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!

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. 
  

Closet Studio

What's this?  A blog post???  Yeah!

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Well...  today (and yesterday) was (were) the day(s).

The movers came and took ALL of our stuff. 

Almost.

I've been chronicling the "impending doom" on my Facebook page.  For example: how - this time - I decided to pack ALL of my horses myself, after what happened on the way here.  I've added MOAR horses to the herd while here, some of them expensive (for me).  Though I'm quite sure the Japanese movers would have taken much more care with them (we've had multiple people tell us that we will have nothing missing or broken after leaving Japan and I fully believe that).  The Japanese inspector who stopped by early also assured us that everything would be carefully wrapped in paper.  As much respect as the Japanese people have for others and their belongings, again, I totally believe that.  However, in the interest of saving time for them, I still decided to wrap all of the horses myself. 

After all of the pony packing, the last two days were spent split between hanging out in the backyard with Jeff, Joey, and Tealight (trying to stay out of the way of the moving crew), and running to get food for the crew.  That's not something that's required, but most people do it.  We had donuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch the first day, chicken today, with lots of water and other drinks.  I had fun playing hostess.

The few days before they arrived were spent in a flurry of purging trash, scrap wood from the laser business, and so on.  I also gave MUCH thought to what I wanted to keep back to prepare for...  The Jennifer Show! 

Yes, I am entered!  I've also got an AirBnB booked for a whole week there!  I'm super excited and am using the show as a carrot on a stick to leave Japan.  I really, really don't want to leave and I've been struggling with that - a lot.  But seeing my boy Bo again and TJS are what I'm looking forward to.  We were originally supposed to leave Japan in September of this year, which had me dismayed due to my long game plan to enter TJS.  So now, we are leaving in early July which means losing a couple of months here, but the show is a GO.

I gave a ridiculous amount of thought to what I might want to work on over the next three months until I'm likely to see everything else again.  Typical for me (ugh), though I've been planning to enter for THREE years now, I'm not ready.  Let's be honest, I never would be.  I didn't want to bite off more than I could do (another of my specialties?) but there is a LOT I'd like to do:

*  Make MOAR custom horses

*  Paint more of my Artist Resins, since NaMoPaiMo has helped me end my resin painting fears

*  Oh, and, show performance for the first time - with tack/props that I've made...

(sigh)

I made my final selections, piled them in one of our bathrooms (the "safe" place from the movers) and waited out the last two days of pure CHAOS.

Just now, I finished setting up my new Closet Studio.

Behold!

I've kept back:

Top shelf: my best (old) Stablemate customs (in the white boxes on the left) along with Reckless (of course) my costume model PAM, a CollectA, and Little Bit Arabian. 

Middle shelf: Wind In Her Hair (NaMoPaiMo 2019), Antar (NaMoPaiMo 2017), Bom Bidi Bom (NaMoPaiMo 2018), Bolya (OF), Ashley (custom CAM), and PreFlight (was supposed to be my MEPSA makeover horse this year...) several Classic and SM bodies - plastic and resin.

I've also kept some essential supplies, tools, and references to work on: custom horses, Arabian costumes, tack, and the STAGECOACH.

I'm happy with how my "mini studio" came together and I'm hoping that the next few weeks until we leave will be productive!

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Oh...  in other (related?) news...  I am currently being evaluated for...  ADHD.  Would any of my readers think I have it?  Ha...  It's another story (another post?), but I'm hopeful that these next few weeks will see some changes.  I don't have the distractions of all of the rest of our "stuff" here.  The laser is gone, so no business tasks to be done there..  AND if I do end up going on some sort of meds, I've been told they could give me "energy and focus".  Um, wow...  if that actually happens, things could get very interesting.  I'm not in a rush to get on pills, but I am tired of feeling like I'm spinning my wheels - in 20 different directions all the time.  The doctor I spoke with said it sounds like this has really been holding me back and I'm capable of so much more.  I almost started crying.

We'll see.

That's the latest!  I'm hoping to blog a bit more in the coming months.  Surely more often than once every 4 months? 

Whew, if you made it this far: Thanks for reading.  *hugs*

I Made Something

Behold eeeet!

Followers of my vlog will know that I was given a model of Black Caviar while on our Australia trip (I don't think I've blogged about her yet...) and that I've been wanting to make a set of portrait tack for her for National Model Tack Month (April).

Tonight I finished assembling her bridle.  That just leaves the saddle.  I've got a couple of days left, should be fine!  Right...?

If I were a racehorse, my style would totally be that of a closer - cruising along in the early going, maybe even trailing the field, until that final turn.  It's about time to start the stretch drive!  I suppose I just did.

For now though, my supervisor seems to be making it clear that it is bedtime. 

Tomorrow Jeff and I are planning to take a bit of a road trip over to Hirosaki for their 100th Anniversary Sakura Festival.  I'm really looking forward to it and hoping the sakura are still blooming there.

For the rest of the weekend, I have a huge, complicated laser order to finish up...  and a racing saddle to build.  ;-)

Happy Friday/weekend, everyone!

Prepping Parts

I've been working on a bit of tack parts prep lately.  Started by taking inventory of the straps I have made for Stablemate blankets and making some more of them.  I also moved them from a tiny organizer box into a larger storage option.  I have 4 of these boxes, that weren't being used.   

I found a new use for the former blanket strap organizer.  As of tonight it's now holding sets of hardware (slot rings, jump rings, and tongue buckles) for 8 halters.

Just in time, too.  A few days ago I prepped some kangaroo lace to build a halter! 

Itty Bitty Blankets

Yesterday I finished up the latest batch of Stablemate blankets.

I'm very happy with how they turned out.  This is the first set where I ran the belly straps all the way to the hip darts and the top of the shoulder.  In addition to liking the look better, I found the straps are much easier to line up that way - an added, unexpected, bonus of evolving the design. 

There are 3 sizes in the lot: the Halloween themed pair fit the G1 Arab mare (and probably other G1s too).  The red set were made for the G2 Stockhorse (he's kind of a bugger to fit, with the low neck and raised foreleg).   The purple strap set was made for the G3 Stockhorse, but fits the G3 Warmblood (and probably others) as well. 

I had thought that I'd like to possibly come up with different patterns for the different generations/sizes of molds, but maybe I'll just keep doing it the way I have been.  That being: I have a basic blanket shaped pattern that I cut them all out with.  It's sized for the largest/longest of the SMs (the Para Dressage mold I think).  Then I trim each one down to fit whoever it's going to be made for.  That works okay, so maybe I'll just keep doing it that way, rather than fussing over making several patterns.  I do sometimes tend to over complicate things after all.  (what?  me?  never...)

Half of the blankets pictured already have intended homes.  The red and black is part of my first blanket commission order.  The two Halloween blankets are destined to be sent to my Spooky Swap (a Halloween-themed Secret Santa) partner on the Blab forum.  The red/red and purple strap pair are not spoken for, yet.

As with anything, I'm finding that the more of these I make, the easier and faster it goes.  I've already started on the next round and am hoping to have a deluge of these on offer soon. 

I Did It

The cry of triumph on the NaMoPaiMo Facebook group when one finishes their model is: "I did it!"  


It took me all the way up until the last day, but..  I did it!  I worked off and on at his prep work all month and painted him on..  the last day.

I'm happy, and relieved, to present Antar ("hero, strong one, warrior").  He is an "Anubis" resin, sculpted by Sheri Rhodes and painted by me.

The other thing I accomplished is a presentation set for him.  This is, officially, the very first completed piece of Arabian tack that I've done.  

I'd like to eventually do write up on here about Antar's creation; I took a bunch of pictures during the 12 hour painting session yesterday.  However, I couldn't wait to share him on here.