Might as well show this guy off

Awhile back I posted the in-progress photos of a Breyer Foxhound who was slowly being transformed into a field-type Pointer. He actually sold a couple of months ago but I never did post the completed photos. So here he is, better late than never:



I did all the resculpting, his left foreleg and right hind below the hock are built up completely from scratch. I also made the leather collar with nameplate and the orange "visibility" collar. My sister Meredith painted him.



A comparison photo with an original Foxhound model(sorry about the text, this was an eBay photo):



I was rather proud of this guy, I liked having the chance to do a little customizing of my own. I'm not much into painting(that's my sister's hobby) but sculpting is a lot of fun.

Until next time!

November 17 update

I've gotten back in to slit-braiding leather lately, here are two new pieces featuring this technique. First up is a custom order bridle for a Lareda resin that my sister is painting. The bit is a RDLC white bronze flower concho bit.



And second is a braided stock halter, made for large head Traditionals such as the Stone Palouse mold, and Lori Daniel's "Chip" resin:





I used a different technique for braiding both ends of the straps(barring the crown, chin, and jaw straps):

1. Once I had one end braided, it made that end too big to thread through the slits on the other end;
2. So I braided one end, left that strap long;
3. then braided the other end and skived it paper thin and snipped off most of the strap;
4. I then trimmed the longer piece to a point(dry-fitting the strap on the model to make sure it was the right length first);
5. then glued the end of the long strap so the point was flush with the braid on the other end(which forms a point itself).
   
6. Voila! A strap that looks like it had two braided ends!
   

This halter is currently for sale on MH$P.

The Chip resin by Lori Daniels is a new addition to my collection, and is a trade I'm doing for a Hungarian pairs harness. More on that in future entries, though. :) This fellow's name is "Heza Confidence Man" (which is a nod to my new TV show obsession "Lost". XD ):



Many thanks to C. Roberston for making this addition to my collection possible. He's been a Grail of mine for years and I am beyond thrilled to have him. He'll be painted by my sister eventually(who's equally happy to have the chance to have one of these good lookin' fellows in her portfolio!), I'm thinking blue roan with corn spotting, my favorite horse color.

Until next time!

Small July 7th update

My newest herd members wearing my newest tack creations:



The mare is "Khepri", and the foal is "Khisanth", their names following my personal habit of giving any Sucesion and Le Fire sets I own names that start with the same first two letters.



The foal's halter is patterned after real figure-eight style halters that breeders use on newborns and younger foals. It comes complete with a "catch strap" hanging from the bottom ring(attached using a leather braiding technique outlined in Susan B-Y's book, always handy to learn something new!)



The mare's halter and lead(not shown) uses the last of a 50 foot roll of 3/32 natural kangaroo lace that I bought many, many years ago. Nothing new about the design here, though I am very pleased with the color I got, this shade of mahogany being my very favorite.

Hope everyone had a safe 4th of July weekend!

June 30th 2008 update

It's been awhile! Here are some of my most recent projects:

A Classic scale circus costume, made for the Breyer Classic Rearing Stallion(shown here on "Wild Plum", a 2007 Target Special Run). It has brass hardware, the diamonds and stars are brads normally used in scrapbooking. They make excellent small scale tack embelishments, I also use them on harnesses. Won second place in Other Costume at American Heartland Live in May, sold on eBay:



A custom order Traditional English set, made for Breyer's Keltec Salinero:



A closeup of the saddle:



Two more custom order English saddles, both for Flash and other small Traditionals. The first was for customer wanting a complete set with bridle and elastic breastplate, the second customer only wanted the saddle. The second saddle has suede kneerolls.:





A brown hunt bridle with cast Rio Rondo snaffle bit, made for the Cleveland Bay. This is the first time I've made cuts in the noseband for the cavesson straps, I think this looks much neater than just folding the straps over the noseband.



And something new for the line, dog accessories! Right now while only the collars are advertised, harnesses and leads can be ordered.

A "roading" harness, used in gun dog field trials by competitors and their dogs following the lead braces until their turn to hunt comes up(the handler uses a 20-30 foot rope lead). The yellow "visibilty" collar is 1/8" satin ribbon. A better photo of the leather collar can be seen below.



Two leather collars fashioned after the type of collar worn by hunting dogs. The nameplate mounted flat on the leather and the roll ring prevent catching on underbrush. Here the "nameplates" are both a metal spacer bar mounted using headpins. Very realistic! The blue collar has the addition of "studs"(also headpins!), which was a custom ordered extra to match the customer's real dog's collar.




And last but certainly not least, a sneak peek of a collabarative piece. Remaking and sculpting by me, and will be painted by my sister. And you can bet he will come with plenty of miniature field dog hunting trials equipment...



Until next time! :)

Classic scale English set

A custom order jump set with breastplate, stud girth, and grakle noseband bridle. All for a buyer in Australia, to fit a Gammon resin(a Classic scale jumper by Lynn Fraley). I don't have this model so I had to go on measurements(big thank you to the person who was willing to measure hers for me!).





Up next is an eBay piece, a silver stock show halter with red crystals, fitted to Breyer's Impress Me Shannon/Zippo Pine Bar mold.

Speaking of eBay, my Wintersong/Cleveland Bay harness sold for $237. Thank you so much to all who bid! Another harness will be up later this month!

Yes, I'm still alive.

And here's what I've been working on lately! Most of it is CM orders or sales pieces that have been sold, the Cleveland Bay harness is for sale on eBay until April 27th(click on the photo to see the auction)

Trying out a simpler style with the crystal browbands(no lace border):

Light/gaited halter, built for Breyer's "Bluegrass Bandit" TWH mold, "palace green" colored crystals, sold on MH$P:

Light/gaited foal halter made on Breyer's Proud Arab Foal mold(modelled here on "Mistmaiden", an original finish #9 "Joy" made in the late 1950's/early 60's), aquamarine colored crystals, sold on eBay to the same person who bought the previous piece:


Harness:
I tweaked the Wintersong harness so it fit Breyer's Cleveland Bay. It can still fit Wintersong with some adjusting, and I'm including a longer browband and noseband that can be switched out(click on the photo to go to the auction):

A pair of bareback riding sets with bitless bridles:

Custom order with "palace green" crystal browband, mahogany lace, braided floss reins, and white fleece pad:



Another one for Bluegrass Bandit, a medium blue and dark brown set with gold tone hardware. I went with leather reins that buckle onto the bridle rings, instead of the usual lanyard hooks, and I used DMC floss in four strand flat braid on the browband. Sold on MH$P and now living in Australia:


That's it for now, stay tuned for more CM orders and sales pieces! I'll be working on some setups for the upcoming American Heartland Live show on May 17th, I'll be posting a few sneak peeks.

Smallish update

The Wintersong harness and Cleveland Bay halter will be going up on eBay tonight, along with a few other items. :) Stay tuned to my eBay page, they'll go up between 7 and 7:30 Central:

A long overdue update...

Here are some new items for your viewing pleasure:

A couple of fancy barn halters, one for Wintersong(sold) and one for the Cleveland Bay model( for sale on eBay. :)-



The Wintersong halter has the floss stitched into the lace, while the CB halter has a four strand flat braid glued on top of paper thin skived lace. Both methods produce a lovely result, I think!

And next up is the harness previewed in the previous post, now complete:



This harness uses Susan Bensema Young's patterns, as well as elements borrowed from harnesses shown in my Smucker's catalog. The browband has a six strand half round braid using red and green floss.




I've had some nice white leather lace lying around for awhile now, I was originally thinking about making a Draft show bridle, but I thought it would make for some nice bell straps instead. Since Wintersong's thick mane doesn't really allow for well-fitting collar bells, I took the opportunity to try some new bell straps in the form of chest drop bells(used the same way as a false martingale), and body bells:



Note the crupper: it had to be a false one whose straps are sticky waxed in place at the base of the tail, since a good length of his tail is attached to his butt. Non functioning buckles were added for a more realistic look.

This set is for sale on MH$P, click on the hyperlink to go to the sale page.

That's all for now, next time: some custom orders I've been working on. Until then! :)

Week of 2/22/08

Here's a little preview of a harness for Breyer's Wintersong mold...





More photos to come soon.

Bells, bells, bells...

New for this week isa pair of bell collars. While I was working on another project I draped them over a St Bernard figurine on my dresser, and I thought it looked cute, so...


Neither of these are for sale, the blue set is a live show donation, the mahogany set is for a German customer's Babette resin. The white hanger is an expiriment inspired by a friend's new interest in dollhouse miniatures and the sleigh bell door hangers I found in my Smucker's catalog. I've also got a blue and a red one in progress.



The door hangers will be up on eBay this weekend.

Also, the Flash bridle from the previous post is now on eBay. I have plenty of other items up currently, click on my eBay store to go see them!

Until next time! :)

New stuff February 4th, 2008

A new Swarovski crystal bridle, made for Breyer's "Flash" mold:



I went with alternating colors for the crystals, I think red and gold make a lovely combination. Definitely using this combo again on future projects! I also used a simple jump ring with bead mouthpiece bit, the bead is crimped in place over the ends on the jump rings.

Currently for sale on MH$P, click on the photo to go to that page.

Week of January 29th

A few new projects, first up is the previously mentioned pink and white braided Lady Phase halter, now on eBay:




Next is a custom order for Kristi S., she wanted a braided halter for her Breyer Classic Duchess in a buckskin colorway, and gave me free rein as far as color. I chose electric blue with mahogany lace and silver hardware, and I love the result:




And last but certainly not least is a Weymouth bridle for the Breyer Keltec Salinero mold, a custom order for Jennifer A. She wanted a bridle like the one featured on my bridles pricelist, but with light blue crystals instead of light pink:




I am very pleased with the way it turned out, and because of this order I've found a new source for Swarovski crystals! She sells just about every color under the sun, and her prices are much better than Hobby Lobby's.

If you're interested in ordering a bridle or a halter like the ones pictured, you can click on any of the images above to go to the pricelists.

In the works is another braided halter, as well as a silver stock breed show halter with red Swarovski crystal embellishments!

Stay tuned!

More braided projects

This time it's a halter for the Stone Ideal Stock Horse(click on the image to go to the auction):

(EDIT: it's been sold, now the link will lead to the pricelist on my MH$P page)



This is four strand flat braid again with four strand round on the throat and lead. I went with whiskey(love this color!) leather join straps as well, which adds a nice contrast.

I'm also taking custom orders for these, go to my MH$P page for prices.

In the works is a pink and white halter with gold hardware for the Lady Phase mold, and an electric blue halter with silver/chrome hardware(mold undecided, probably the ISH as well). Pics to come soon!

Week of January 13th, 2008

Taking a break from crystals and leather bridles this weekend, I decided to experiment with some of the braiding methods shown in Susan Bensema-Young's book that I hand't tried yet. This bridle has a "half round six" braid for the crownpiece and the browband, with the ends of the crownpiece done in two three-strand braids:



The noseband is four strand flat braid with another three-strand braid on top for the nose rings. The four strand flat, I've found, is no more difficult than the round version; and while the half round six is a bit more frustrating and complicated, it is much more forgiving and it's easier to correct mistakes. So you will be seeing more braided bridles in the future.

This bridle is available for sale on eBay with a matching bareback pad, you can go there by clicking on the photo below:



Here is another bridle done this weekend, this one was done on the spur of the moment as a matching piece for a bareback pad I already have up for sale:



This one uses the four strand flat on the crown and bit pieces, and four strand round on the ear loop(all DMC floss). The reins are three-strand using black waxed linen thread and pink DMC floss.

You can see the eBay auctions for the pad and bridle by clicking on the photo below(link will take you to my eBay store, these are seperate items):



That's all for this week, stay tuned for next time!

Week of January 6th, 2008

Last week was a good eBay week, with my "plain" barn halter selling as well as my Swarovski crystal foal halter(which is going to Australia!).

On to my latest projects! Since the peridot browband didn't sell I decided to go ahead and build a bridle with it. I was in the mood to do another bitless bridle for Wintersong, so I extended the ends a bit so it would fit the mold, and added some round stud spots. The reins are again braided DMC floss, this time I used the "straight colors" method. I think I like the look!

*EDIT 01/07/08 It has been sold! The link will now take you to the CM order pricelist for these, in case you were wanting one and missed out!*



I also finished another custom order, a dark brown Western Pleasure show bridle for the Zippo Pine Bar mold(shown here on "Wanderer", an "Impress Me Shannon" #1166 issue):



The bit is a RDLC "Texas Star" sterling silver bit, buckles are Rio Rondo, and the beads are from Hobby Lobby.

Stay tuned for next time!