New photo backdrop

The view from the front porch at our house is just stunning, nothing but fields and forest all the way to the mountains 4 miles away. Unfortunately most of our yard is on a downhill slope so finding some level ground on which to set up a photo table was a chore. I finally found a good spot in the side yard and set up to take some sales photos as well as some new show photos. This setup works great for Traditionals, I'm still working on adjusting table and tripod heights for smaller scales.

Enjoy!

Christian taking Freckles Outlaw for a spin.

Really love how this one came out!

And Freckles after she ditched her rider and somehow 

wiggled out of her tack... she's rather exasperating that way

Cleopatra takes her invisible English rider out for a ride. I need more English dolls...

Cleo's halter shot.

 

Cleo's son Kharavanserai

Riddle gets a new halter photo after 11 years.  His gloss makes
photography pretty difficult, but the overcast conditions were
just right for keeping out those pesky glare spots.
I'm very pleased with how this came out. 

A few more:

September Shadows, a Colorado Rangerbred. 

Lady Charlotte, who shows well as a Standardbred.

Copper Chime, a QH mare and apparently the name of an Indian
cuisine restaurant in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

White feet are sometimes a problem with the camera exposure blowing them out. Reducing light intake on the camera helps but sometimes makes everything else too dark. I have a Photoshop lighting and layers trick that I use instead, which I will be sharing in a later post.

Oh, and the bridle and bareback set pictured are for sale on MH$P.

Until next time!

A couple more photos!

The set looked so good on Rachel Alexandra I had to get a couple of photos.


A big thank you to the set's new owner! I hope you enjoy it!

Silent Saturday!

No, not really.

Here's some in-progress photos of the Western saddle I've been working on. Those fenders kind of make it look like poor Katie's got a really, really impatient rider. ("training" fenders and skirts to lie flat is one of my least favorite parts of tackmaking)


After some trouble getting the fork assembly to stay glued on (finally fixed with Loc-Tite, I think it was the cold making the original glue brittle?), I devised a different method for securing the seat to the skirt. Susan Bensema-Young's method of using wire to secure her saddle pieces was the inspiration, but since I'm working with a resin tree, I borrowed my sister's Dremel.

I drilled four holes in the seat, with recessed grooves connecting each side, then four more behind the cantle. Then after some careful positioning, I poked the tailor's awl through the seat holes to mark the leather, then punched holes through. Then it was a matter of threading 32 gauge wire through the holes and pulling tight, and then twisting and and flattening the wire ends. (they're covered by the chamois and a bit of undyed skiver). The cantle was tied down using waxed thread. And here's the result:

The recessed grooves are so the wire doesn't stick up under the seat covering. I will probably have to file the wire down anyway (flattening it with the hammer made it less pliable).


(earlier photo) Another reason I went with wiring: the fenders are strung onto hammered aluminum rings sewn on to the skirts. I do this because you can rotate the fenders back to fiddle with the girth (not as far as this once the seat and jockeys are attached :p). I also had to hollow out the tree with a sanding drum to accommodate the extra bulk. I don't think glue would have worked with all this, or at least not well.

The girth on the left side is tied at the moment with a latigo knot, though once I've got the holder in place I'll thread it through that. I hope I can muster the courage to try making a woven string cinch and breastcollar for this set, but for now I just made a nice leather girth.

I also made some skiver "gloves" for the fender buckles to keep the tongues from scratching the model. I really want to try the mini Blevins buckles that TWMHC/ALE Ranch is selling. Really cool that someone has made them for the hobby!

And I'll leave you with another new herd member:

Red roan suits this mold nicely!

Sunday edition

First off, I discovered that the halter that I made for the Stone Weanling, also fits Breyer's Stormy. And I think it actually looks better on her. It is for sale on eBay.

Oh, and jsyk I can use ^ this backdrop ^, with some foreground adjusting, for everything from Trad size foals like Sandpiper up there, to Stablemates and Micro Minis like Aunt Pat and Cassidy here:


Too small for Trad adults, though.

I'm also attempting my third Rio Rondo Western saddle kit. How I love these things! After making the first two pretty much by the book, I decided to try out their alternate patterns. And I'm also dying them to a mahogany color, and the seat and stirrup treads will be sand colored suede. Still not quite ready to tackle tooling, though, so I just stuck with stitchmarking.

The skirt pattern I've chosen uses cinch rings instead of slots. In a DIY mood, I rummaged around in a box of supplies that I'd accumulated over the years, but hadn't used much, and turned up a spool of 18 gauge (or "guage" as its spelled on the packaging :D) aluminum wire.

Next I needed to hammer it flat. A jeweler's hammer and anvil would come in handy for this, but I don't own either of those. So two hammers from the toolkit would have to do, one to hammer, and one to take the place of the anvil:


Put some papers under the red hammer to pad the table (which is already a battered old thing, don't try this on a nice table!) and gently tapped away. It takes some doing to get even flattening, and I'm still getting the hang of it. But here you go:

Now I actually form the rings first, then hammer them. And I form them at the end of a fairly long piece of wire (longer than the examples here!) so I can safely hold them while hammering. I need flat wire, not flat fingers.

Here's the d-rings attached to the main skirt.



I've since redone the cinch straps so they're removable. This will be a ranch or trail saddle, nothing flashy but will have saddle strings and an extra D-ring on the pommel for a rifle scabbard. This was inspired by some of the real saddles at the Texas Ranger museum, which I blogged about in March.

That's all for now!

And so it started...

Going through some old photos from our childhood, I found one of a couple of funny-looking kids (aka my sister and me) getting their first Breyers for Christmas 1984 when they lived in Mackenbach, Germany.

The Base Exchange at Ramstein Air Base had three of them in stock, the Action Stock Foal in bay pinto, grey appaloosa, and sorrel. While Mom distracted us, Dad sneaked them up to the cashier and out to the car. Poor Mom and Dad, they just didn't know what they were starting...


Mine (on the right) was the grey appaloosa, and Meredith's was the bay pinto. Their names were/are Napa and Pint. We still have both of them, though little Napa has been missing an ear for a long time. (long story involving paper pegasus wings and being tossed off the top of the refrigerator...)

And just for the heck of it, here are the two kittens we got a year and three quarters later in the fall of 1986:


That's Cinder (later known as Cissie) in front, and her brother Marmalade in back. Their mother belonged to my Dad's boss.

OK, back to tack next time!

A couple more new herd members...

Well one newbie, anyway, I hadn't shown off a full body shot of Meandering yet...


And here's a model I feel like I've been searching for all year (probably because I have...):



I put a whole mess of the new mold WEG SMs on preorder when they were first announced, then the dealer wrote me up saying the shipping had been delayed for several months and we cancelled the deal. Then when they were finally released I had NO MONEY to spend on them, and then when I finally got some money, it seemed like every dealer who actually had these guys in stock wanted $11 shipping UPS, or the ones that did ship Priority Mail didn't bother answering my emails. I finally found one who had some in stock, charged a reasonable shipping rate, AND answered emails! Yay! I've named him "Fords Gotta Gun" after another of my favorite Lost characters. :p

And wouldn't you know, we happened to visit the local dealer today who hasn't had new Breyers in like forever, and by God they had FOUR of these in stock! Oh, well, more for Meredith to paint...

Oh, and I have a whole mess of Sulser Saddlery brass hames sitting on my desk right now, courtesy TWMHC on eBay. Whatever could they be for, I wonder...?

New stuff to work with

The other day I got a Breyer Hickstead in a trade, and a spool of black 'roo lace from Australia arrived in the mail. (NICE stuff with a smooth, tight grain, I'm ordering from these guys from now on)

The Hickstead, a special run produced on the Big Ben mold, was a necessary addition. I'd gotten a custom order for tack for this mold, and I didn't own one. The woman trading with me offered me several different Big Bens, and I'm glad I picked this fellow. So handsome in his glossy, just slightly metallic golden bay with gorgeous tri-eyes! I've named him"Meandering", after a character in one of my favorite webcomics.

For this custom order I would also need some metal accents that my usual sources did not supply, so the next day, armed with a fistful 40% percent off coupons, I went craft store hunting. I had read Jennifer Buxton/Braymere's blog post on embossing metal (thank you Jennifer! :) ), and it sounded like something I could work with. The first stop, Hobby Lobby, only turned up this product in silver and copper, and I needed gold. So it was off to JoAnne's next. Bingo! They had super thin (40 gauge!) embossing aluminum in many colors, including a bright yellow-gold. Excellent.

I wanted to experiment first, though, see how it cut, which glues were best, and seeing as all these new toys had come together in such a timely manner, Meandering was picked to wear a black snaffle bridle with gold accents, using the new 'roo lace and the metal for browband and noseband accents.

The best way I've found to cut a straight, narrow strip is to use scissors, not an Exacto blade. Somehow I just couldn't get it aligned properly, and it came out jagged. Fortunately I have an old pair of sewing scissors that was otherwise being retired in favor of a sharper pair.

It was also a chance to practice splitting the browband to go around BB's rather inconvenient forelock. (I love Kathleen's Breyers, but sometimes they can be aggravating to work with...)

The metal helps the split browband keep its shape, too (it still needs sticky wax to hold it in place). The only drawback is that the top color can be rubbed and scratched if it's handled too roughly. But I think it doesn't require any more careful handling than most small tack pieces. Don't get glue or sticky wax on it!

I'm also working on getting fancier reins on my bridles as well as my harnesses, instead of just gluing a foldover. So buckles were installed (rein hooks are still too frustrating for me), as were rein stops. I loved the smooth grain of the lace so much that I didn't lace these reins as I usually do. And I made the bit hangers adjustable on the bit end as well.

I like how it came out, but I think I will go back for the classic gold shade I saw on the shelf. It matches Rio Rondo's gold hardware better. And perhaps I'll pick up some other colors. Peter Stone's new "Ringo" Saddlebred looks like he could use a nice Weymouth bridle with a nice, metallic red or blue browband. (anyone want to trade? :) )

Until next time, when hopefully I'll have some in-progress photos of my custom order (it's a doozie, bigger than I've ever done before. Eep!).

(and before I sign off, this bridle is for sale on MH$P)

Guess I could update this blog, right? (IMG heavy!)

So let's show off some tack and some new herd members, shall we?

First up is custom order harness #1, a large-ish Trad scale breastcollar style harness with collar bells.

A study of the breeching and saddle. The buckle is on the crupper top/backstrap base instead of on the backstrap between the saddle and crupper. This is a new design based on a photo I found online, I like it!
The blinker stays are another new design based on another photo found on the internet, instead of splitting 1/8 lace I just take a single length of 1/16th and loop a strap of 3/32 around the midway point, which buckles to the crown piece. Makes adjusting a little easier IMO.

A study of the main lines and checkrein and how they attach to the bit.

A study of the collar bells buckle. I do love these little craft bells, but since many real life collar bells vary in size (smallest at the ends, largest toward the middle), I'm trying to figure out how to make my own. Rio Rondo's concho doming article gives me some ideas...

Custom order harness #2.

Look the same as the first? Well, it might be hard to tell from photos on some monitors, but it's actually dark mahogany and not black. Yeah. I'm going to be working on patterns to get some slightly different shaped saddles, blinkers, etc in the future so I'm not just making clones. :p


I used the same "saddle tan" garment leather that I use for blinker lining to line the saddle here.


And now for a bosal and a halter. (I really love the Stone Palouse mold, can you tell? :) Though her mane makes fitting anything that crosses her withers a pain.)


I got two Amazon gift certificates and some birthday money a couple of weeks ago, so I was able to add some new members to the stables and kennels. (and Lost season 1 on DVD, too)

"Northern Raven", OM TB mare, garage sale find.

"Hello Darling" G2 WEG TB.
My sister actually won him along with an Esprit in the Blab Birthday drawing,
but she gave him to me as an early birthday present. Thanks, Meredith! *hugs*

"Stop it Ron", OP G1 Citation, found at the same garage sale as Raven.
I was watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince while I was trying to think up names for my new SMs, so I used lines from the movie that made me laugh. :D I think that will be the naming rule for my male TBs.

"Ghost Wolf Tell Me No More Lies", Breyer SR liver spot Dalmatian. (another naming rule, all the Dalmatians get "Miss Suzie" song related names)

"Kamots", Schleich Wolf Cub. A lot of the Schleich puppies are in scale to the adult Breyer canines...

"Chemukh", Breyer Wal-Mart SR black wolf.

And last but not least, my Breyer Rachel Alexandra. I've been wanting a Ruffian mold for performance showing, but so far I've been "meh" on the color choices. I liked Rags To Riches, but when Breyer announced RA I knew I had to get one. Such a gorgeous bay with lovely markings! I still want a RTR, though, "Katie" here needs a friend to race her. :)

That's all for now! Well, maybe not, Mom just walked in with a package for me... and it's a trade model I've been expecting! I have a Hickstead now! Yay! Pictures to come soon.

Until next time!

An (almost) Wordless Wednesday of my own...

A custom order.

For sale on eBay.