Sunday, January 1, 2012

1st Day of the New Year

I guess December was pretty uneventful for tack making.  I did work on making a racing saddle so I could take progress photos for the magazine article.  The saddle looked pretty good actually, but it wasn't something I was planning to finish so I decided just to chuck it.  Oh well!  I'm tired of making racing tack right now anyway.
I started up working on my Lg. Traditional draft harness some more, and I think it'll be phenomenal when I'm done!  I haven't seen any Lg. Traditional harnesses on Equus Maximus before since you have to create some of the major the hardware by hand, so this might be something special.  I had initially started at the front with the bridle and such, but kind of hit a wall when I needed a large enough bit and the hames.  So, I'm picking up work from the back.  Here's photos of what I'm doing so far:
(Above) This is my first uptug out of 6 that need to be made.  It's called a boxed loop uptug.  I have patent leather backing & detailing on the uptug.  For being so small, it took a couple hours to make since I had to battle the paint a bit.  Now I know how long I have to wait for it to dry before I touch it!
 (Above) The start of the swinging toggle.  This will be a mini-sized drafter that sits upon the top of the peaked collar and/or on the top of the back pad.  This one is super small, but I think I actually need to go smaller.  The lump of clay at the base is only to hold him up.  I have to wait for his body sections to dry before adding legs & such.  I'm thinking this will wind up being a redo.  I have another idea brewing should the clay not work out.  I see the Susan Bensema-Young harness sets photographed on her site (www.timarustarii.com), but I can't quite tell what she does for the toggle.  Her tack is stellar, but I'm trying to create something even more detailed!  I don't want to buy another artist's how-to book, so I'm content to figure this out myself.
(Above) Here we have the crupper which I probably made 3+ years ago...fully stuffed and has a wire core.  It's ok, but I'll probably redo it.  I don't have working buckles there at the top which I think I would prefer to have.  These can be tricky to make properly, so I'll have to see how it looks once more things come together.
(Above) This is the collar I started a couple years ago.  It just got its black color today and already looks much better!  It's stuffed, has a wire core, and is hand-stitched at the seams.  I'm debating on whether or not to put a flannel panel (haha!) on the bottom where it would sit on his neck.  Most collars have some kind of fabric underside I believe.  I've never actually touched a real draft harness in person, so this is all based on photos that I find on the web.
(Above) This is the collar latch that closes the top of the collar once you have it around the horse's neck.  I made every bit of this, and it works too!  Unfortunately it's a detail that won't be seen since it'll sit under the peaked collar.  Why am I doing it then?  I don't know, I guess for the sake of realism.  The leather straps on both sides are just junk leather to hold everything together until I can incorporate it officially.
(Above) Lastly, we have the side check chain that goes through the tear drop and attaches to a swivel ring that really swivels around.  I think that's pretty cool!  I'm not wild about the look of the tear drop though.  I think that'll be a redo. 

So, now you can see why I'm taking so long on this set.  I want to have as much detail as I can fit, and since it's in a larger scale, I can throw in working parts.  The trick is getting them to actually work :)  Anyway, I think I'm going to take another break and go watch a movie.  I'm happy to report that it's Jan 1st, and we still don't have snow on the ground!  I wish the whole winter would be snow free!