For Sale

This is a sales copy of the bridle I made for the PeeWee Bold Endeavor. This one is in light oil, and has a single ear headstall. The reins are in cream and brown, with silver beads. You can see the ad on MH$P.

This bridle is not adjustable, but it will fit most G3's and probably a few G2's and some resins.

Next Please!

I have a line of 2 or so orders that require the model being shipped for fitting. This usually only happens with resins, and I always look forward to handling the resin-y goodness. I have one resin my mini collection, a Tombstone Cowboy who is in the (long) process of being stripped during my (non-existent) spare time. I love getting to see these other performance minis, but it makes me want them! I have a PeeWee Bold Endeavor on my workbench right now, being fitted for a western set. He's a really lovely mini with a VERY nice sorrel paint job. Makes me want to keep him! I'll have to be satisfied by hunting down copies of this resin for sale.

I've got one of the bridles that's going home with him partially finished, and I wanted to show off the reins. This is the 2nd or 3rd set of rommel reins I've done, and I tried something new after reading about it in another tack forum. I used stickywax to wax the thread after I completed my four strand round braid, and it looked really nice. I was going to leave them plain, but it just didn'd look right...so off they came, and I added silver beads and little blue knots for decorative purposes. I'm really happy with the result, and I'll be making a pleasure bridle in this style to sell.

Working Western Set

It's done! Well, almost. I was reminded after I posted it on BLAB that I need to wrap the horn! That hasn't been done yet, but it will be before it goes out to it's new home.

I probably went overboard on detail...almost all of the buckles are WORKING tongue buckles! I don't expect the customer to adjust them (nor do I recommend it!), but the LOOK is amazing. I really like it. I also edged all of the tack (except for most of the havana pieces) in black, and it looks stunning. Really finishes it off nicely. I don't do that on all my saddles, but I think I will start doing it on all of the darker ones. I really didn't choose a good mold to model this tack though. It makes the seat look very flat and the pommel very high. Trust me, it's just his withers!

This does seem to be the time to order western tack...my next project is a western performance package, which includes everything you need for pleasure and gaming classes and will work for 90% of working events. There is one saddle with a moderate amount of silver, two bridles, and then a variety of accessories. I'm working on the rommel reins for the pleasure bridle right now, and I'll post a photo when the pleasure bridle is all done.

Oh boy....

I have a typical "teenage" car for my area. It's older, has a lot of miles on it, and may or may not break down within the next two and a half blocks. Well, it's a little better than that. It's a 94 Taurus that I got for $550 at a garage sale. For a first car, it's decent. It gave me some trouble with the transmission early last summer, but the shop we took it to couldn't find anything wrong with it and it's been fine since. I noticed my brakes making funny sounds (I now know it's grinding) a few days ago, and had my dad look into it today. He was going to give it a test drive, and didn't even make it around the block before saying that it needed to be in the shop. I took it down today, and hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow. I had to find someone to cover my shift at work tomorrow too, but a coworker was looking for more hours this week anyway so that worked out.

Just be praying that it doesn't end up being too expensive...and that I'll know when to draw the line. If it's too expensive, my car is old enough and has enough miles on it that I really need to put it towards a new one.

On a good note, I've got the saddle mostly done. I need to add a horn and finish the rigging. This set will have a bridle, tie-down, breastcollar, and rope when all done.

Western Saddle

I've started part three of what has been a very long, drawn out order. The order included a western pleasure set and a saddle seat set originally, and a working western set and western show halter were added later. I had to wait for measurements so that I could fit the western tack properly, and that delayed the start of the order. It's been nearly four months from start to finish, and I'm not done yet!

This working western saddle is looking to be one of my best yet, though. So far everything is coming together perfectly. I'll post pictures once it's presentable, lol.

Show For The Cure Auction

The performance package that Angela and I worked on is up on the Show For The Cure website! http://www.freewebs.com/showforthecure/apps/photos/photo.jsp?photoID=25063101

The bidding is already up to $150, and I hope that it will go a long way to covering the cost of the show and towards cancer research.

To see the jump Angela did, you can go to the link or visit Angela's blog, http://genevivecreations.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-pics.html

I also finished the last part of the in-hand set today, a stud halter. Of course, I was at the end of my white lace. I had just enough to finish the halter IF I didn't make any mistakes...and what do I do? I skive too deeply and boom, no more lace. I did a four strand round braid cotton lead instead.

Done!

I finished the in hand rig today! I'm really happy with it, and it was something totally fun to create. I worked steadily through the morning and had all but the keepers done by lunch. Thats done too, and I can't wait to see how this set looks once the new owner has 'clothes' on the model!

More Progress!

I got the decorations on the hip drops started last night! Actually, it's almost finished. I do need to redo the purple decorations tonight, the silver is a little sloppy.

Houston, we have progress!

I've been stumped on my current WIP for the last several days. I'm creating an in hand surcingle set based on this real one: http://www.remmepark.com/photography/kentuckyshow_2008/show8/pho-184.htm but with purple instead of teal. I simply could not figure out how the hip drops (also called kidney flaps) are attached to the crupper! The folks on Blab helped me find some better reference photos, and while I never got a concrete answer, I got close enough to piece things together. Now, I have the body of the surcingle, crupper, and hip drops done! I had the purple embellishments done, but the paint I used started to crack so I'm going to have to remix it and try again. I wasn't happy with the color I had before anyway, so it's back to the old drawing board!

Packing up and shipping out

Any one who orders with me will find that I work very hard and my turn around time is usually quite fast...until you get to shipping. I procrastinate badly after the creative part of tack making is done. I hopped on MS Word a few weeks ago and whipped up some sheets that should help me keep orders, addresses, and dates in line - IF I remember to use them!

I had three orders and a donation that needed shipping out this past week. Two of the orders ought to have been shipped days ago, but I kept finding excuses. It doesn't help that our itty bitty PO keeps strange hours. They close by 4 PM, and the office shuts down entirely for the postmaster's hour lunch break. However, I made do. I finally got the stuff shipped out, and it's on it's way to new homes!

The donation is actually going to California to meet up with the other half of the collaborative donation that Angela Jimenez and I are doing. I made a cross country set and she made a log jump to be donated to Show For The Cure Live. Angela will be hitting a show in Cali before S4TC in March, so we're hoping we can get the tack and jump NAN qualified. The tack set is shown in the photo of this entry.

I love donating to S4TC, it's a wonderful cause. Both of my paternal grandparents and a paternal great aunt died of cancer. I never got to meet my aunt or grandfather and my memories of my grandmother are very dim but I know them through my parents and aunts and uncles, and it's a cause that is close to my heart. I'm thrilled to donate to Show For The Cure, and I intend to donate to it as long as I am in this hobby and the show keeps running.

A Fresh Start

I thought it would be really awesome to give my customers and others a chance to follow my work on a slightly more consistent basis than my website. I'm good about keeping track of orders on there, but not so much with the updates. We'll see how long this lasts, but I hope I can keep it going! Blogger makes things pretty easy, so here's hoping.

Today I'm working on a really awesome custom in-hand rig for a fellow Blabber. It's referenced from this image: http://www.remmepark.com/photography/kentuckyshow_2008/show8/pho-184.htm but will have purple accents instead of teal. It's being fitted to an amazing custom G3 drafter by the orderer, and it's going to look STUNNING when it's done. I'll post pictures later, I hope.