stop... and go!

This week has been a "stop and go" week. I am the kind of person that loves routine and "sameness". I like the days to be the same as the day before so that I can plan studio time and feeding times and nap times etc etc. "Mr boy" has a different idea. He's a fire sign afterall so he likes to change things up. The "experts" keep telling me to put him on a schedule, which I do.. for a day.. and then he changes it by sleeping longer than usual or wanting food sooner than the schedule would dictate. I'm trying very hard to keep up with him.. He's started to be fussier and more demanding and sleeping less. So the "sameness" that I cherish is out the window :o)

I got a second bit shank done and It looks very similar to the first. I'm pleased about that. After I got the bit shank finished however, I started getting less sleep. I am a cranky cuss if I don't get good sleep (my poor hubby!).. and well, I'm going on four months now of spotty sleep. It takes very little to disrupt my sleep schedule and get my brain spinning, which means I can't go to sleep right away. This means that I haven't gotten to the connector bar for the bit because my brain can't come up with one yet.

I have started the mecate for the bosalita (which I've also almost finished - just needs some more knots). I think it looks great but I'm having a problem with keeping the twist tight. I have never been a mechanical engineer mentally but I really want to come up with some kind of miniature machine to make these because I'm getting tired of failing with doing it by hand.. LOL! (well, "failing" to my standards) Some kind of thing with gears and adjustability.. I'm babbling.. I know..

Last week at the model horse show I did pretty good! My halter string is fairly decent for this area and I was pleased with the placings. My two performance entries did pretty good.. a first and a third! I was very pleased until Vicky Norris pointed out some glaring flaws with it! LOL! I am both embarrassed and grateful to her for the advice and I'll be sure to pass them onto Kay since I used her roping set. (THANK YOU KAY! and trust me, now I can make the whole setup even better!). The ropes need to be longer for one thing and the end of the ropes need to be made differently.. But above is a picture of the set on my "Pretty Consecutive" with my new cowboy doll. (Who needs new clothes...)

Hopefully this week will be better and I can get more accomplished.

TOmorrow "mr boy" goes to the pediatrician. I am not looking forward to it because he's getting shots. I don't know who gets more upset.. me or him!!

and another picture

This time, a picture of the miniature scale bit on a model horse.

moving forward...

Above is the real bit that I used for inspiration.

I finally got one shank of the bit that I'm working on finished. I worked on the second shank yesterday but didn't get it completed. I have a Model Horse Show to go to Tomorrow so today will be spent packing up horses and finally deciding what classes I'll enter. I rarely have any tack of my own to show with but tomorrow will be an exception. I'll be showing a halter and maybe Kay's roping set if I feel brave.

I recently updated Kay's bridle and tiedown with some interwoven knots. I think those pieces now look more realistic.

Here are just a few photos of what I've gotten done this week.

small victories

Today, I got up early, made it to the Post office on time to mail a package and then I went and had my hair done. On the way home I found myself in a really good mood and ready to accomplish more when I got home.

The picture above shows several failed attempts at a bit and one in progress bit. (the round unfinished spade bit is the one in progress. The other three: two domed that I think look silly and one flat that I couldn't figure out how to finish correctly)

I was able to actually find a bit that I think that I can make this week. Working in silver using my hit or miss method makes me nervous. Now that Silver is $20 an ounce (instead of $5 an ounce when I started working with silver beads 10 years ago) I'm very cognisant of the cost of what I'm wasting as I'm grinding away on my little bits.

I started taking a silversmithing class this time last year. I didn't finish it due to the fact that I became pregnant and I couldn't drive a car. (vertigo and nausea when I rode in or drove a car) I did learn a lot in the few classes I attended but I am not able to replicate the work benches in class here at home. I don't have anything I can attach an anvil to, to hold the silver in place so that I can use thin jewelers hack saw to cut out my designs more precisely.

Because of my slight nervousness in working with silver, I can only make bits when I'm in a very confident and focused mood.. like today. The REALLY hard part though is making two bit shanks exactly the same or similar enough to pair together. On my last mother hubbard set, I made a silver bit and I recall at least 4 or 5 tries before I had a usable pair. So far I'm at try number 4 with the bit for the Mother Hubbard II set. I kept picking beautiful, but complicated patterns that I was not able to replicate at my current skill level. Very annoying... But I think I have a good start with that round one. Just that one little unfinished shank represents about 2 hours of work and it's far from finished.

The other two bosals in the picture: One that looks finished, really isn't. I intend to add another color to the heel knot when I get time to learn how to. The other is another unfinished pencil bosal for the Mother hubbard II set that is fancier than the one that was auctioned off last week.

The second picture is a look at the screw on my fluorescent magnifying lamp. Things sorta hang there until I either finish them up or until I sell them. The tiedown/bosal and leather bridle matches the Roping set that I made for Kay Callahan. I decided to go back and add some fancy knots to it and I'm not quite done yet. Yes, there is my susan Bensema young bridle lurking in the very back. I keep it in my sight while I work on interwoven knots as inspiration to keep going :-) Also hanging there are the reins for the bridle for the mother hubbard II set.

Also, I have an arabian show halter in progress as a donation to a show I'm going to. I try to donate something (anything, not always tack) to any show that I go to.

All in all, lots of projects on the bench!

shhh.. baby's sleeping!

Finally! I was able to get my son down for a nap for a decent amount of time! He's been very awake lately and staunchly resisting naps. He really likes to look around and see stuff and feel new things with those little hands :o). He's learned to take the pacifier out of his mouth with his hands but he hasn't learned to put it back in yet. He also has learned to smile every time I smile at him which is just heart warming..

Today I posted a western show halter with interwoven turks head knots on ebay. Please go http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120235538293 to see it. (or it bid!) (you can also see a picture of it above). I really hope it is as successful as the last halter that I had for sale cause I need the moola!

I made a bit of headway on the mother hubbard bosal but I found taht I'm pickier about the knots that I'm making so I've had to do a few over. (and over and over...) I'll post pictures of that as soon as it's at a stage where I'm happy with it.

I did find another design for a spade bit that I think I should be able to do. I found it on ebay (home to everything I've ever wanted but didn't know that I needed)

Gah! *grumble*

Today is one of those days that I have gotten nothing done in the studio. I thought I had finished my "Lady Phase" Mold Halter and I was pretty happy with my work. I then got a gander of it in the bright natural light and I noticed that all of the knots were dirty. I think that the day I was doing the knots, I touched them too much when I was working on them. It appeared that the oils from my hands turned the Ecru colored thread grey. This means that all of the knots have to be redone which is difficult to do when the halter is completly put together. I've gotten half of the knots redone that I need though so that makes me feel a little better.

Then I went to work on the Bosal for the mother hubbard II saddle. I tried to comprehend how to do a real six bight nose button in miniature and my brain just wasn't having it. I decided to fudge it a bit by just covering some spanish ring knots on either end. Well, I didn't realize that I should'v made those knots stationary before trying to braid over top of them. As you can imagine, my braiding work was "chasing" the knot to the wrong spot on the bosal. I then secured the knots but I have to wait a day to let the clear fingernail polish dry.

Then I went onto the bit for my Mother Hubbard II saddle. I'm not sure what I was thinking with the particular design. I can't use it now. It's just "wrong". This means I have to design another one AND I wasted precious silver in my first attempt with the other design.

Today was not the good day in the studio like I had thought it would be, but everyone has setbacks.

My son was crankier than usual today too. He's not on a rigid feeding and sleeping schedule. We kind of go with the flow with him because he constantly changes when he's hungry and when he sleeps. He roughly goes 3 - 4 hours between feedings and he has been sleeping up to 6 hours overnight. This last week though, he's not been sleeping well or napping well so it has made him cranky. (Not to mention mom and dad!) A lot of today was spent running around the house and trying to appease baby.

Yesterday and today Louisville, Ky experienced more of that "weather" that I mentioned a few posts ago. 7-12 Inches of snow fell across our fair city. Thankfully I had no where to be today so I enjoyed the snow in our back yard. I took quite a few pictures and above is one that I took at dusk.

I'm ready to go to bed now even though it's only 7pm! Thankfully, there is always tomorrow.

CRUD

Last week I thought that I temporarily linked ONE webshots photo (The bosal) to my blogger account. Well, apparently I permanently linked them somehow. I see now on my website's blogger feed (www.desertnightcreations.com/halters.html) that it updates anytime I do anything to my webshots albums. This is not at all what I intended. My Apologies if you get anything weird like an email about me updating my webshots albums. I'm going to try to find out how to Unlink it.

This weekend was somewhat productive in the studio. I got further with the Lady phase halter and I read up on how to create a real nose button for a bosal. My brain hasn't "cooked" this piece of information yet and I don't know how to make it miniaturized. (Again, it makes me marvel at Susan Bensema Young's brilliance of making things in miniature.)

Little Man is doing great except for being a bit restless when he sleeps. I think he's going through some pre-teething stage. He's drooling a lot and not sleeping soundly. Last night he was very very restless which is continuing into this morning. Every time he falls asleep he seems to wake back up - all with his eyes closed... Course I don't mind looking at him..he's pretty cute

Finished Bosal!

Ice Storm

Last night and part of the early morning today Louisville, Ky experienced an Ice storm. You northern folk might be giving me the "big whup" signal, but here in Louisville, this is a fairly rare occurrence. Louisville is in a geological/weather "bowl" of sorts. Mostly any "weather" (meaning storms or bad weather) goes around us - North to Indiana, and South to Bullet county. (Louisville is in Jefferson County). It literally usually just skirts us and we get the edge of the storms. (Except for the winter of 1994 but that's a different story).

I precariously went out on our back deck and our front yard today while munchkin slept this morning. The first picture shown is one of the pictures I took. Even though it's raining now, it's only 35 degrees and for some reason the ice is hanging around. Which is good for those of us that have the time to play with our cameras.

The second picture (which is horrible, my apologies)is a miniature bosal in progress that was designated for my "Mother Hubbard II" set. It marks the first time I've done an interweave heel knot on a bosal. I really haven't made that many bosals in my "career" of making miniatures. I think I've made about 10 total. This bosal was supposed to be a "bosalita" or "bosilla" or "Pencil Bosal" that marks a horse near the end of his bosal training, before he becomes a full "Bridle horse". I feel as though the heel knot is too large and I want a fancier bosal for my mother Hubbard set.

Therefore this bosal has turned into a regular bosal (in my mind) and will be donated to the Model Horse anonymous Live model horse show hosted by Heather Jackson-Lain. I had totally sworn off any donations to any shows this year because my schedule is so wonky but everything kind of fell into place for me to do this so I am. :-) The great thing is that I can finish up this bosal and make a twisted mecate for it which will give me some practice for the new bosal I'm going to make for the Mother Hubbard set. It lacks a couple of details that I want to put on it, but otherwise the headstall portion of it is pretty much finished.

I'm happy to report that Susan Bensema Young saw my last blog post, took pity on me and has graciously sent me the formula for a single interweave on a turks head knot in an email. I still can't find that original piece of paper. I've literally looked everywhere at this point. I wonder if I brought it with me somewhere and forgot it or it dropped down underneath something. I hope that I didn't throw it out with a bunch of other papers!

Anyway, if you're reading, THANK YOU SUSAN!!!!! You are always so gracious to me with your time and your knowledge, I don't know that I could ever repay you! (but I'm gonna try!) :-)

I now have high hopes for the new bosal that I'm going to make. I have it all pretty well planned out in my noggin and I hope that I can bring it to fruition.

My son is doing really well and life around here has definitely changed for the better. I'm still really, really tired but he's sleeping longer at night inbetween feedings so I'm not as tired as I was before. He really brings a lot of joy to the house and to our lives. He's learned to smile at us and laugh a little. It's very heartwarming and makes all of the sleepless nights worth it.

Ok, I admit it...

When Susan Bensema-Young came to visit me this past year during Breyerfest week 2007 she was kind enough to write out a "primer" for knot interweaving. I cherished this piece of paper because I thought it was SO NICE Of Susan to provide me with this information even though, at the time, I didn't entirely understand it. I KNEW though that it would be important to me when I was ready for it.

Well, This past week I was finally ready for it. And yes, you guessed it, I can't find the Damned thing! I had it in my "Inspiration/reference" binder and I must've taken it out at some point, thinking that I would do some knots and I've now entirely forgotten where I put it. I have now been searching for it for four days and I can't find it anywhere. Its not in any of the numerous piles of stuff in my studio or in any of the magazines that I normally read. Of course, it's not also in it's place, in my inspiration binder. It's not in my English/other pattern binder or my western saddle pattern binder either.

I was really bummed because I was really ready to start on some new interweaves for the NEW bosal that I'm going to be doing for my mother hubbard set. I have bought THREE books on how to braid leather, not realizing that only one, The Encyclopedia of Leather Braiding would've been fine. I also have "How to make Cowboy horse tack" and I found the section in it on bosals. (well, I found it because I went looking for it). I am going to attempt a miniature bosal made very similar to a real bosal. I wanted to do a certain interweave on the side buttons of the bosal. I feel as though the mother hubbard set "deserves" more sophisticated and realistic knots than those I've made in the past.

Luckily, I have a piece by Susan Bensema Young. A lovely leather/woven knot bridle in which she employed the herring bone interweave and the single interweave that I was looking for. Thanks to her excellent teaching I was able to look at her knots with the single interweave and I *think* I've figured out how to do a single interweave on a four bight five part knot. I've semi-successfully done this intweave twice now on a scrap piece of leather lacing and I'm ready to try it on a bosal.

Because of doing this, my brain automatically went to pondering a two color herringbone interweave. At first, I thought that I had it figured out, but sometimes what I have contemplated in my brain doesn't translated into real life. So that is going to take more cooking and figuring in my subconscious.

Well, it's Saturday again which means I take Munchkin to his Grandparents house. I have to run to the store first to get a Birthday card and more mylicon. I think this will be the first time I've actually gone to the store since my son was born. His dad has been wonderful enough to have done all of the food shopping up until this point! I'm kinda looking forward to going to a grocery store again! ha!!

Stuff I'm working on..

Above is a picture of the projects I'm currently working on.

The Western halter with the interwoven knots is the "lady phase" mold halter that I've been promising for a while. I am up to the point where I attach the buckles and the real silver keepers (the flat strips of silver are the keepers). My son doesn't like the sound of the engraver - he cries when he hears it - so I have to wait until he's asleep in a different part of the house to use it, which slows down the process even more. (thank goodness for intercom systems!)

The bosalita is for the Mother Hubbard II set that I have been working on for almost a year now. I'm not entirely sure that the bosal is finished. I'm "cooking" that one in the back of my mind.

The long string is supposed to be the mecate that I mentioned in my previous post but it doesn't really look the way I want it to either. It will be done over and some interwoven knots will be added at each end. I did learn that if I left the waxed strings overnight that they kept their shape! This leads to all sorts of new possibilities because it solves some of the issues that I was having. Thank goodness for happy accidents!

I'm also feeling rather "brave" about trying some new interwoven knots. I don't know where this bravery has come from but I'm glad it's here. Now to find the time to actually try them out!!

a really good day

Today was a really good day.

We went as a family (me, my son and my husband) to my favorite Mexican Buffet restaurant, Marimba, in Shelbyville, Ky. Their food is excellent and all of the waiters know us. So it's kind of like going to a friend's for brunch.

Then when I came home, I took my son to my parent's house. They really love their latest grandson (and all of their older grandsons)and they subtlely teach me how to handle him every time I'm there. I don't know if they know that they're teaching me anything but they are.

Today my dad held my son and talked to him while my son was coo-ing and smiling at his grandpa. Today was the longest that my son has been awake his entire 8 week life and my Dad encouraged this. My son absolutely came alive and was very very active. He waved his arms, and kicked his legs and smiled repeatedly at my dad. This has taught me that he (my son) needs to spend less time in his bouncer and more time in my arms interacting with me.

When I came home, baby was tired so we let him sleep as long as he wanted to. This gave me time in the studio. (2 and 1/2 hours!!!!!) I was able to put a heel knot on my bosalita that matches my mother hubbard saddle and I started on making a new mecate for it. By looking at Susan Bensema Young's mecate and using Carol Williams Of Rio Rondo's method of making a rope, I thought that I had figured out how real twisted mecates are made. My method wasn't working however... I'm going to have to come up with a way to twist one in small scale.

I did find a video on the internet showing how life size mecates were machine made and I was indeed making it how real ones were made... Somehow it didn't work for me though so obviously more practice is needed.

Still this is progress and I feel really good about it.

After coming out of the studio, I fed munchkin who drank a whole bottle (which is rare for him) and then we interacted. He coo'd and smiled and even laughed at me as I chattered on at him! It was wonderfully heart warming and worth going through all of the colic episodes of the last two months :-)

Now to get him to sleep through the night!!

Happy Feb 1, 2008!

Hi Folks!
Happy Feb 1st!

The last two months have been exceptionally busy and life changing for me, as you can imagine. RJ was suffering from colic every night and we've gone through four different formulas. The last formula seems to be working because the poor little guy isn't as colicky as he was on the others. He had a lot of gas and tummy issues. He's still waking me up several times overnight but that is more my fault than his. As expected, I'm a bit overly protective of him, so if he makes a weird noise I have to wake up to investigate.

This means I'm not getting a lot of sleep. I'm very grateful to my husband who takes over watching munchkin when he comes home from work, after dinner, so that I can get some solid sleep before taking over "third shift" again.

My son has brought a whole lot of joy to my life and I really shouldn't have waited till I was 37 to do this! (but I really think I wasn't ready till now.. I'ma bit of a late bloomer)

I am not going back to regular work as I thought that I might. It just hasn't worked out with my former employer so for now I'm staying home to raise munchkin.

This also means that I may get a bit more time in the studio. This week I've gotten up there for about an hour a day. My son comes with me and listens to music with me. Sometimes he sleeps and lets me work and sometimes he complains. On the weekends I should have more time cause hubby is home to help me watch munchkin.

The good news is that I have finished the knots on the new Lady Phase halter, but I don't know when it'll be finished.

Secondly, my staying home means that I'm gonna need money. Currently the only way I can legally get money is to make model horse tack .

My plan is to make a piece of tack for sale and offer it via lottery to folks only on my yahoo lists as a thank you for their continued loyalty. This will probably be in march because I need to finish the mother hubbard set II for it's owner first :) ( I swear I haven't forgotten! - I just need to learn one more interweave and make the bit!)

WOW what a couple of months!

I can't believe that I haven't blogged for almost two months! They have been very hard but very worthwhile months!

I don't have a lot of freed time right now of course because our son is still very young. (Six weeks this week!) My free time is spent washing baby bottles, squeezing in a shower or sleeping!

The worst part of all of this is the sleep deprivation. I get very emotional when I'm so exhausted and the hormones on top of it just make me sort of a useless blob..

The weekends are wonderful though because my husband insists that I get at least 8 hours of sleep for a couple of days.

I don't know when I'll get into the Studio again for a consistant amount of time because I'll be back to working on Feb 1st.

If you've emailed me and not heard back, I'm so very very sorry. I'm just so tired!

Peaceful :-)

Today I'm feeling very peaceful for once. Friday (yesterday) was my last day at work and I am now on Maternity leave. I have a TON of stuff that I need to do this next week but I have faith in myself that I'll get most of it done

On Thursday evening I spent time with my two closest friends, Robin and Anna. We went out to dinner and then went to a book store. (I LOVE book stores!) It was nice to get out and have a leisurely evening with very good company.

Today I met another friend of mine, Lori, for Breakfast and we had a nice chat about munchkins and grandparents and stuff. Lori is expecting too. It was good to see her because I don't think that I've seen her since I got married in 2002!

I'm still feeling rather tired but I presume that is to be expected. Thursday morning and intermittently friday I had shoulder problems and headaches but it seems to have subsided today. I made myself sleep a lot after I got off of work yesterday and that seemed to help some. Hopefully now that I don't have to worry about work I'll get a bit more sleep.

Unfortunately I haven't been in the studio at all. I am either just too tired or I can't focus on what I'm doing. I find that when I'm like this, it's best to just wait until my focus is back. I end up making something wrong and having to do it over anyway which frustrates me.

Anywho, tomorrow I get to go to Marimba's mexican food buffet which is my favorite!! YAAY!