blah blah blah....

The horse statue above is an "Indian Silver" resin. He was sculpted by Deborah McDermott and he's so beautiful!! I love putting tack on him... He "Lives" in my studio with me, as opposed to some of the other horses that I have that "Live" in the basement. He needs to be "Prepped" or have his seams removed and any airholes filled and then painted. But I can't bear to let him out of my sight just yet..

On him is a "Show bosal" that I am working on to match the other tack that I'm making. I announced on my list yesterday that due to the current circumstances in my household, I'll need to sell that tack. I'll let everyone know when it's all finished and how I'm going to offer it. I may have to make two breastcollars, one for the regular headstall and one for the bosal.. hmm.. that means I need to order more beads! LOL

I have part of the mecate twisted and I am waiting for it to somewhat "lock" by hanging it with a weight on the bottom of it. (This is just a theory for now.. I don't know for sure that it'll work)And I'm waiting for having enough time in one sitting to finish twisting it with some other threads.

Let me remind everyone that all of this tack is 1/8th of life size scale. Not half size or even 1/6th but truely 1/8th. This means that tackmakers that work in this scale do everything that a "Life size" scale tackmaker does, only much much smaller.. It means that I really do have to learn to make turks head and spanish ring knots and then interweave them with thread and needle. SO in some ways it's harder to make than life size tack.

Of course if one makes life size tack, it has to be durable and actually work as well as being weighted correctly..

I couldn't imagine learning a 4 bight 19 part knot that goes on the nose of the bosal, but then Susan Bensema young HAS! and she does it in 1/8th scale.. Which makes me admire her even more.

As most everyone who knows me already knows, I am a strong advocate for my work and some others' work to be taken seriously by the art community and western collectibles community. For these communities to not just see us as making "Toys" because at this point, I wouldn't call what I make a toy anymore.

I'm definitely working towards that end which is one of the reasons it's so important to me to learn to make my own silver bits and buckles as well as truly learn how to make real, interwoven knots. The great thing about this is that there is a never ending learning curve..