Winter Break Warm Up

In a brilliant and much appreciated twist of fate, the due dates for this week's work fall during Thanksgiving break, which means that they've been moved to the following week! I can, if I like, have an entire week of no homework, no class, and no paper writing! Of course we all know that I should do at least a little bit of homework, and I do plan to crack open the Nook and read my music history lecture tonight. But over the weekend I pulled out my dye, my tools, and some leather.

I made a fairly simple hunter-type set for the G3 Jumper, since I haven't done anything for that mold in quite a while. The saddle is the ONLY simple thing, though.

The bridle is raised with laced reins...but not thread laced. These reins are laced with more lace.

They were definitely more time consuming, but not actually any harder. Here's the thing: keeping reins in scale this small is tough, and when you do laced reins with thread there's a needle and holes involved. That weakens the rein, and there's a lot of stress on the leather when the needle passes through. Leather laced reins have slits, not holes, and there's no needle involved. This means that I have to open up the slit with an awl, poke the very-very thin lace through, and then pull it tight. It takes longer than whip stitching a rein, but there's considerably less risk of breakage, the reins actually stay slimmer, and let's admit - it looks pretty darn impressive. Added bonus: they lay a lot better than the thread-laced reins.

The breastplate wasn't exactly uncomplicated, either...

Can't see it from here, but it has the usual buckles and keepers and clips and suchlike.

Not bad for a warm up, huh? I'll be adding open front, bell, and ankle boots tonight, I think, and then tossing it up on MH$P before I clean up the studio. Less than a month of class left!