Braided and Leather Bridle

Hi there!

The Braided and leather Bridle below (after the breastcollar post) is now available at this link:

http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/sales/view_details.asp?id=775569

Alicia Vogel's Breastcollar in progress

This breastcollar matches a western pleasure bridle that I made for Alicia Vogel last year. She has been exceedingly patient with me while waiting for this to get finished.. I'm only about 1/3rd of the way into it.. lots more to go!

The D rings have been half hitched. The turks head knots are six bight, seven part turks head knots that have been interwoven with a herringbone interweave. The silver beads are real silver. The red knots are spanish ring knots of two passes. Lots more to do!! Then onto the nan donation! I need more energy and time!~ WIsh walmart sold THAT in a bottle!

By the way there IS a Desert Night Creations Group on Facebook. Just Search for Desert Night Creations and then join!

Where does the time go!?

Time seems to fly so fast now! I guess thats what having a munchkin in your life can do. So much time devoted to his sweet soul that just slips by un-noticed. Thankfully, for now, he's been relatively healthy which has been easier on us. He did have a "bug" of some sort last week but nothing really to speak of since. He's also learning new words which makes mommy and daddy realize that we need to watch what we say ;-) - and what we do. He picks up things so fast! I'm hoping soon that he'll be old enough to play more on his own so that I can get some more studio time and more time to clean up the house on a regular basis.

The above Bridle is for Heather Jackson-Lain's show, "Model Horse ANonymous III". Unfortunately I couldn't get my entry together in time so I'm not going this year. I definitely want to go next year and hopefully I'll be in a financial position to do so! You'll need to contact Heather for how and when it'll be sold.

I've wanted to do a braided snaffle bridle for some time, but there isn't a lot of precedence for braided bridles to have snaffles. Most use a fancy curb bit with a silvery overlay and romel (vaquero) reins. I thought that this bridle would be a nice "practice" bridle for my NAN donation which will be a braided headstall with a hand made silver snaffle bit. I also got to "play" with the black unwaxed dental floss that I found. That stuff is pricey! You'd think that something that you bought to use and then throw away would be cheaper! It stays straighter though than the artificial rawhide with the wax removed and I really like the detail it ads to the end of the reins. I can see two toned tassels using it in the future.. ;-) The headstall of the bridle above has basket weave on it and real silver on the tips of the crownpiece. I was forced to skive the leather really thin because the keepers are real woven knots and didn't leave a lot of "clearance" room. I did seal both the top and the underside of the silver tips though so that the leather would kind of "fuse" to it. So far so good!

It's almost Kentucky Derby time again! I've been paying more attention to the derby contenders this year because for a short while, Barbaro's full brother, Lentenor, was in the running. He isn't quite showing the maturity needed for the mad dash that is the Kentucky Derby. Hopefully he can look at some of the later triple crown races or maybe even the breeders cup!

Happy Spring and I hope that you're not flooded or sneezing too much!

one down!

Several to go! I wanted this to be a nice long, artsy, rambl-y post but as always, I'm out of time! These are finished photos of morgen K.'s trade bridle :-)

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!

Roy Rogers and High Noon

The above photo is owned by Highnoon.com auction company.

Is it really December? Is it really the Middle of December? Crud! I haven't done hardly anything at all in the studio... I've been too busy and exhausted. Well thats not true, I have done a few things. I'm working on another Bridle for my trade with Morgen Kilbourne but that requires "dremel time" and "engraver time" and I haven't had hardly any in the last month.

Also I'm ever so slowly working on refurbishing/re-doing a bridle for my Friend Anna. I made a green bridle for her a long time ago that I now can't stand to look at! My skills have gotten so much better and I understand bridles so much better now. So it must be redone with new skills. Thankfully she is extremely patient with me so I work on it when I can't work on anything else.

In case you haven't heard, the Roy Rogers museum in Branson, MO closed on the 13th. I was so bummed that I didn't make it to the museum before it closed. Definitely an opportunity missed that I will regret for some time. The one saving grace that I have though is that www.highnoon.com auction company will be auctioning off the items from the museum and they are making up a catalog. In case I hadn't mentioned it before I am a catalog junkie. Especially for tack catalogs, and High Noon's offerings are no exception. I have every one that I can get my hands on. Whenever I'm feeling "flat" I flip through one of those catalogs and my head is filled with ideas again! To me, it's worth the investment... I'm hoping that their photos of the sale items will be spectacular so that I can see them in as much detail as possible.. here's to hoping!

I threw my "hat" in the ring for a NAN donation this year. I also have promised a donation to Heather Jackson Lain's Model Horses Anonymous III! This year, I hope to go to the show too.. I haven't been to a model horse show in AGES and I'm DYING to go to one to talk with people!

So thats it for now.. I'll have a bit of time next week to shoot some photos and hopefully get some dremel time so that I can make some things from silver that I've needed for a while.

A little more Blather Regarding the Bridles.

The Blue, Black and White bridle was one that I envisioned almost a year ago in December 2008. it took me this long to actually execute it. I did a little drawing of how I wanted the bit and the bridle to go and then put it in my stack of inspiration and moved forward to other projects... Learning to interweave knots is one of the most gratifying of my skills and I'm so glad that I took that "leap".

The bit is hand made by me out of silver. I also hammered it a bit for the first time and it's more "3-d" than you can see in the photo. I also made the browband a bit thicker so that it was a bit more of an "accent" on the forehead. Maybe eventually there will be a saddle and a saddle pad to match but for right now, it's a stand alone piece.

I want to move towards more pieces that only utilize bits and buckles that I make. Unfortunately, Munchkin doesn't like the sound of the dremel and I can only work with the dremel when he's awake and downstairs with Anthony. Now that I'm working, that rarely happens though. I see so little of both of them now, that I just wait until RJ goes to sleep to work in the studio, and even then I need to do "quiet" things. (Braiding, of course, is perfect for this! LOL!)

The Bridle with the red and turquoise was the brainchild of and belongs to Alicia Vogel who is a really really talented artist in her own right. The bridle is partially a trade for a Jennifer Buxton Dressage saddle. (as if I need another.. I have two others already! LOL! Have I mentioned that I collect tack?) There will be a matching breastcollar when I get to do dremel work again...

The last bridle the brown one, belongs to Morgen Kilbourne. If you read her blog recently, you know that she's really happy to have it, which of course thrills me beyond belief!! I have to say that I really love that Hazel Resin of her's. So versatile really and so much personality in that face! I can't wait to make a set for her of my own! The bridle was a trade towards a Hazel resin and I appreciate Morgen (AND ALICIA's) patience..

There is one last trade to complete and thats with the talented painter, Chelsea Nichols. She is thankfully trading me for some paint jobs on some of my unpainted resins. Her trade involves a western pleasure set and that'll hopefully be started by the new year.. (provided I Stay well and bub is well and I continue to have the time that I have).

The new job is really great.. I'm not just saying that either. So far everyone has been exceptionally helpful and patient with me and in turn I've tried my hardest to learn things quickly and not ask too many stupid questions. I've never been in such a helpful work atmosphere and I'm really enjoying it.. If I have to work instead of being in the studio then this is the job that I want.. It's only a few minutes from RJ's daycare as well.

I have been getting up at 4:30am so that I can work out, then get dressed, then get bub fed and dressed, get anthony out the door and then finally us out the door and get to work Then I get home at around 4:45 and it's time for dinner and then bub gets a bath and finally goes to bed.. so my days are full to say the least!

Next month (er.. tuesday....) Munchkin turns 2!! So big already, I can't believe it! And he's in "Parrot" Mode so I have to watch what I say when driving.. LOL!

Anyway, I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season!!

Not often I have this much of my work laying around!

Before being shipped off to their new owners this week (I hope!) I snapped photos of the three bridles in my studio. The blue and black one will be staying (still need a connector bar on that bit!!!) but the other two are finished! (the curb strap for the blue bridle is finished, just not yet photographed) They look kinda cool all together don't they? Lots of work there...

Whew! Been Too Long since I blogged!

I have still been uber busy with work, working out, RJ, hubby and all of the myriad of tasks i have to do every week. Suffice to say that my Studio time has been ultra slim! I did have some time, every night to at least attempt some knots and I'm happy to say that I'm about 9/10ths away from being finished with Morgen Kilbourne's "hazel" bridle! She has already ok'd the pictures so I am going to share them with you!

Every time I make something, i try really really hard to put in some kind of "crazy" detail that I hope that folks will like. This time it was the tiny browband tassels. I'm very proud of those! I also really like the color combination. I think it was partially inspired by Kellye Bussey's bridle and partially inspired by one of the old "cowboy tack" catalogs.

Look for the bridle in Region X next year!!

Thank you so much Morgen for the Trade and for the Inspiration!!!