Snow Day

The first picture above is a photo of the stairs off of my deck in my back yard. IT's quite snow covered and Louisville, KY is in quite the panic! We don't normally get a lot of snow during the winter so all of the snow we've had over the last few weeks has really taxed the city. So today RJ's daycare is closed, as is most of the city. Luckily I have a job where I can work from home on occasions like this and thats what I'm up to today.

Firstly an update for everyone that is wondering - I am completely, utterly, hopelessly behind in tack orders. Like Months behind now. I can't take on anything new at all. I'm completely booked until at least next year. I'm moving slower than molasses in the January.

I've been really tired and totally swamped time wise. My weekends are jam packed with family things and my weekdays are jam packed with work and family and trying to find a way to keep off the baby weight I lost over the summer. I get MAYBE an hour in the studio a day... MAYBE.. With that kind of time trickle, I am maxed out on what I can do. Hopefully when RJ is older and can play more by himself and less supervised I'll be able to step up production a bit.

Secondly, the second picture above is of Morgen K's bridle. As you can see I've got the headstall partially finished. Just need some ear pieces and a lot more silver and a chin strap.. I think that the knots are turning out well and I'm pleased with the design. I didn't think that I could do two color knots on a "regular" headstall. I thought that they'd be too bulky but they're not! This opens up all kinds of possibilities for the future..

I hope that you're less snowed in than I am!!

High Noon Western Americana Auction - Session 1 - High Noon Western Americana - Phoenix Arizona

This is a link to the online auction catalog for High Noon's Annual Western Americana Auction. Included this year are some of the things from the Roy Rogers Museum that closed on December 13th, 2009. ENJOY!!!

High Noon Western Americana Auction - Session 1 - High Noon Western Americana - Phoenix Arizona

Quick Announcement re NAN Donation

This year, I really find myself behind the 8-ball so to speak. This happened because last October I got a job. I didn't think that I was going to be able to find another job until this year so I took a few trades for tack. I did this thinking that I was going to have at least 3 hours in the studio every DAY. My time frame was to do one trade order a month...

My first month went smashingly so I was confident I could do it again!

The second month, not so much... the third month I found my job and my studio time dwindled to almost no time at all. I'm now down to maybe an hour a day in the studio during the week and if I'm lucky I get two hours a day on the weekend. That is definitely completely different than having three hours a day!!

So While I wanted to donate to the NAN auction and to Heather Jackson-Lain's model horse Anonymous III show, I didn't know what I could come up with in time.

Then comes an offer from my friend and Mentor, SUsan Bensema Young. Why not combine talents since we're both behind the 8 ball? Yes, that's right, this year's NAN donation will be a collaboration between Susan and Me! I'm so excited not to mention so over the moon flattered!!! Stay tuned to see what we come up with.. I believe it'll be something that folks talk about for some time to come ;-)

New Pictures of past works with the new camera!

Above are detailed images from my green western show bosal and hanger and from the blue braided bridle. I hope you like! I love the details that my new camera gets!

Pictures Pictures

Morgen Kilbourne's Reins for her WP bridle

Real Silver Snaffle in progress

And yay for my new camera! more resolution for the details on little things!

Breakthrough!

Much to my surprise today, my husband allowed me to spend about 3 hours in the studio by parenting our son without me! It was a glorious time! I spent the first hour dilligently working on the bridle for Morgen Kilbourne and after my son got up from his nap I was able to get in some dremel time. I thought I was ready to start on alicia vogel's breast collar 'Middle" but alas all of the work that i had done to try to get everything even on a piece of paper has been lost. My studio is an absolute mess and among the the stacks of paper are my ideas - but lost because i have no idea which stack and my furious looking yielded nothing : /

Therefore I went to another idea that I had put down on "silver" already. That is a silver western snaffle to build a bridle upon. I'm Hoping that I can use this for my nan donation - hoping that I can have it done in time... Today was an excellent start..

Every time I work in silver I learn more: how hot it gets when I dremel it into a shape I need (and how that sucker will bend when hot!); how shiny it becomes if it's buffed with red jewelers rouge; How it stretches - Which gives me "issues" because the nature of it is to stretch and be bendy when hammered. Even the slightest tear from etching can turn into a big nightmare when I'm hammering. I'm sure that "real" sized silver workers love that silver bends and forms so easily. They have the right kind of tools and probably some education on how to handle such a wonderful metal. I don't have those things but I move forward and try anyway. I use dremel bits; my Sears 1lb $1 hammer and some 2mm foam sheet to bang away on. (with my marble tooling stone underneath) The hard part is not forming the circle. Thats easily done with a "circle"stencil and dremel bits. (ok, not easy but easy compared to everything else involved) The hard part is shaping into what I want and making it "3-d" with the tools I have.

IF course a few years ago I couldn't even work with silver and make it "do" anything I wanted it to do so I've come a long way. Tonight will probably be spent on the "googles", looking for info on how "regular" sized pieces are formed and made..

Photos when the little bits look more presentable..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I could be moving slower but then I'd be going backwards!!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to those that celebrate it tonight at Midnight!

This is kind of a no real news to say sort of post... other than to complain about how slow I'm moving. It seems as though my time is sooo slim now and so is my energy. I have more energy than when I did when I first started my job but it's still not enough. I rarely get more than an hour or so in the studio anymore but I try to make it count!

I am still working on the bridles for Morgen Kilbourne and I still have Alicia Vogel's matching breastcollar to do. Then Onto the saddleset for Chelsea and a donation for Model Horse Anonymous III.

I had a great christmas that included getting a new camera so that I can take better, more high resolution photos of my tack. I'm looking forward to mucking around with it when I get the time!

I'm also Nixxing my twitter account. I have no time to twitter anymore!! But I am available on facebook under Heather Moreton-Abounader and I may start a group on Facebook as well for my tack. Just depends on if I have time !LOL

So I hope everyone has a wonderful evening and weekend!