for cutting buckles apart as well)
-Ergonomic exacto knife for skiving
-Thin wire for buckle tongues
-Sticky wax
-Pencil punch (alright, I found this in a drawer and just mangled it until it submitted to my will)
-Jewel-It and Tacky Glue
-a giant mallet that I found in the garage ;)

Now that my workspace is organized, it should be much nicer to work on tack! Here's what I've been slowly picking away at while my desk was out of commission:

Cross-stitching is very relaxing :)

Hungarian Heritage Bridle?

This is something that's been bugging me for some time now. Has anyone in the hobby figured out how to do the knotted browband attachment and hanging side decorations on this type of Hungarian bridle?

More pictures can be found here on The Baroque Horse Store site: http://www.usfriesianreferral.com/tack.html.

This site has more of this type of bridle: http://www.barokshop.com/contents/en-uk/d10_Hongaarse_hoofdstellen_hungarian_bridle.html

I really like the look of this and think it would be fantastic in model scale. I'm stumped as to how to do it though! As far as I can tell, it's made by braiding strips of fine leather lace together. I counted 6 to 8 lace ends on one "rope". Strange.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

New BCS Halter

A while back, I won a halter in Jennifer Buxton's blog raffle. Here it is on Cadence:




Thank you Jennifer!

Is it not gorgeous? And with that eyecandy, I bid you goodnight!

3rd Time's a Charm

...or not.

Here's my latest bridle (click on picture to see all of it):







I got my RR order the other day and promptly set about making a bridle. Unfortunately, the cheek buckles are still too low . Hopefully the cheek straps are in the right place now, though--I think the browband is too long as well . And I skived some of the straps far too thin on this bridle. I don't think I'll be making another bridle till I get some pencil punches, gum trangacanth, and thin wire for the 1/16" buckle tongues. I also split the crownpiece too far up! Crud.

Anyway, feel free to critique!

The Shelf Herd comic series

I've started a new one-panel comic series about the model horse hobby in general. It's been suggested I post it on my blog, so here goes. I know it's not the best quality, but hopefully they still provide some enjoyment :)

After the first comic, I came up with a name:

Have a suggestion for a comic? Shoot me an email: regrvale@gmail.com

I can see clearly now...

...the rain is gone
I can see all the obstacles in my way...

And boy are there a lot of them.

I finally received Susan Bensema Young's Guide to Making Model Horse Tack, nearly 4 weeks after she shipped it out. Not only did I have to wait a long time, I also had pay a customs fee on top of the $20.00 it took to ship it here. Not her fault, of course. Sometimes I just wish I lived in the States.

Anyway, her book is wonderful! All of those little things that it would have taken me years to figure out are right there to help me. It has lots of great diagrams and advice--I'm just itching to try my hand at carving a western saddle! Some of the techniques are a little less refined than we're used to seeing now (it was written twelve years ago, after all), but it's still a great starting point. If you're thinking of making your own tack, I would definitely recommend this book. It will save you a lot of frustration!

My problem is, I want to be really good really fast! Hence the obstacles song ;). I guess I'll just have to master tackmaking one aspect at a time.

My swap horse is unfortunately not finished yet. I feel really bad about that. Next year I won't do any resculpting, just painting. Hopefully then I'll get it to my partner by Halloween. Shauna sent me an adorable sm named 'Donwanna'. She's a black appy mare with her ears pinned back and a very stubborn expression on her face ;) She also sent me chocolate and awesome chocolatey-smelling soap :D

Here's Ellie so far:

Still working on her off side blue eye (it's harder than it looks!):

And a close up of the medallion:

I do have a photo tent, but I am just a lazy bum so I didn't bother to get it out. Here's my handy-dandy wainscoting backdrop:

It's just the right width for a stablemate!

I also managed to finally make a rope halter with a fiador knot. Unfortunately, you can't see it in this picture. But it is there! That braid on the right will be the lead rope--it's a four strand spiral made out of embroidery floss.

I'm still trying to figure out where to get the rope that Rebecca Dunne uses here: http://www.freewebs.com/griffyndoonropesaustralia/. Aren't the halters she makes bee-yoo-ti-ful? I can still remember when she made her first rope halter...ah, I feel old. But seriously, if anyone has any suggestions I'll be glad to hear them!

I'll leave you with a picture of the double rainbow we had a few days ago:

Cheers!