Tissarn's Mechanical Hackamore had its text and photos finished as far back as June 20th. This was the 15th and last chapter for my next book, except for the Coda of the Snow Shoes which was already done. All the time since then has gone into editing and rewriting, re-doing Plate letters and photo numbers (half the book was belatedly re-arranged), and digitizing and cleaning up scans. That last step took several weeks. You have no idea how dirty my scanner is -- a terrible problem -- made worse by its own uncleanability (is this a word? I can't take the glass out and it has mold spots on the inside!). Merging and sectioning (dividing into uploadable parts) as well as cover art is happening as I draw near the finish line. But for this post, I want to try and talk about Tissarn's beautiful hack. With the exception of the front and back covers and the Tissarn drawing components, every photo here is in her chapter.
For most of the book's creation, Tiss was intended to be second to last. Last was Rinker's. This is reflected in the arrangement of the back cover. We last saw it here: Back Cover progress. Here's the relevant pic:
The 8 pieces were laid out clockwise, starting with Ricky's in the upper left. The decision to lump the 3 Bosal hackamores together changed the internal order, as did the decision to put Duke's (the Adios), the oldest (and simplest) first. So the back cover is a relict, but a lovely one, a poster of my past ideas, kept for artistic reasons.
Here's a couple Tissarn paragraphs from my cutting room floor:
"Tissarn’s Mechanical Hackamore, Chapter 15, is placed last even though a mech hack would seem easier than a bosal. Tissarn’s reins have multiple colored interweaves and Fan buttons, members of the Gaucho family of knots. These buttons are quite different from the more familiar, and common, Casa or Herringbone family.
"Chapter 15 includes a glimpse of how I evolved my making of mechanical hackamores. Thus, even in the last chapter, very early pieces are covered. These examples try to help allay frustration at achieving the higher levels of detail."
I have no idea why they're different font sizes!
The clear difficulty and elaborate evolution of this piece, from the artist's most productive years, made it clear she must come last. Tiss's hackamore is far down the road of individual skill development and is a gold standard for me. To this day hers has remained my favorite piece of headgear. In terms of sheer usability and playworthiness, it places even over the more famous & dramatic Fancy's hackamore, though of course I love them both. Tissarn's is like the book's recital piece.
Tiss's hackamore was created in January of 2008 and took me about 18 hours. The name comes from Richard Adams' novel Shardik. The piece is a marker from a time now gone, back when I was free to travel and free to enjoy all that involved, from eating out to flying to other countries, to staying up all night! to having a 47-year-old body and not a 65-year-old one.
Firsts for this piece included the fabulous nosepiece, a braided leather button on a rawhide core, and the charming thread-triangle decorations of the shanks. Of course those holes are there to lighten the weight, provide ventilation and save material. I've never seen anybody decorate their mech hack shanks like this (above). Nonetheless, I stand by the idea, delighted beyond defiance.
This hack has led a merry life. It has travelled to all sorts of places. It is in Braymere's blog: Show and Tell. Its chapter begins with a review of older, more primitive mechanical hax. I admit the evolution of this piece was surprisingly fast, given what had gone before,... faster than most of my other model tack techniques. "Fast" = abrupt, large steps with nothing between earlier, less developed stages (what's a nice word for primitive?) and a highly sophisticated, polished skill. The mechanical hackamore form went on to express itself in two more TSII pieces in 2018. One of which, King's Herd's Hackamore 2, King's Herd's Hackamore is still with us, and makes a cameo appearance in the book.
There's a coda to the book, the Snow Shoes. And here's a coda to this post: The process of making Tiss's portrait drawing for the back cover. Probably should be its own post!! but here goes:
Trace the shape of the allotted space, then enlarge it by eye (that was challenging!) and cut it out. Lay out the actual hackamore in that space's shape, held down with Scotch tape, and photo it.
Once in the computer, try it out in B & W.
At this point change one's mind about B & W!! and go for color. I was strongly inspired by Sarah Minkiewicz's Dancing Horses series (which I've studied very deeply lately), but afraid of the time crunch. This is a true rabbit hole. Whole careers have gone into the skill of digital coloring. I decided to allow myself 1 day.
Half the day was taken up by drawing and inking. Not made any easier by the pen refusing at first!!! after 47 Plates, it does THIS ???? But endless tapping and fussing brought it back,... enough for this. I'm seriously proud of this drawing!!
Success. Bourne up by the incredible high of creation ("Is there anything you can't do?!?" "Make coffee")* I swing into digital coloring, fortified by 25+ years of PhotoShopping TSII website and blog pictures. :) At the end of the day it all looked like this:
This was Way too much fun, the kind of day that overuses your arm muscles but is spent in bliss.
*Rabbit hole. The confession about coffee should tell you I am not into stimulating beverages of any sort. I could just as well have said alcohol. It's a family story that my Dad taught me to drive and I passed every test except the one about alcohol, since neither of us dealt with it at all.
We still have to put together the back cover, a truly great challenge for me. The front cover is also still not done, even though it looks good here, because the horse ("Corsair") is too fuzzy and pixellated, having been copied too many times.
There's still work to be done on subjects like webpage, pdf-ing, final editing, rewriting the Prelude (Preface) again and setting up an orders spreadsheet.
But the bit is in my teeth and we're galloping down the homestretch.
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