6 months, oh dear.....

That's how long it's been since I posted last, I am a bad blogger!

Truth be told I do find it easier updating the facebook page and that seems to be gaining in popularity by the day, so thank you if you're following me on there. 

I may as well start this year's blogging by reviewing 2013. I didn't make a vast amount of tack, and all were sets made for customers. Pieces completed this year included:

A racing bridle,

a side-saddle set,

a draught horse presentation set,

a cross country set,

a racing saddle with breastplate,

a simple hunt bridle, and last but not least,

a jumping saddle

Which is about the same as last year, equivalent to 5 sets of tack. But whilst I am slightly disappointed that I can't seem to manage any more than this, I am exceptionally please about the quality. I really am producing the best ever tack that my hands have ever created and seem to be able to carry that through to all styles and scales. 

A lot happened during 2013 on a more personal level, including a trip back to the UK, the death of a close relative and issues of inheritance, and the best part which was the decision to start a family. That last one means that as of April 2014, our family will grow and I will be a mummy! We are really excited about this new phase of our lives and so far my pregnancy has gone really well. We found out just before Christmas that we are expecting a girl and I've found it quite hard to stop myself buying too many pink things! Meanwhile I am intending to keep working as long as possible, which means I am often tired, possibly grumpy, and for the next two months, very hot. We are well into the Australian summer now and so to escape the heat we are off on a 'babymoon' next week to cooler Tasmania with a few days in Melbourne thrown in.

I currently have 3 orders on the books which are a side-saddle set, a lower level dressage bridle, and a dressage set which was my Down Under Nationals donation. I'm intending to get all of these finished by March at the latest, to leave myself free to enjoy being a mum without any pressures of tack making for a while. Now I am being stern about this, so please don't ask if my books are open, they are not. Time will tell once the baby arrives if I am able to find some spare moments to make things. But they will likely be sales pieces or pieces for my own collection. 

Now I'm also selling a fair few models to create space in the studio/nursery, and have/will be advertising them on MH$P, facebook and various other places. I may even try the odd one on here but I don't think my readership is large enough to support sales unfortunately. Otherwise they're going into boxes and who knows when they'll next see light of day!

Hope you enjoyed reading about my year, and also hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

Recessed Stirrup Bars - Part 2

So this is the next stage of the saddle making process. I have made the flaps and attached them to the tree. The cut-out on the flap just exposes the stirrup bar which has been trimmed to an appropriate length. This rather blurry photo illustrates the position of the bar relative to the flap:

And a much more in focus top view shows how the front of the tree is used to secure the flaps. 

Once the jockey skirt has then been glued into position, a pin is positioned at the front of the jockey skirt so it goes through the jockey, the flap, the tree, and in the case of normal saddles, the lower flap. I use an older awl and a hammer to make a hole as the brass tree is very stiff, and then insert a bent pin which then gets trimmed and covered with a piece of leather to keep is secure on the underside.

Next shots show the completed saddle, including foam panels;

And hey presto, finished! This is my new design mono-flap cross country saddle made to fit Rayvin Brewer's Murdock resin. I will actually be taking delivery of a lovely painted Murdock soon - I'll be sure to show you pics when he arrives as I haven't seen many other painted Murdocks around.

So far I'm working on several different sets at once but I will complete this series about stirrup bars. The third and final part will be published when I get around to making the stirrup leathers.

Recessed Stirrup Bars - Part 1

Figuring out the best way to attach stirrup leathers to a saddle is one of the biggest challenges when you're trying to teach yourself how to make miniature tack. I briefly touched on this when I wrote about developing my new tree-making technique. Now that I have been using that technique for a while I am still very pleased with this technique as I think it gives the most realistic and accurate effect. My stirrup leathers and the way they attach to the saddle is just like real life, in that you can pull the top of the leather down to adjust using a buckle, and the stirrup leather can be slipped off the back of the stirrup bar in an 'emergency'. But they are still very secure. Recessed bars mean that there is less bulk under the riders leg, and I have found that this was the hardest thing to get right.

I start by marking up the tree with permanent marker. The black dot in the photo above represents the level that my bar will sit. I use the pattern for the skirt to make sure that the bar will sit about half way down the skirt, so there will be enough skirt leather to cover the bar and stirrup buckle, but it isn't so high up that you can't access it.

I use a dremel with a 3/64" diameter drill bit to drill the holes. This is the right size for my silver wire which is 1mm diameter. I use silver coated wire as it is strong yet malleable. I thread about 3-4mm through and then crimp the wire using pliers. I then use my mini anvil and my jewellers hammer to gently hammer the wire until it squashed flat and almost flush with the brass tree, as seen below.

By doing this, the wire is effectively locked into position. I also flatten the wire along the length of the bar a little, again to cut down any bulk. Then the bars get trimmed a little, not to their final length as I will do a final trim when the skirt gets put on. I want to make sure it's long enough so that the stirrup leather is unlikely to slip of during normal use, but not so long that you can't get the leather onto the end of it.

The completed metal tree with finished stirrup bars.

The next instalment will look at the next stages and how the bars look when the flaps and skirts are introduced.

Shelf Shots

I think I have turned a corner this weekend. We had some bad news about a close family member recently which has caused some stress and anxiety. We have been debating when to go back to the UK to visit and trying to juggle timings with work etc. These things always serve to make us reassess life and realise what is important to us. Work has been pretty stressful over the last 6 months or so. Sometimes it just takes a little jolt to make us realise work is not the most important thing in life. We must also make time to do the things we love and spend time with the people we love. I've been pretty good at spending time with Andy, my partner, he does not appear to be neglected! But actually making time for doing the things I love has taken a real back seat. I have been focussing more on the things I think I should be doing, like cleaning, cooking, going to the gym etc. 

So, I managed to finish an order for some Equorum tack yesterday. No photos quite yet as I haven't got the stirrups yet. Then I started in earnest on Rayvin's cross country set. I've made good progress on the tree, and documented that process which will form another blog post soon. I have also decided to start a journal documenting all the tack I make. So far my documentation has been pretty bad. The occasional photo and just a few quick notes in my order book. I'll talk about this a bit more in my next blog post.

Meanwhile here's some lighter stuff!

I've had a few ponies arrived recently who deserve a mention on here. This is not all of the horses that ave arrived over the last few months, just the ones that were out and asking to be photographed!

First off is this Calliope resin and PF Hez Jazi resin Arab colt both painted by Alice Jez. These guys have been owed to me for a long time but due to my various worldwide moves, name changes and lost emails it has taken 5 years for us to be united! I wasn't a massive Arab fan 5 years ago and I'm really not one now. So he'll be up for sale, let me know if you're interested!

There are a few newbies in this shot who I haven't introduced yet. Starting at the front we have an adorable Equorum Donkey who doesn't have a name yet (any ideas??). His mane is the softest thing imaginable and he has such a lovely expression. Behind him to the right is my Rose Reiner named Cloudbreak painted by Sandra Hottinger. His paintwork is just breathtaking and looks awesome tacked up. Next to him is Hunnypenny, an Oktopussy resin painted by Tiffany Purdy. She is totally awesome too and replaces my First Impression resin who I sold over east. The two guys on the left are both Eberl Warmbloods, a Roy resin called Rudyard at the front painted by Heather Bullach, and a Wico resin named Copernicus at the very back painted by Sherry Clayton. Standing models like these aren't the most versatile in terms of performance but I just love these sculptures, they represent the type of horse I would love to own in the real world!

Back to latex, and this is the new Equorum Shire Horse mould. He is wearing a bridle by Corinne Ensor which I had for quite a while. He doesn't have a name yet either. Love his feathers!

This is not really showing a new horse (except the champagne Equorum Icelandic on the right), but some new dressage planters made by Kim Haymond (Table Top Studios). They are modelled on the Olympic arena planters but in a red theme rather than purple. I am really impressed by the quality and can recommend Kim's work all day long.

Little Update

I managed to finish an order last week, yey!! This is Heather's race bridle to fit her Kittydiddit resin. I have been way too slow getting this done for her but was somewhat relieved when she told me she hasn't painted the resin yet. It's nice working with people on similar time wavelengths!

I cracked open the latex again for the rubber reins. It's starting to go off but my supply is about 3 or 4 years old so I'll try and replace it soon if I can find a supply in Australia....

I have just put in several hardware orders for my upcoming projects, as I always feel happier when my stocks are replenished. I always include a few random bits and other parts in my orders in case they inspire me make additional items. Usually that doesn't work and I just end up with a small box full of random bits!

Here's a pic of the back of our house in Kalgoorlie. The lawn is looking greener than it ever has since we moved in 15 months ago, which is good as I've worked very hard on it. The french doors are great apart from the fact they don't have a fly screen so we end up with flys and mozzies inside the house. We're in the hottest part of the year right now which isn't conducive to tack making, but I have my little studio in one of the rooms that gets the sun in the morning but cools off by evening. I just have to be careful not to leave any leather items (or models) in the path of the sun as it can bleach things very quickly. The cheekpiece of the bridle above got caught out for less than one day and it was almost natural coloured again!

Other news is I am hosting a house live show next month. It won't be a big show with a handful of entrants and proxy showers, but I expect it will be fun and laid back. The rosettes are on order and all I have to do now is print out results sheets, placing certificates and do the DUN paperwork.

Last post of 2012!!

Oh dear, well one of my new years resolutions from the beginning of 2012 didn't really stick. My intention was to try and post on here a bit more, but I've actually written fewer posts than in 2011! 

I'll try again for 2013 but I'm not promising anything this time! Over the last 12 months I've probably made fewer tack sets than ever. As far as full sets go, I've made one huntseat set, one classic scale show set, one western set, one Australian set, a pebbles scale western set and then a couple of bridles and other small accessories. So, pretty varied really, but only 5 sets over 12 months. I couldn't do anything for January or February as we were still waiting for our container to arrive, so maybe my annual rate is closer to about 6 sets, or 2 months per set. This is useful to know, and it's the kind of time frame I should bear in mind when planning next years workload. 

Right now I have three things on the books: a bridle, a Draught horse presentation set, and a full cross-country set. More variety - I like it. I also have a few updates on the website to do and facebook as well. The Yahoo group is really taking a backseat. Updating four different things seems pretty inefficient so I will be discontinuing that group shortly. Blogger works far better for announcements, and facebook works well for random snippets and in-progress photos.

I have really been lacking any sort of motivation since the Ultimate Gold 2 live show on the 9th (yes I should do a blog post about that...). I had 5 days off over Christmas and yet didn't lift a finger in the studio. It was nice and clean, fairly inviting, but I just didn't fancy making anything. Lots my mojo a little, but it doesn't help the temperatures have been at least 36C each day. Big heat is a recipe for disaster when it comes to Lauren's motivation. So I didn't push it. I laid on the sofa watching cooking shows and property shows, and looking after my friend's dog Ted who is a pretty cool Cocker Spaniel. He's the only dog I've ever met who likes swimming in figure of 8's at the dog pool. I've also been going and feeding my friend Linda's 4 cats, two of which are stray kittens she has taken in and cared for. They are timid little things but after a week of going round I am at the stage of being able to pet them both. It's so nice being around animals again, they have such a soothing influence. Hopefully it won't be too long before we have our own best friend in the house.

I'll sign off for 2012 by wishing everyone a fantastic New Year! Here's a random picture of a polo pony playing at Polo on the Beach, Cornwall 2011. Leave me a comment if you'd like to see more pics from this event!

It's that box again!

Finally we managed to find time to work on the tack box that I featured in a blog post a while back. That was well over a year ago, and for my birthday this year I persuaded him to help me with it. I don't think his heart was in it - if I had left it totally up to him he would have ruined the box three times over! Lesson learnt!

It still needs some work. I may switch the handle round to the top, and try and add something in for bridles. For the latter I'm not sure whether to put the hooks on the sides of the main box, or on the inside of the door. To make the saddle racks we just used a strip of wood, cut into 4 lengths, drilled holes in that and then glued them into the box. Then the dowel sections were glued into place. We didn't have quite the right drill bit so some of the holes are a bit wonky, but they seem nice and sturdy. I think some elastic bands may be the way to go to keep the saddles in place.

Eeep! Didn't realise I had so much tack of my own!

Mess, but good mess

This picture just about sums up the extent of my productivity this weekend. I managed to cut out all the remaining calf pieces I will need to finish the Roundabout and Cerridwen sets. In the foreground are all the pieces for Cerridwen's bridle, stirrup leathers and straps for the girth. Roundie's straps are off the camera shot, drying. I used Eco-flo Dark Mahogany for both sets and really like this colour. There has been a delay with the saddles. I bought a dremel recently and one of its main uses will be to drill tiny holes in my saddles, to put the reinforcing pins through. It has to go through multiple sheets of leather and thick brass. I did them by hand before, with an awl, but the tree would always end up being bent a little and I had to work hard to get it back into shape. So, I ordered the drill bits and when they arrived I was itching to try them out. Then realised I needed a smaller collet for the dremel (that was one of those hand-slap-on-forehead moments, doh!). So, the bridles will now probably get finished before the saddles whilst waiting for the collet set to arrive!

What you can't see in the photo is my lack of productivity with the Australian set. I cut and carved the pieces and dyed them, which I shouldn't have. I should have tested Java brown a bit more thoroughly instead of using it on these pieces. I think Java brown is probably the ugliest brown dye I have ever used! Totally the wrong colour. So, this week I'll be cutting some more leather and trying out yet another new dye. I'm hoping the Eco-flow All-in-one Chocolate Cherry will do the trick. The pieces I dyed Java brown will not go to waste, I'll dye them dark brown or black and make another Aussie set to sell later in the year.

There are a couple of other interesting things to have a look at on my work table. My wooden draws from Ikea at the back have been mine since I was about 8 or 9 years old. I really wanted to paint them but never got round to it. I did paint another Ikea wooden box which I also still have, in all kinds of animal skin patterns which still looks pretty cool. It holds my polished mineral specimens! Next to those are a set of 16 plastic boxes which hold all of my hardware: bits, stirrups, buckles etc. And next to that is my pinboard which constantly reminds me how many orders I have to do, and keeps the current projects safe in the plastic cups, I think I stole that idea from Anna Kirby!

In front of that are two models which have little reason to be on the table. The newsworthy is there as I need his legs for some boots but they're still a few weeks away. And then there's my Gaspar Destiny resin in a classic tack set by Des Corbett. He really has no reason to be there!

Finally this picture reminds me I have to give Cerridwen a hot bath. During her trip to Australia she must have been in an awkward position and her near fore developed a bend. That's what a 3 month delay in shipping does for you!