In the midst of bounteous June, turning into the homestretch of my 3-year next book and awash in other projects*, this hackamore was completed a couple days ago. Since its initial inception was connected with Christmas on Mane Street, I call it the Christmas Hackamore. Dig those colors!
*(A new roof, bank research, jury duty for my husband, returning to hiking, canoeing and birding trips after a 2-month-plus-to-heal toe fracture {no running yet, there goes my perfect record of Breyer 5Ks}, & the new Stone horse & blogging about her.)
The bosal began life as a test for Fancy's chapter for the book, last winter. I decided the thread used was too big and hard to find (and the nosebutton method wrong), and it went on to be finished as a separate bosal -- one of three such to be spawned by Fancy's chapter. The first bosal used green and brown and was a gift for a friend. The second, this one, used green, red and brown and is a gift for a friend. The third bosal is still only a nosebutton at this time.
The colors of red and green were, of course, inspired by Christmas on Mane Street. The fact that this piece was finished in JUNE tells you everything about how behind I am!! However I am particularly proud of the design of this hackamore. It is closely based on Dry's, whom see Dry's Orange Hackamore but instead of 3 colors [besides rawhide] it has four. In fact it has five, unheard-of, accomplished by a pioneering feature: the interweave thread for the white-&-green buttons is combined of two colors of thin thread, dark green and mint green. I wanted an optical illusion of medium green when I didn't have it, and I got it, at the price of hand-spinning tiny thread.
You can just see the green-and-dark strand in the mecate below, next to the normal dark green.
Speaking of the mecate, this one is unique. Much of the work done on it was carried out while visiting the friend's house, a rare occasion itself. Woven into its unusually rich palette of colors are all the memories of that visit. The texture of the mecate shows that using one smaller-gauge thread along with 4 standard others could easily have been a big mistake. But somehow I made it work. It gave an interest and ripple to the rope that I'd not ever managed to do before.
When I sat down to photograph it on the mold it was made for -- same as Dry the Sea, or True North -- some perverse insistence claimed Lilly, my Dani [Danash's Northern Tempest] to be that horse. You would think the combo of a brightly, if not brilliantly, colored hackamore on as loud a beast as that would be a clash. Yes, it was a clash! But I liked it that way!
And oh, the portraits she gave me!
All three portraits came out so well they barely need processing. This is one photogenic horse. I normally try not to accumulate molds; I already had one True North; but I am profoundly glad I was able to get one of these. In my herd she is named Lilly Chinook, chinook being the-wind-that-melts-the-snow, which is just what she reminds me of.
The brow conchos were obtained from Alison Beniush's The World of Model Horse Collecting, an unfortunately under-utilized resource here at the TSII. Hang in there Alison! I'm coming!! The crown buckle is a nickel-plated Rio Rondo cast, of which we only have a few; it is nearly as rare as the hand-cut buckle on Dry's. The 2-color braided ring was done for the Braided Rings plate part of my book.
As is now our standard, the popper has the year carved on one side and the initials TSII on the other.
You might wonder why I didn't put this beautiful hackamore, newly minted -- all of the spring's frustrations, triumphs and sanity-breaks in it -- on my beautiful new mare, Sassy/Tawny. The answer is that it doesn't fit her well. Tawny's head is surprisingly small. (Perhaps I should say Arabianly small.) I did put Dry's Orange on her. Despite my camera's distortion here, see how the forehead tassel is way over on the side, and how far up the bosal is on the muzzle. The throatlatch end is below the bottom of the throat. As for the length of his mecate, take my word: it really is way too long.
Doll by Anne Field of Field of Dolls. Saddle by Erin Corbett (yes!). The blanket is by me.
Although I have been striving very hard to focus on my now-massive book, "Advanced Braidwork for the Model Horse," it turns out I have to have a tack project on the side to keep me sane. As the book's pieces became more complex and re-creating them became unnecessary (due to ground covered earlier), I turned to this hackamore. No time was kept, but it has been worked on since December in fits and starts. In an extraordinary manner, it is already paid for, even though it is a gift,... a story that will have to wait for future blog posts. Until then, enjoy this Christmas in June.
