The Blanket Problem

 

Here's a peek at what's been taking forever in the restoration of TSII #325, the Classic scale Fountain Art Deco parade set.  For reasons known only to certain stubborn artists of long-lasting age and fame, I chose to update the old fleece-&-marker blanket with the highest technology of which I was capable.  The soft, fluffy and oh-so-realistic texture of a tufted corona blanket was irresistible to me.  And what better way to deal with the old blanket than to use it for the base?

With thanks to Melody Snow for her book on making model corona blankets.

There were other delays, chief among them a 3-week road trip to Tucson (from central Pennsylvania) to see my father.   It was during this trip I started the corona.  I began with a piece of polyester satin for the larger bottom sheet, which I used to make the corona hoop-able.  It also covers the bases of the stitches and shields the horse from them.  But the satin was a mistake.  It was too thin and shreddy, and also my piece of it was too small.  What you see in these shots is some old cotton sheet from my Dad's ragbox.  The cotton sheet worked far better.

 Returning home, alas, did not give me any more time.  A week was needed for putting things away and dealing with everything that awaited us, from shopping, banking and voting :)  to car repair and trying to speed up doctor appointments (not done yet).  I slipped in hours when I could.  Below is the same stage as above except with the loops clipped and much trimming and fluffing done on finished color blocks;  and then those parts were squished into the hoop so I could move on to the rear.

The tufting process is incredibly laborious.  Make up embroidery floss strands;  thread the two-holed needle with a special device (twice for each color);  stab and withdraw multiple times, flipping over the hoop to view each side each stab until a block is filled;  then switch colors.  I wound up purchasing a second tufting needle.  To my dismayed surprise, although its packaging was identical to my first, the size was different.  It was notably larger!  This could have been a disaster!  But instead it allowed me to tuft twice as much floss.  Oh the relief,...

Once the loops are in place and the FrayCheck on their bottoms has dried, they are cut, and the trimming and fluffing begins.  I use both my Needle Awl and a wire brush from Precista (designed for preparing archeological specimens!) for this.  The pointed scissors themselves, of course, are also used a lot in the fluffing and trimming process.  

Close up uncut loops

  Finally, eight days after our return (Oct 25 to Nov 1), I was able to finish the tufting stage of the corona. 

As of this writing, most of the trimming and fluffing is done, and the bottom sheet is being cut and sewn up.  To my relieved surprise, the saddle seems to fit on the corona blanket well enough.  In the 2nd photo, you can see a paper pattern at upper left;  this was to represent the saddle edges for purposes of corona blanket fitting.  But fitting wound up not being a problem.

 Here is a glimpse of the underside of #325's corona, halfway through the tufting. This is the only evidence of that earlier satin sheet:  see the way the front corners are missing their red & white color-block bottoms.  Those parts, already done and covered by satin, are hidden by the later cotton sheet.

 Yet this is only the beginning of the saddle's restoration process.  That is what my title refers to:  It isn't just a problem with this particular blanket.  The problem is balancing one's desire to stubbornly run down rabbit holes (after all, this behaviour made the TSII what it is today!) with the need to timely supply product, to keep promises and to meet deadlines.  It's a universal toughie every artist faces.  Difficult choices sometimes seem to cover me over, muffling everything, smothering the muse.

I've made a list for #325:  Polishing, sealing, replacing, cleaning.  At the moment I'm estimating 15 hours for the job.  That could be a few days, a week or two weeks, depending on what else is happening.  The set is, in fact, in pretty good shape.  The chances of conserving a large portion of the silver, instead of replacing it, are high.

I look forward to working more with this thirty-three-year-old Parade set.

Rainbow Comet and Fountain Art Deco

 

This post explores two TSII prism tape parade sets, the Rainbow Comet and the Fountain Art Deco, both made in the 1990s.  I've always wanted to digitize and publish my Silver Parade set Scrapbooks, but I thought that would happen after my next book!  Hah!!  It's happening now, willy nilly whether I was ready or not,... at least for these two.  They are currently awaiting their fate in Christie Partee's FB auctions of the Smaug's Hoarde of Colette Robertson.  This really should be 2 posts, so prepare for overload!

TSII #402, Rainbow Comet

The Fountain Art Deco, TSII #325, was built in 1991.  As you may imagine, it is in need of updating (only 33 years old!), so the second half of this post will mainly be concerned with the creation of this amazing little saddle, showing its design and birth.  There are a couple of shots showing its condition today.  The Rainbow Comet, TSII #402, built in 1997, is famous for being on the back cover of my book (Guide to Making Model Horse Tack).  It was judged fit to go as is, (I want to say, judged fit for consumption!), and thus is not in my hands.  I have, of course, archival photos of its creation too.  I found another of Colette herself!  I am hoping to start cleaning and restoring #325 in November. 

The Rainbow Comet was completed May 28, 1997 as an order from Elizabeth Bouras.  By then the inimitable trio of Liz, Paula & Judy had ordered several silver parade sets from me and they had experience with what colors the prism tape came in and what I could do with it.

Rainbow Comet came immediately after #401, Koi & Water Lilies (finished April 23 1997) and actually before #400 Rainbow Brilliance, which was not completed until October 1 of that year.  These three form a core of greatness amoung all the prism tape silver saddles I've ever made.

TSII #402, Rainbow Comet

 Liz mailed me this amazing photo of the Rainbow on a Zara (I think).  The sticker says 'pic received 0003.24 from Liz Bouras.'  That's March 24, 2000.

How many folk do you know who would show performance with a china!?   And yet everything is so clean and smooth.  The serape (drape) shows its glowing holographic colors against the black of space, seemingly floating amongst the sharp strong rays, almost spikes, of solid silver.  I have always loved rays, fans and spokes;  this set used them to perfection.

 Rainbow Brilliance is my own set, the prism tape saddle whose number I'd saved for myself.  If the numbers had been assigned strictly according to sequence of making, Number 400 should have been 403;  that was where it fell, when I could carve out time between orders.  (I did this with #250 too, blush.  Number 300 went to a championship saddle for ACMHA [Atlantic Coast Model Horse Association], which I later bought back.)  I guess I have a drop of numerology blood...

TSII #400, Rainbow Brilliance

Rainbow Brilliance was based on Purple Brilliance, itself based on an earlier black-and-silver use of that design (Northern Brilliance, #375).   Oh land I can remember this photo:  It was the first (and last!) 35mm photograph I paid to have digitized.  Kinko's in 1997... history,...

TSII #395, Purple Brilliance

Rainbow Brilliance benefited mightily from Rainbow Comet, which I think is the greatest and most beautiful of all the prism tape sets made for a customer.  In the whole sweep of their reign, from the earliest Wizard's Vale (TSII #243, in 1989) to the last one, Gaylene Kirkpatrick's Weather (#429) in 2003,  I find the most impressive, amazing and glorious to be the cluster of #400, 401 and 402, in that year of 1997.  Oh I so do need to write another book on just the TSII Silver Parade saddles -- and the prism tape sets within them, a subset of 45 in over a hundred -- which just blows the lid off any ideas of predictability or boringness... !!  If I say so, they are a fabulous sequence of artistic development, design and beauty over a lifetime.

For more on these saddles see my website:  Timaru Star II Silver Parade sets, Page Two

and Timaru Star II Silver Parade Sets.

**************************************************************************

The Fountain Art Deco, the only prism tape set I ever made for a Classic scale horse, was ordered by Judy Renee Pope in 1991.  My Red Scrapbook for Parade saddles contains many pages for this exquisite silver saddle.  Although it wasn't the first fancy customer-designed order I'd taken, it had the greatest amount of reference associated with it so far.  (This record has not been equaled to this day, although the Star Wars set came close.)  I chose to put it all in the Scrapbook:  four pages worth, plus my own Design Sheet and photos.   We even have the original letter, something no other saddle in my Scrapbook has.

Astoundingly, that last sentence I wrote --"Already paid for  DARK HARBOR" -- reminds me how I got this horse!   I first saw him at MAR [Mid Atlantic Regionals] that year, fell in love and must have proposed the trade.  I have him still. 

Dark Harbor at MAR, before I got him

He has an original sculpture by Froelich for a head.  Wishful thinking, backed by timing logic, claims that the Morganglanz's head went on to become the Beowolf of Arns Rossi.

 The red writing says, "Love this central panel! —the fountain, at least could see it as the main figure on the drape —maybe in various blue prism tape (w/ silver around the [teardrop] edges to hold it down, right?)  The stylized leaves and flowers are good too — at least I think they’re leaves … the crescent/semicircle things…"

Judy had a clear idea of what she wanted, but at the same time was turning me loose -- the ultimate compliment.  In 1991 I was four years married and living in a rented 2-story house in State College PA.  In another 2 years we would buy our own home.  The art and skill of the TSII Parade saddle was burgeoning.  Here is the second page of design ideas from her.

The uppermost left paragraph:  "An alternate fountain — not as cool as the screen one … but maybe an idea for the breastcollar?"  The alternate wound up not being used.

"Maybe work into design on drape (as framing pieces — leaving out the dancing figure and all … just the [angled steps] side bits …)"   Spot on.

"These are neat too, but I’m not sure they go with the rest of the design … maybe decorative doohickies …"  Not too many of my customers used the word 'doohickies' with such authority.  They ultimately wound up on the chest shield.

Judy went so far as to fill out one of my Parade Design Sheets.  This was a rarity.

Along the top of this page, I had stuck some samples of the prism tape.  The tiny sentence to the right of them says:  "Couldn’t resist keeping the original of this … !  enjoy looking at the colors too much —"  This explains why I've got a copy and not the original page.  The left paragraph says, "Don’t know if cutting the bottom of the drape like this is feasible, but it’s what I saw, so here ’tis.  I sketched out a rough design below based on it, but that can be altered if you need.  (could see the water motif carrying into the raindrop—shaped drops…)"  It was indeed possible.  The right paragraph says, "Some rough breastcollar ideas, to make it tie in w/ the rest of the design … don’t know what to do w/ the center piece — maybe just tool in some of the repeating flower patterns from the fountain screen?"
And down at the bottom:  "Drops should be raindrop shaped — somehow I’ve got a feeling they’re too small to come in prism tape.  (blue, of course:)  but I do have some metallic blue paint that could be used…"  No, Judy, they were not too small.  In the event, that paint was not needed.

A lot of work went into the design sheet for #325.  This page, my own working one, has only a little writing on it, by me (upper right quadrant): "leaves & flowers are very much an Art Nouveau motif…"  You can see I used white-out to adapt the patterns to the smaller horse.  Many of Judy's ideas were used in the final saddle.  Some extraneous ones such as the tri-drops on the breastcollar were tried out here.  Design is like that.

It took three tries to get the serape right, and even then I apparently didn't use that overlapping shield at the bottom.

Amazingly #325 was made in less than a month, 11.18 to 12.04.  

TSII #325  Fountain Art Deco

Those were the days of using the [aluminum] silver tape as a border to the prism tape (metallic holographic film under a thin plastic layer).

My Scrapbook has a triptych of photos of #325:

Upon receiving it, the indomitable trio showed it upon a Roan Lady Hagen Renaker, a standing TWH mare in white with light grey shadings.  We have the photo.  Once again the sticker says "pic received from Liz Bouras 0003.25".

I am almost ready to collect chinas, after this!  They have better archival qualities than most tack!!  Here are a couple of close-ups of #325 as it is today, after thirty-three years:

Although the prism tape does not seem to have suffered, the silver has.  The browband is falling off in pieces, as is the fountain center.  The lower corner of the serape, on right, has lifted and peeled bars.  Even the tapadero has these lifting edges!  Buckles have gone grey, pins are green, the shoulder cap fell off, and that corona blanket cries out to me to be replaced with a far better technology than marking-pen on fleece.  >flinch<

Here's my list:  New rings and buckles of stainless steel.  Clean.  New blanket, new cinch.  Repair lost and mangled silver (this's what'll take the time).  Polish bit.  Fix fallen shoulder caps.  Try to affix delicate silver tape, either by replacement, gluing, tying down with Mylar or some other way.  We have the patterns.  We just have to find the time.

There is at least one blog post of mine about repairing a silver bridle: A Silver Bridle Repair.  Here's another, more in-depth about restoring TSII silver Parade sets in general:  Reflections on Restorations.

The same cleaning and repair applies to the Four-in-hand Hungarian harness.  "Probably December."  Eerily the same horse appears in my photos of both Rainbow Comet and the Hungarian 4:  Xanadu, my Arab Stallion Resin by Bouras.  Oh those were the days.  The fire and effort that went into that resin run could glow for centuries.  If struggle were truly measurable those horses would still be burning, a Kirlian aura swirling around them in the light of dawn.  I did my best:  Xanadu appears in the Guide.  Here is a shot of him in the Hungarian Four, an order placed in 1997 for his exact mold by the Performance Queen Herself:  Colette Robertson.

I am continually amazed by the ability Colette had to snatch up the best of the best.  She truly homed in on the winners and devoted everything she could to acquiring them, sometimes against the wishes of the current owner.  

This portrait was taken by me during North American Nationals in 1997.  I teased her with it:  "What you're best at!  Stuffing guys into bags!"  She just grinned.

Miss you, kid.

Towards a Better Bench

 

This post is about a couple of wonderful gifts that have wound up on my tackbench, and both of them promise to enhance it.

First off I want to thank an old friend for an extraordinary present.   I somehow let slip I'd used up nearly all the linen thread she had gifted me with back in 2019.  Honestly, all I did was mention I needed to go shopping for the stuff,... it can be bought, it's affordable!   Here's what I started with then, enough to get hooked on and make several years' worth of tack (below).  I made a wooden spool from a thick dowel and thought the matter closed.

I just loved this thread.  Of a glorious polished smoothness, friendly to the touch, and a perfect ivory color just right for braidwork, it had natural, almost handmade irregularities to its gauge.  It was quite tough and withstood the heavy use and constant pulling in and out of my braiding far better than cotton threads.  I used it carefully, at first only in a few buttons, saving every inch I could.  

I used it in the L2 and L3 Hackamores.  I may have used it for the stitching on the Goehring, and I may have used it for my first orange bosal in the fall of 2022 and for its consequent Carrizozo's Hackamore.  I definitely used it in Dry's Orange Hackamore.  I used it in one of the nosebuttons for my next book, and that was a mistake:  the thread was thicker than my standard, and threw off my measurements.  It made a liar out of my earlier chapters on exactly which thread I'd used for the 8 pieces I was profiling.  I decided to merely mention it in the book.  The half-finished nosebutton will go on to another fate,... as of this writing, a future trade. 

But imagine my surprise when I received a totally unexpected small fat package from Sue Rowe!  I couldn't figure what might be inside.  Sue has sent me unheralded gifts, usually uplifting postcards.  But this!?  When I saw what it was, I almost cried.  There was enough to supply even the heartiest braider for years.  I spent a happy time rewinding it onto my original dowel.

Thank you, dear Sue Rowe.  This is a gift from the heart.  

Another recent gift, just 2 days ago, was one of the prizes for judging at Michelle Sepiol's Tioga County Model Horse Show.  (What a show!  Enlightening, fun, exhausting, inspiring!)  It was a large mug, larger than any I'd seen.  It occurred to me it would serve beautifully as a tool holder.   After a couple happy hours on Sunday reorganizing and cleaning my tack bench, Hooray!  I'd gained a few inches more of precious space, and was down to 2 tool holders instead of 3.   Such reorganizing hasn't happened in decades.

New mug holding leather stamps (center).

This is a lifetime collection, many of the leather stamps being inherited from my mother.  I'd never been able to have them all in one place before.

Short tools in the mug, tall ones in the cup to the right:  Paintbrushes, feathers for dusting, files, dental picks (in back), and metal tubing are all in there.  Apologies for the dirty-looking water in the glass rinse jar.  It is replaced with fresh for any new projects!

Stone foal for scale.   Her Jaapi halter has been adapted by me to her small size.  First time I've ever done that, and it was challenging to open those little metal crimps without breaking them.  I did it by first very carefully pressing on the sides with pliers -- just 'til it opened a tiny bit -- and then gently widening the crimp over a blunt awl.  To close, I glued down the ribbon first.  Throatlatch, jaw and finally nose strap were shortened. 

Here's a final view from higher up, giving some perspective.

Why do I reorganize the tack bench now, when my family is about to leave on a trip for a number of weeks?  Is this not exquisite torture, when I have pieces to clean and restore (a parade set and some harnesses), balanced against the braidwork for the book, at the moment 2 bosals and then 2 more complete hackamores?  None of which can be done while on the road.  Believe me I have tried--!  I will be lucky to put in a few hours on something simple like a mecate!  Perhaps there might be more than a day right before the trip launch when, everything cleared off and ready, there can be pure tack-work time.  But such a thing is not guaranteed.

Hope does spring eternal, but I honestly think the restorations will only get done in November and December.   As ever, thank you for your patience.  It is so greatly appreciated.

Dry's Orange Hackamore

 

This post is all about Dry the Sea's beautiful new Hackamore, with its colors of off-white, dark brown and international orange.  I'm keeping it!  The post also talks about my plans (what plans?!) for Christmas on Mane Street and gives a glimpse of my next book's current stage.  This is a very long post, so sit back and enjoy.

I'd been working on a bosal hackamore for myself ever since April.  I'm not sure how long I've been in love with neon orange for model tack;  it's gradually grown over the past few years.  This fascination may have been aided by collecting blankets; I got a bright neon orange one I particularly liked from Hobo Cat Creations (Amber Wylie) somewhere around 2019.  In 2022 I made 2 bosals with blaze orange, one for IMTM and one in November  (see here).  Somehow neon colors seemed appropriate to my current life.

 It was a wonderful coincidence that International Model Tack Month (IMTM) happened at the same time I was finishing up April's Hackamore's chapter and starting Fancy's.  Here's a photo taken April 11 of this year.  In the manner of these things, what started as a fine idea for a nosebutton got completely carried away.  

Above, I'd put in the light blue dummy thread on the white foundation (lots of work, two entire nosebuttons braided at this point), put in 8 brown interweaves in the center (lots of work, the math dictates 4 + 4 instead of 8 at a time), and then it occurred to me to try echoes of bright orange -- !  The result was so exciting I wondered how I would ever get back to what I was supposed to be doing!  I quickly took a few pix, promised to make myself one later, and took them out.  In hindsight, this was another example of repression leading to greater desire.  I don't know why some of the best ideas come after all those bends in the road, but they do.

Thus you all get to see a peek at the next chapter of my next book.  Fancy's is the 6th of 8 pieces profiled.  For those interested, the above bosal still did not qualify for the book, although some of its photos will be used.  (Material out of scale and too hard to get.)  Its fate [not done yet] is to become a gift for a friend.  As promised, I decided to squeeze in a whole 'nother bosal.  IMTM gave a glorious excuse.  Below: Dry's nosebutton before tightening.

Dry's bosal was started on the 11th and finished on the 22nd of April.   This was one of the few times I entered IMTM and completed my piece on time.  We will forgive that the same thing happened in 2022.

May went to family trips.  Not just any trip:  This was the one where we found out five weeks was too long.  CO, WY, MI east coast, MI Upper Peninsula, MN.  Seasoned travelers though we were, there was a limit.  Finding it was uncomfortable and could have been very bad.  That's all I'll say;  but the strains of that trip, and yes the triumphs too, became woven into the hackamore in the way model tack can sometimes carry.  If I'd had any ideas of letting this piece go, they were dropped then. 

Here's one of the many triumphs, shot June 1st by my husband in the Primitive Picnic Ground of Cascade River State Park, North Shore, MN.

Cascade River State Park, MN

What made the hackamore more intense was the effort that had to go into the orange thread.  Since it was too small for my button-braiding standard, I had to spin two threads together, and ultimately three, to make it bigger (thicker).  The thickening was all done by hand, in hotels, inch by inch.  'Precious' thread has more psychic effort in it, more spirit somehow.  This effect is not new to me, tho the color certainly was.  

There was a lot of dinking in the headstall design, particularly the cheeks.  To match an existing bosal was relatively new for me, but great fun.  The brown and white of the braided ring, for example, balances the lack of brown on the browband sides.  These shots don't show it, but the solid orange buttons had to be replaced with a different gauge and a different button.  Below:  Taken September 3.

 One of the more charming stories within this Hackamore is its conchos and buckle.  Stuck in an oil-change waiting room in Boulder CO, I spent a happy hour acquainting myself with every offering of The World of Model Horse Collecting (TWMHC), Alison Beniush's eBay store.  I should've done this years ago!  What riches!  Cast buckles, bits, brow conchos, stirrups, oh, everything!  I had long since reached the stage of being willing to pay for brow conchos.  In a clever plan-ahead, I ordered some hardware for this hackamore so that it'd be waiting for me when I got home.  And it was. 

In the event, the buckle proved too big.  I dealt with this by squeezing it narrower.  I intend to replace it later.  But I absolutely love the class of these tack parts.  Please don't leave us anytime soon Alison!

In early June, while still on the road, I received the news that Colette Robertson's Smaug's Hoarde would be dispersed.   I was immensely relieved that I didn't have to do more than clean up a few pieces and sell them at BreyerFest!  All praise to Christie P. and Kim W.,...  And then, as is known, those pieces swelled in numbers from a few to 8 to 10 to more, and their cleaning-up swelled to updating, repair, rebuilding and restoring.  This was followed by auction holding, writing letters, photographing, blogging, banking (which took weeks), packing, shipping.  There went June.  There went the first part of July.  There went BreyerFest, and my 5-day covid quarantine after (I passed).  It was about then I found that working on Dry's Hackamore had become a psychological necessity.

I told myself that making his mecate was working on my next book.  This lovely mecate was made the same way that Rinker's was, and his is the last piece for the book.  His mecate is the most detailed of all four mecates included.  I needed to test my measurements.  Dry's mecate, however, showed me they were still off.  H'mm, hmm, what does that do to hopes of finishing -- !!

Photographing a piece dark (underexposed) tends to bring out the orange.

 Dry's mecate was finished last week, at the end of August.  Yesterday, rejoicing in new horses, I held a quick photo shoot.  There are lots of pictures here of the hackamore on 3 other horses.  The star has to be my new Jota and his neon orange Jaapi halter.  You can bet I grabbed that halter at BFest the moment I saw it!  Thanks Jody of Jaapi!

It's a bit challenging to photograph so contrasting a horse.  Shade helps.  The saddle here is a Terry Newberry.  I thought the purple blanket would go well with the orange.

Below: a close-up of this horse, whom I've named Beyond the Pale.  I confess that this portrait was Photo-Shopped to fluff out the two tassels and remove the mouth hole.  The original straggly tassel can be seen above.  Time and play have fluffed it more since.

Here's Miss Independent.  This time I looked for a saddle blanket with orange in it.  The jewel tones of another saddle's blanket (by me) was as close as I could come with my existing collection.  The saddle is TSII #446, the Peach Rose.

I  particularly like this portrait.  Aren't those warm colors something!  Yes, I am etching her mane to white.  The angle of browband to bosal gives her a quirky playfulness.

One last horse, a blood red bay.  The orange does not fare too badly against this color.

This mold, Roxy, has a sweetly wistful feminine face.  Photo-Shopped to remove the hole and fluff the mecate tassel.

In Other News:

I have finally begun work again on Fancy's chapter, so long put off.  Colette's beautiful TSII #325, an exquisite Classic scale prism tape Parade Set, will get restored when I can, -- hopefully soon, -- and it and TSII #402 are promised a blog post of their own.  Truly Colette held the best of the best.

My plans for Christmas on Mane Street have taken a very long time to germinate.  I'm still not 100% sure I'll have anything to offer; or how to offer it.  (Time spent on FB should cure that technological hurdle.)  I thought Mane Street would be a good opportunity to advertise my first book, the Guide;  but that turned out not to be the intention.  My October goes to another trip (3 weeks this time!) so I only have Sept and Nov.  I'm currently thinking that mecates and bosals for Fancy's chapter will yield something.  They don't have to be in the original colors.   I'll know more at the end of the month.

As ever, Thanks for your patience.