Lunging Set!

Weee! The lunging set is done!

The 6-year-old child in me is jumping around and around in excitement. Squeeeeee! 

 It fits GG Valentine nicely! I was building it on my Strapless, but her old broken leg re-broke when I was fitting the surcingle.

Poor Strapless. Her leg broke about four years ago when I was packing up my things to move. I glued it back together, but it wasn't a great repair. I knew the day was coming when that seam would give out. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to customize her a little, and give her a new paint job! She is currently in a leg cast so she doesn't fall over on my shelf.

But oh! I'm in love with this set, especially those little rubber donuts! They stretch just like the real thing!

I'm also in love with these nose pieces! I really should get a more metallic paint, or maybe some metal leaf, but I think the concept is great! I can't wait to get a better mold made and some even nicer pieces cast!

Quickie Girth

I knew I would be busy today, but I really, really wanted to get on with this lunging set, so I coughed up the girth for the lunging surcingle this morning.

If I can power through the rest of my schoolwork today, I just might finish the top half of the surcingle, too!

Almost Wordless... Monday?

I didn't manage to get any tack into a photograph-able state today, so, instead, here's a silly picture of Par!

I love my ridiculous horse :)

Busy Saturday

This weekend has been busy! In addition to writing my whole term paper for my Russian class, I skived and dyed lots of leather (and most of my fingers!), and finished the bit-end half of a pair of side reins. Of course, the only photogenic thing I did today was the (half) side reins!

I'm hoping that the surcingle and last half of the side reins will come together tomorrow, if I have time. I'm also hoping to rework the lunging cavesson nosepiece mold to make casting faster, cleaner, and more efficient. My scale doesn't measure drops very well, so I get better results with my casting resin if I can mix up a slightly larger batch. This means making a larger mold that will cast a few nosepiece sets at once. Looks like the rest of the weekend will be as busy as the first half!

Postal Scare

I put this saddle in the mail last week, with approximately a pound of bubble wrap and entirely too much duct tape. I thought it would be safe from anything: floods, truck crashes, careless handling.

Yesterday, however, it seemed that the post office had lost it in the mail. It was days late and the tracking information indicated that it had vanished from the face of the earth. Lost! The one thing I couldn't truly protect it against! My one consolation was that I had insured it for its purchase price, just in case. Fortunately, the post office found it this morning and it is now safely on its way to its new owner!

 This was a happy-ending reminder to always insure artwork, or anything valuable, in the mail. Anything can happen, and although it won't replace all the time, effort, and care that went in to making something, it at least will help ease the loss and allow you to make another piece for your customer. 

Hopefully it arrives safe and sound, and hopefully it didn't have to endure any floods, truck crashes, or careless handling!

Monograms, Oh, Monograms

I didn't have a lot of time today to finish up that lunging cavesson, so, instead, I thought I'd try something smaller. Monograms! I think monograms could look great on model tack, but wow, monograms are hard to do in 1/9 scale! Paint tends to bleed, and I'm not yet patient or skilled enough to actually embroider them! I had an idea I thought would work, so I whipped up a batch, printed them, and tried them on various items.

They were alright on standing wraps, although they only show up on white fabric. I'm very partial to navy standing wraps, so I still have to think about how to solve that problem! Also, I promise that my real-life leg-wrapping skills are better than my model-wrapping ones!

They were pretty adorable on polos, although, again, I had to stick with white. I do love white polo wraps, however! The texture of the paper worked best on the velcro tab, as opposed to on the flannel itself.

The monograms worked best on the saddle pad. My Microsoft Word skills are more obviously lacking here (I know I can arrange those letters more neatly!), but the paper meshes with the fabric nicely in this context. I think it was a good start along the road to scale monograms! Of course, now I have even more ideas to try... and, fortunately, only one of them involves actual embroidery!

The Casting Adventures Continue

It wasn't easy, but I finally got a set of five teeny tiny pieces casted.

Aren't they so cute? Of course, I was too excited to leave them in their natal form for very long, so on went a few coats of gold enamel.

After stripping off the old nosepiece, I put the lunging cavesson back together (this time with a throatlatch, bit hanger, and proper keepers!)

I love it! It is not perfect, but I am so happy with the improvement. I am also excited that this casting adventure went more smoothly than the last one! At this rate, I'll be a casting pro in about... twenty to thirty years! ;)

And, of course, I was too excited to wait for daylight for good pictures, so a dimly-lit photo shoot promptly followed. There is still more to finish: black edges on the leather, a final coat of gloss on the nosepieces, and some fitting adjustments on the throat, however, I'm very proud of how it turned out already! Hooray for perseverance!