Tiny Tack Marathon - The Start

A few months ago, a friend asked me if I'd like to go to The Little Horse Show - put on by Stone Horses, in Indiana, in early September.  I said, "sure!".

After paying for entry, I began studying the class list and then an idea crept in.  What if I did Performance?  What if I did only Performance?  What if... I picked ONE horse and tried to enter every single class with that horse?

I was quite intrigued by the idea and thought it would be a great "excuse" to push my tack making and my (largely untested) Performance showing skills.  

Then came the selection process. 

First I thought, which breed can do everything?  Which could I probably find lots of references for?  Arabian was what I came up with - it doesn't hurt that they are a favorite breed of mine. 

Okay, which Arabian?  I briefly considered the idea of making a CM Stablemate Arabian in a walking or trotting pose, but I decided trying to do that AND make ALL of the tack and entries might be a bit much, even for me...

My pick, as you may already know by now, was a mini Khemosabi resin that I had painted during NaMoPaiMo in 2020.  I had named him Sound The Bugle.  I really liked the idea of doing this adventure with him.  

He had recently returned from his own big adventure, where he and everyone else in this herd had just returned from Kentucky.  The same friend who brought up the idea of going to The Little Horse Show had proxy showed for me at Equilocity during BreyerFest!

A certain little bay Arabian was drafted from that chaos there and chosen to prep for another big show.

As a bit of a bonus, for the marathon of tack making to come, he has his own "stunt double".  I have another copy of this resin, still unpainted.   

Okay, little guy(s), let's get to work!

I did a TON of brain storming, research, and note taking. 

First up for studio work was sculpting some saddle trees.  As much as I had planned to use the stunt double for most things, I had to draft the "hero horse" for making saddle trees, because I figured I would need several saddles.  

I used Apoxy Sculpt and started with a variety of saddles in mind (english, western, endurance, costume).  In the days to come, as the saddle trees were cured, I popped them off the horses and sculpted more.

(Those little plastic bins I had found at the dollar store proved to be absolutely necessary for this whole project)

More saddle stuff!

The bin for saddles started having a good number to experiment with.

In addition to saddles, I would need a lot of leather lace.  I skivved, prepped, and split lace in a few colors.  

For sizes, I had prepped everything from 1/4", 1/8", 3/32", and 1/16"... but even 1/16" was too wide.  I knew I would have split it.  Oddly, that was something I put off for a little while.  I hadn't done it before and I was overthinking it (big surprise).  

An interesting development - once I had a pile of prepped lace and was avoiding splitting some of it - was that I ended up dog sitting for a friend of ours for a few days.  Last time I had done this, I had taken some projects over and hung out.  Most notably, I started an Arabian costume that I think of as "The Lucy".

This is Lucy.  She is a very sweet pupper.

I've long known of the power of being "somewhere else" for the creative process, particularly when stuck on a project.  

It was while hanging out with Lucy again that I started splitting leather lace and..  I found it easy to do!  

The prep work, fabrication, and assembly continued at tack desk in the studio,

and at the kitchen bar that Brent built.

You can see how much those little bins helped.  Also, a lot of post it notes were used to try and stay organized - while trying to work on a project that was actually several smaller ones at the same time.

This was, more or less, the start of the whole thing!  

Back On The Saddle - A Decade Later

Remember that time 10+ years ago when I started working on my first leather saddle?

I had done a few posts about it here, like this one where I had cut all of the pieces out.  Also, this one where I did, probably, the biggest upgrade that will be done on it, stepping up the stirrups.

Well, I've been working on it again.  I was guessing it had been 10 years (possibly more) since I had worked on it and apparently, according to this blog, I was right.

Here's how it looked when I set up to work on it again last night:

Those clothespins have been on there all this time.  To Japan and back, and through several other moves.

I think these parts are thoroughly glued together now.

So... why go back to it now?

I have been both excited and intimated by the idea of making saddles.  Over the years I've sort of danced around them, making many saddle stands and saddle pads... but no saddles.  I've continued to study saddles, collect references and dream, but that was it.

Interestingly, I've now done a LOT of work with leather - mostly strap goods (bridles, halters, harness work, and so on).  When I started this saddle, it was my very first big, "real" (leather) project.  It was... as I said, exciting and scary. 

Last month, in early September, I made my first "serious" go at showing performance, which is something I could easily write a few posts about - and I hope to!  I went with the goal of showing one horse in every performance class and I just about pulled it off (choosing to skip a few classes toward the end, to put more time into my biggest entry).

As you might guess, to pull that off, I needed saddles.  And so, harnessing the power of last minute, I did show with 5 saddles that I made.  Or, almost made.  I'm not sure I consider them finished, but anyhow, I did it!  

I ran the gauntlet of English saddles,

a Western saddle (which was the most unfinished of them, but I went for it anyway),

and an "other saddle", for Endurance. 

After all of that, saddles felt less scary.  Surely if I made several mini scale saddles in short time, I could handle that old Traditional scale western saddle I'd started?

Another motivator is that I have been working hard on my Etsy shop over the last month, clearing some of the logjam of things I've made that need to be photographed and listed to sell.  Last week the batch of photos and listings that I worked on was a bunch of saddle pads.  Again I thought, it'd be nice to have a saddle to show them off with.  

So, I dug out ye olde started saddle and here we are.

I picked up right where I left off, on the cinches.  I fished gluing on the liners and attached the connector strap between them.  I also pinched the holes in the billets, grabbed a horse, and cinched up what I had for the first time!  (that was pretty dang cool)

I do remember that I hit a snag in the kit instructions that derailed me and, well... 10 years have gone by.  I DID find, what I felt were, much better instructions for that part at some point and so I did get a piece of it done, with no record of when or where that happened.  That piece was the front half of the tree.

I did go a bit farther with assembly last night; I attached that front piece to the lower skirt and I also attached the stirrup fenders.  Oh, and I glued the cantle support  piece onto the back of the cantle.  Next up is putting the back half of the tree on, then the upper skirt, seat..  and so on.  

As usual, for me, I'm already thinking about future possibilities.  In the last 10 years I've learned a lot about working with leather, including a bit about stamping, carving, and tooling.  When I started it, I had really wanted to make this saddle fancy in some way, but had decided to leave it plain.  I'm already pondering what I might do on the next one... I've also acquired some exciting tool in the last 10 years, like the elusive Rio Rondo basket weave stamp.  

It feels good to be working on an OLD project again. 

Maybe I'll get out the stagecoach again sometime soon - ha!

Guardian of the Cards

Every time there is a big gap in between posts - which is all the time "lately" (the last few+ years?) I feel like I should address it somehow when I unexpectedly post here again.  But also... "Ain't nobody got time for that"? 

I'm simultaneously somehow okay... better than ever, really - no.. really - while also struggling with a darkness I can't articulate.  Many times I've been told, or read or heard, that it takes being "safe" to finally be able to process trauma that you were stuck in survival mode to get through at the time it was happening.  I've realized that most of my life has been spent in that survival state.  I'll spare you the trauma dump(s).  I'm okay.  I really am.  It's just - at times - a daily fight to convince myself that it's true.  I'm trying to find myself again and this is part of that.  Thank you for being here. 

--------------------------------------------------------------

In the chaotic mess that is my life and my studio, there are some strange constants. 

One is this:

"What is that?", you might ask.  Good question!

I've come to think of him as the "guardian of the cards".  You see, for some reason, he ended up parked on top of the box my business cards are in.  He lives there.  Whenever I need a card, or three, I move him, retrieve the cards, then put him back at his post.  

But..  what is he?

He's a wooden bear, from Japan.  

Here's a better view of him, briefly taken as I rotated him on his perch.  (He looks a bit concerned.)  

Just a few days ago, the box of cards he guards was changed out.  The best way to describe that is probably to share the post I made on my Facebook business page tonight.

That about says it all, or all I need to say right now.  

More about that bear...

Wooden bears were everywhere when I was in Japan.  The one who guards the cards is the smallest in my little collection - and the smallest I'd seen there, which is why I bought him at a random sale somewhere over there.

The biggest one I have is this guy. 

He was a gift from my bonsai instructor, when he accepted a job in Tokyo and moved away from rural northern Japan, where I was.

Here he is with a Stablemate, for scale.

I laughed after I took that picture, realizing how that is a Stablemate (1:32) mold who is also a traditional (1:9) scale - which makes the bear look HUGE.  Ha!  He's not THAT big.

So here's another picture, with Hazard - a classic (1:12) scale mustang stallion.  (He is a son of Reckless, for anyone who's followed me for a while)

I also grabbed another bear to show off here, but the picture ended up blurry.  Ah well.  This bear has a fish on a fishing pole.

At times I had wished I knew the significance (if any) of the wooden bears, often carved with fish, in Japan.  While I was there it felt beyond the language barrier for me to ask.  Someday I might go searching on the internet, but for then and for now it's just a memory of my time there and that's enough.

There are definitely bears there and they are nothing to mess with.  The Asiatic Black Bear, which was found where I was living and exploring, was known to attack people.  Us Americans were warned that they are not the often timid black bears we might be used to.  Up north, on the island of Hokkaido, are big brown bears.  I saw some fairly fresh bear scat on a hiking trail once and I think I saw a bear in a field along the road another time.  That was - thankfully - as close as I ever got to one.  

The tiny carved bear who guards my cards feels like he is well suited to the task.  

Breyer MidWest Haul

Two weeks ago I quietly went to Breyer MidWest, in Salina, Kansas.  I say “quietly”, because I didn’t tell anyone I was going, except for the friend I spent the weekend with.  I’ve been distancing myself from a lot of people and “the hobby” at large for a while now, but that’s another story. 

I didn’t enter the open show or the swap meet.  Instead, I went to hang out with my friend and just “be”.  I did sign up for three workshops.  

When the swap meet came around, I wasn’t sure if I’d buy anything, but, well… 

Those are my acquisitions from the swap meet and the workshops.  

A handful of stablemates:

A handful of small resins:

Then there's this guy, he was laying in a tote with a "Free" sticker on his side.  I offered him a home and joked that I'll give him a peg leg.  They said, "maybe an eye patch?" and then I think his future was decided.

Before the swap meet, I'd mentioned to my friend that I'd like to maybe find a "Thunder" (Denver Broncos mascot Breyer) someday, because I thought a "white" (light grey) Asquar would be nice for tack and costume making.  

Then I saw this guy on a swap meet table:

Not Thunder...

However, he's the same color I was thinking of, and I couldn't say no to the price!

That was it for the swap meet. 

Though I did bring more horses home.

Here are my three horses from the workshops I took:
Introduction to Customizing with Tiffany Purdy,
Painting Flashy Appaloosas with Teddy Bates,
and Pasteling Duns with Stephanie Blaylock.

The drive home was long and I stopped for a while to walk around a couple of stores, just to have a break from the road.  One store was Runnings.  They are similar to a Farm Fleet or Tractor Supply type of place.  I peeked at their large selection of Breyers and Schleichs and immediately spotted this little foal staring boldly at me:

Is that?

Yes, the price tag said "Marwari foal".  How cool!

Next to him, I saw the "Marwari Mare" and was lukewarm about her initially.  I just didn't think she had the pizazz of the foal, haha. 

Then I saw the stallion, on a different shelf.  He was cool!  

I knew I wanted the foal, and the stallion, but I didn't want to break up the family, so you already know where this is going...

(and, by the way, the mare has grown on me)

I had also wandered through the horse tack aisle to see if there was any inspiration there.  There was, and also I made my first real horse tack for model horse reference purchase.  

This set of gaming reins was on clearance for $10: 

Then there was this set, which was only a few dollars more and I liked the colors:

Why gaming reins? 

Well, you see, I have a PILE of braided things here in the studio at the moment, and - aside from lead ropes - future gaming reins are the most numerous thing here.  I've been out of the studio way more than in it over the last few months and braiding is a good portable project, so...

Some of the ropes and reins I've braided over the past few months

Overall the trip to Kansas was a good one, despite my very mixed feelings about a lot of things ahead of time.  I'm glad I went and glad I decided to add a couple handfuls of horses, and reins, to my studio. 
  

It's A Problem

I have a problem.

I am solidly Team Matte.  I do have a handful of glossy models in my collection.  Mostly because that's the only finish that was available on a horse I really wanted.  

Examples of this are Chadwick (2022 Collector Club Web Special)

and Tassili (2021 BreyerFest SR)

In cases where a matte/glossy split was discovered upon release (such as with BreyerFest SRs), I've always hoped for the matte version and I've been mostly lucky there.  

Such as with Seurat (2021 BreyerFest SR)

When a matte/glossy option is given, I always choose matte. 

First one that comes to mind there is Astrid (2021 Breyer PC)

Another is Cancion (2023 Breyer PC)

All that is to say, yes, I am fairly solidly on Team Matte.

So...  what's the problem?

For the 2021 BreyerFest, I had ended up buying three tickets (a record for me) and so I picked out 6 SRs.  Of those, I chose two Surprise models.  My very first time taking that gamble. 

In 2019 (in person), my mission was getting Rocket, and I wasn't interested in the surprise model that year (which was known before I got my SRs) so I randomly grabbed another SR at the time.

In 2020 (virtual) I only had one ticket and reeeeally wanted Oak and Epona (and got them!)

Anyhow, in 2021 (virtual again) I was able to get 3 tickets and decided to go for 2 surprises.

The mold and colors for the Surprise were completely unknown, until people started getting their boxes of horses in the mail.

It turned out the Seven Arts Surprise for 2021was on the Dundee mold - which was a mold I did not have yet at that time.  Of the several color options (and each in matte or glossy finishes) I ended up with...

The classic champagne sabino in matte:

And the classic champagne sabino in glossy!

At first, and just for a moment, I was a bit bummed to get two of the "same" model.  But then I started to think it was kind of cool - what were the odds? - and it was interesting to compare the two colors in different finishes.  I've always kind of thought of them as brothers.

Many, many... many times over the past few years I've "decided" to sell the glossy one.  I'm Team Matte, remember?  I'm "not an OF collector"...  *eyeroll at myself* (ha!) 

However, clearly - as these pictures were just taken this afternoon - I haven't been able to split them up.  

The recent version of this dilemma was: why don't I just sell both of them together?

After all, the BreyerFest 2024 Celebration horse was on the Dundee mold, I came home with 2 of them, and I think I like her color more than the brothers.  (I also have 2 copies of "Merle", the SR from TSC last year, that I had bought on clearance as possible CM fodder...)  So for the tack making "excuse" of having a copy of a mold for making tack and costumes, I'm good!  Also good on bodies to CM.

Yet... even with all that rationalizing and also thinking, hey,  they could stay together if I sell them together AND I'd free up some much needed shelf space...  I took them both off the shelf, looked them over, sighed, and put them back.  

I'm not sure either of them are going anywhere.

And then...

In my last post, about the SRs I brought home from BF 2024, I talked about how I ended up with two copies of the Surprise horse in Cremello

One matte:

One glossy:

Again (?) I told myself, I'll probably sell the glossy.

They're both kinda cool though...

Another pair I mentioned in that post are the two Sorry Not Sorry SRs.

One matte:

One glossy:

AGAIN (seeing the problem yet?) I thought I'd sell the glossy.

They're both still here.  I've taken both of them off the shelf a few times, looking them over.  Then put them back.  

It really is a problem.

I keep trying to say I'm not an OF collector, I'm not *much* of an OF collector, I don't reeeally conga anything, I don't conga *many* things. 

Am I starting to accidentally conga matte/glossy splits? 

Noooooo!

Anyone want to buy a glossy BF SR?  Can't promise I'll actually sell, but... maybe...?

*sigh*

Ha!