Still Working on the Bridle. THis is the headstall in progress

Bam! Right into a wall..

No, not my car.. My brain!

I'm working on the crownpiece for the braided bridle and I'm having a hard time making knots overtop the tassel/knot combo thing at the end. I've done it once but the knot was too big and the decorative knot didn't cover it completely so I had to cut it off. After that, I haven't successfully made another decorative knot over top the "Functional" knot which makes the tassel head. I guess my brain just doesn't "Understand" it or maybe it's too advanced for my skill level right now. I dunno but I'm just going to keep banging my head against it until I get it right. (as usual!)

I've had some very nice folks tell me that they don't believe that any of my tackmaking is hard for me, but I'm here to set the record straight! I just have a stubborn streak a mile wide and the unfortunate desire for doing things the hard way

Inbetween banging my head against that knot/tassel issue, I'm working on another "braided" western show halter for the Peter Stone Ideal Stock Horse Mold. I am going to "lottery" it off on my yahoo group to thank those folks for joining and being so patient. That way I don't have to fool with Ebay, which is getting stranger and stranger with it's rules.

I also have another bosal/hanger on my radar to sell because I'm saving money for my Breyerfest Trip in July. I Fooled with it briefly yesterday because it's made the "old way" that I used to make bosals instead of the "new way" that I learned earlier this year. That's going to take some time too.. I may just scrap it and start a new one.. it might be easier and faster.

My Son is more aware of the world around him now. Last week he turned over from back to belly several times on his own, but he doesn't seem interested in doing that this week. This week he's been crankier than usual and has been sleeping more, getting up at 7am instead of his usual 6am. This is good because it's been giving me a bit more sleep which I desperately need. I think he's closer to teething now because he loves cold teething rings on his gums. The bad part is that I'm getting less time in the studio. Before he'd just stare at the TV's colors and music but now he seems to need my attention more. He seems to be on par for development for his age which is very comforting.

I should probably say something about the Poor Filly Eight Belles from the Derby but I don't want to go on and on about my theories about why it happened or my "issues" with Racing horses. I think that if you do a Google News search you'll read opinions of all types. Some more informed than mine and some less. There was a really good article on the ESPN website about all of the factors contributing to all of the more frequent race horse breakdowns over the last few years. To read it you can go here It says a lot of things that I already knew and suspected. One point was raised though that some of the same bloodlines here in the US that supposedly cause unsound horses race into their 4 year old and 5 year old years abroad in England and Australia. So clearly this is a complicated issue. I'm eager to see what US racing does to try to curb the "breakdown" trend.

Lastly, the picture above was taken by me in my Senior Year in highschool. In the 1980's there was a mostly arabian horse Subdivision in LaGrange Kentucky called "L'Spirit". It was made up of 100's of acres all carved into gigantic farms that mostly bred Arabians. The mares above belonged to Bittersweet Arabians. In my Sr year of high school, gas was less than $1 and to amuse myself I would go out driving and taking pictures of horses. Kentucky is a wonderful place to do this :)

Miniature Bridle In Progress for Mother Hubbard II set

Kentucky Derby Week!

Normally, I'm very INTO Kentucky Derby Week. I'm very proud that I live in Louisville, KY and that all eyes are on us once a year for this prestigious horse race. Although I have my "issues" with the horse racing industry, I set those aside for the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby.

This year though, because of Mr Boy, I've been somewhat "out of it". I barely know who's running although I did pick some horses to root for. Big Brown, Colonel John and Eight Belles.

It poured rain today before the Oaks and made the track sloppy so a long shot came in. Thats part of the fun of horse racing, you never know what will happen.

On Derby Saturday, I never ever go to a Derby Party and anyone that is not a horse lover is allowed to come to my house. I find that "regular" people want to *gasp* TALK to me while the TV talks about horses. How annoying...! I just want to watch the coverage of the Races and of the various Derby Contenders without having to make small talk with someone about something other than horses.

I also refuse to leave the house for any reason. The one year that I agreed to give a lift to someone ("I swear it'll only take an hour!" they said...) to their mother's house, I found, after going to said friend's mother's house that she in fact, did not own a tv. You can imagine how peeved I was.

On the miniatures front, I started on the headstall for the braided bridle for my Mother Hubbard II set. it's wrong.... just all wrong.. Tomorrow I'm going to have to cut it off of the bit and start over. I had a couple of techniques in mind but they turned out too bulky and I didn't like the look.. then I thought I had a decent design but it's just not.. At least I have the weekend to work on it though while I watch the races.

Lastly, the picture of the Beautiful Horse Above was taken at the Rock Creek Spring Horse Show that I went to last week. It's not "After Eight", the horse pictured in my last blog post, but it's another beautiful black horse.. I didn't catch it's name though. I think that a few horses that showed there were not Saddlebreds. I don't think that the horses that showed were required to be a Saddlebred but I'm not sure about that. The horse above does not look "Saddlebred-y" to me but I'm not an expert.

I'm not finished with resizing the pictures from the show but as soon as I do I'll let people know.

Blather.......

Above is a picture of this Gorgeous Young Three Gaited Saddlebred that I Saw today at the 2008 Rock Creek Spring Horse Show. The Person riding him is Rob Byers, owner of Premier Stables in Simpsonville, KY. I know him vicariously through my friend, Robin Hudson, who rides there. Rob is an accomplished Saddlebred trainer and has trained numerous champions. No doubt this amazing black horse will be another one!


Robin and I Spent a couple of lovely hours, sneezing and having our eyes water because of the high pollen count while watching the show. It was worth it though :-)


I took this picture with my New Cannon EOS 40D camera and my new zoom lens. It's been a LONG LONG time since I've used a 35mm type of camera, let alone one as wonderful as this one. I still have a lot to learn such as how many pictures I can take with the "Sports" setting shooting multiple shots. The good part is that you have many chances to get a good photo. The bad part is that you can get a lot of bad photos. I took 434 photos and I'd say that less than half are satisfactory. This is of course the Photographers fault ;-)


I am still going through my photos and I'll let everyone know when I post the rest of them online, on my photo site: http://photos.modelhorseshowphotos.com


Recently on a sales site for model horses I saw a beautiful braided bridle in Model horse scale braided by someone who normally braids regular size tack and things. The site stated that the braider did not use "glue" to keep the knots together. This got me thinking, do people think that I use glue on my knots because I feel as though they will come unraveled? I don't use glue, but I do coat my knots so that they'll hold up to years of wear and tear and also so that they'll stay clean when touched. Whenever possible, I finish my knots as instructed in braiding books but I feel as though that if someone pays good money for my work, it had better hold up! That is one way that I can insure it does regardless of treatment. I hope people that buy my work understand this.


Mr Boy's schedule is being ironed out and things are going better. The feeding part of the schedule has definitely worked itself out. The Nap part I'm still working on. His Naps are still erratic and he takes at least three a day. Sometimes each nap is at least 2hrs and sometimes they're only 45 minutes.


Tonight his temperature was up a little so my husband and I decided to forgo our walk. It was a warm day outside earlier and we don't want to raise it up any further. He's happily in his bouncer, kicking away at me right now and complaining that I'm not giving him enough attention.. I guess this means I better stop typing now..

Finished Mecate!

YAY! The mecate is finished! Pictures above!I have something that I want to blog about but Mr Boy needs some attention so I don't have time now.



I'm going to attempt to go to a saddlebred horse show this weekend so I may have pictures to share!

Still working..

I'm still working on the accessories and pieces for my mother hubbard set. I know it may not look like much but the knots decorating the cheek pieces on the bosalita above took me 5 days to complete! The hardest ones are the double row interweaves. Weaving knots on a base as thin as 1/16th" is daunting to say the least. I've made and destroyed at least 5 knots in order to get them just right. This marks the firs ttime i've decorated a bosal "hanger" with knots up the side and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I do know that the mecate isn't tied correctly.. I just wanted to see how the colors all looked together. The mecate isn't finished of course.. still working on it.

I have started on another halter that will be for sale on ebay in the coming month. I need the moola so there will be pieces for sale throughout the year this year.. :-)

Starting last Thursday, my husband and I have been attempting to put The Boy on a new schedule. I've tried really hard to factor in his natural rythms of sleeping and eating so that the schedule isn't too jarring to him. It's been a bit rough because we're trying to get him to nap at certain times and eat at certain times and I'm not getting as much sleep but I'm sure in the long run this will all pay off. I fall more in love with him with each day :-)

I normally mention the weather around here because it's been a bit "kooky" but this time, I'm going to mention the Earthquake that hit on Friday morning at 5:36am. I am a light sleeper, especially now that I have munchkin and I felt/heard every rattle. I just remember seeing my bedroom door shake in it's hinges as I saw light come through the top and the bottom of the door jam. The kitties seemed annoyed as if their humans had shaken the house on purpose. When I went to see if my husband felt the quake, they meowed at me questioningly.

I seem to recall that the last time Louisville felt an earthquake was in the Late 70's early 80's when I was a little girl but I just can't remember the exact year. I do remember looking at my model horse collection hoping that it didnt' fall over.. I did the same thing this time too.. Nothing fell over and our china even stayed in place. I have no idea how since the quake shook the door so hard. Mr boy slept through it for once.. I envied him :-)

Supposedly there was another 4.something earthquake this morning at 1am but I definitely didn't feel that one. Mr Boy was a handful yesterday so I was sleeping for all I was worth!

Workbench "In Progress" Items

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