Progress Report

It feels like it's been a long, long road on this set.  It really hasn't, but everything seems longer when you only get to work on it on the weekends.

As a general progress report, I've got quite a bit of work lined out.  I think it'll be enough to keep me busy until June, but I'm never very good at projecting a time frame for saddles or predicting how much time "real life" will take up.  I'm keeping my books tentatively open, just in case, but I'm going to work through the 10ish (holy cow!) saddles I have down right now before starting any brand new orders.

And a more specific progress report!

• Natalie's WeeJay set is DONE.  Working Girl needs laced reins, then ready to ship.
• Shauna's WeeJay set is in progress, probably 75% completed.
• Heather's set for the HA riding pony will be started next. 
• Morg's Working Girl english set will be started once Shauna's tack is finished.

Everyone else on the list, I'll be contacting you for deposits as things move off of the work bench.

Show for the Cure Update and Progress

The Show for the Cure was last Saturday and from what I've heard was a raging success!  At least one of my customers was there and had an entry in an english class with a saddle I finished up a couple of months ago.  I'm not sure how she placed, but Jennifer Buxton (of Braymere Saddlery) judged the class and had a photo of the set on her blog.  And I quote: "The tack was made by Anna Kirby and without a doubt, it's the nicest stablemate scale English tack I've ever seen."  Can we say "squee"? That pretty much made my day!  

Jenna, the hostess of the S4tC, got back to me on Saturday and let me know how my set did.  My jaw absolutely hit the floor...it went for $255!  It's a charity show and so I know that people are often a little more liberal with their funds, but I was astonished all the same.  

Right now, I'm working on Natalie's WeeJay set.  The saddle is very close to finished, the girth is done, and I'm working on the breastplate and bridle today.  I forgot how much I hated WeeJay's mane.  While glue is drying and such I'm working on a carved western saddle as a sales piece.  I'm thinking it'll be a working saddle when I'm all through.  Photo-etched bits are running low, though.  Gonna have to get some more, pronto.

Over My Head

You know that sinking feeling you get, when you realize you've scheduled too many things into your calendar over a given period of time? I've got that feeling.  I made absolutely no progress on anything last week.  School, work, and some volunteering thrown in made it impossible.  Class should be seriously slowing down now that I've submitted my final project for the 1/2 semester mess. I'm hoping that with a decent sleep schedule and the now easier workload at school I can get things back on track.

I'm still exhausted from last week, but I'm going to try to make some progress on Natalie's WeeJay set today.  That needs to be ready for AHL in May, so it's my priority right now.  I have a pair of laced reins 3/4 of the way done, assuming I don't break them when I lace up the the other side of the second rein.  I already broke the first one I tried, so I should have it out of my system for now.

There are issues with the server that hosts my website and email right now, too.  The website is working periodically, but mostly it's just timing out.  The same thing happens with my email, so they sit in my inbox until the server lets me log in.  The whole thing started four or five days ago and was a legit problem on their side, but now they say it's fixed and don't know what's up.   If you need to reach me and haven't gotten a response from the usual email, give me a shout at tuffspot90@live.com.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Photos

One of my wonderful customers, Barb, sent me some photos from the Mid-Atlantic Regional show held last weekend.  She used some western tack I made for her way way back in 2009 and the english set that I finished this month and got some pretty nice results!

Second in dressage

Second in trail

First with a Dreamflite halter

Western Challenge High Point award!

Second in a barrels/poles/games class

First in trail!

Carnage.

This was my studio as of 4:09 PM, Sunday.

A weekend's worth of tools, scraps, and projects are littering the desk. Somewhere on there are two english saddles, a saddle seat saddle, and part of a failed attempt at making a basketweave pattern on a stablemate saddle.


And this is my studio as of 4:29 PM.


Ah. Peace. Quiet. My brain was getting overwhelmed by the carnage and now it's starting loosen up. I can breathe again! I am not necessarily a tidy person, but I do have limits and this afternoon I had had it up to here. Now the studio is nice and clean. Or as clean as it's going to get.

And a photo of the saddle on the tidied desk:
This is a commission piece and my very first attempt at a five-point breastplate! It took a while to get done, but I'm really happy with the result.

A pattern of school-during-the-week, tack-on-the-weekends, is developing and I'm plotting out some posts that don't require any sort of productivity during the week. I'm thinking posts on favorite tools, organization, and patterns might be coming up in the future. If there's something you'd like to see, let me know in the comments!

Show for the Cure Donation, Take Two

If anyone would like a chance to own this saddle, Jenna (hostess of S4tC) is auctioning it! Here's the link: http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/sales/view_details.asp?path=Gallery&id=839752

The lovely ladies on Blab pointed out a couple of issues on the saddle, so after revising here it is!

Also showing the six different saddle pads I made for it. I fooled around with printable fabric and let me just say...AWESOME. The pattern sizes and whatnot need some tweaking but oh wow. I will never use felt for a western pad again!

Something Constructive

I actually did something constructive before work this morning! I took photos of the corrected S4tC donation saddle and all six saddle pads that go with it. The only problem is that my computer is doing strange things...it has a history of oddness, actually, but only recently has it started refusing to recognize my camera SD card. I haven't had time to see if it's just the one card, just my computer, or what.

That issue is prompting me to take charge of my computer again. Despite being the sole user and administrator (or so I thought...) Vista won't let me do certain things. Like remove a piece-of-junk program that I don't want. So today I've got some homework out and I'm backing up files to prep for a deep clean of this monster. Actually...the back up is looking a little stuck too. What fun!

I miss the bright, clean newness of factory settings. I'm almost tempted to restore this PC, but I'm not sure that's a great idea. For one thing, I don't have the disk for Photoshop! Can't lose that, and with a huge car expense/new car looming over my head, can't afford a new version, either.

Just so that this post isn't totally worthless, here's some studio updates. This is just the stuff on my desk right this minute. I know there are a few people on the waiting list and so forth but I keep those files on a flash drive that is currently not connected to the computer, so I can't check or name names.

In Progress

• Natalie's WeeJay set: saddle mostly built
• Shauna's WeeJay set: saddle mostly built, bridle started
• Mindy saddle seat set: bridle done, saddle started (will be a sales piece)

Another One Done!

I wrapped up Manuela's saddle today. I'm pretty happy with it, but wow that little driving horse has some chunky legs!

I'm starting on two orders for my new WeeJay now, and I'm really looking forward to them. The last time I had a WeeJay in the studio was this same time last year.

Random Studio Photos!

So, because this has been a crazy week and I have no other progress to report, I'm posting three random studio pictures!

The fluffy yellow cat has decided that he needs to be my studio buddy. He's too much of a wimp to jump two feet to my lap (probably because he's fallen a few times) so he sneaks up behind me and paws at my side until I lift him up. I was trying to get a shot of him pawing me (that doesn't sound quite right...) in the second photo, but it didn't quite work out.

The last photo is a shot of the cups that I use to keep track of tack orders (also in the photo: the reminder that I need to call the vet to get my cat and dog in....sent a month ago. Whoops.). I write the customer's name and the date I started the order on the outside of a Dixie-type cup in sharpie and make sure that anything associated with the order makes it back into that cup. I started hanging them on the board after I got really tired of knocking cups over on my desk. The only problem with the big alligator clips is that they unbalance the cup when it's on the desk. I set them down and WHOOMP they fall over.

So, that's it for today! I've got homework to finish up and then I'm going to turn on some music and CLEAN like a maniac! I'll be able to spend most of tomorrow in the studio and I should be able to finish up Barb's tack and get a start on the WeeJay order!