The first thing I fixed was Heather's saddle. It was made in June of last year and had a crooked cantle. Because the cantle was crooked, so were the panels. The original plan was to peel the leather on the seat back so that I could trim it up, but it was easier to make an entirely new seat. I was having issues getting the correct shape to the seat at that point in 2010, so the original seat on Heather's saddle was flat. The new seat has a lot more shape to it, fortunately.
I've got a parade saddle in the studio for repairs, too. Quite a bit of the original silver is starting to loosen and slide around, so I spent quite a bit of time yesterday replacing it. I'll be making a new bridle to go with it, just haven't gotten to that point yet. The biggest deal is that I think I've finally found a good way to do stablemate scale corona pads! It involves felt...and cross stitch fabric. It's really the simplest thing, and I wish I'd thought of it sooner. The corona in the photo is the second attempt and doesn't fit very well, but the technique is sound!
Most of the work on the parade saddle is updating what's already there, but I did extend the skirt forward, redo the fenders (keeping the design on the originals) and add decorations to the lower edge of the serape. What I hope to accomplish is a saddle that keeps the same feel as the original but is more competitive against a class of larger models. Fingers crossed it works!
The next sales piece I do will be parade saddle, and I'm really excited to start on it! Before I start that, though, I have Tami's saddle to work on. Hopefully I can get going on that in the next week.
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