Two Shannon McKaig Saddles

 

Shannon McKaig was a tackmaker I was unfamiliar with until a friend surrendered a couple of her saddle sets to my tender mercies as a tack restorer.  (That was in February.)  Whether I did a good job is something only time will tell.  With many other pots a-boiling right before BreyerFest, somehow these captured my blogging attention-span.

It is only right and proper to start with some 'before' pictures. Here we see the natural set with its red suede seat.  Each Rio Rondo-kit saddle was a basketweave and was edged with silver lacing.

I'm calling the natural saddle the 'chestnut' one and the other, a dark brown and black, the 'chocolate.'  The chestnut had lacing all around, the chocolate only on the back skirt.

Although these pictures may seem innocent enough, look closer.  The silver lacing is inconsistent in width, is quite corroded and is missing in a few places.   Below is the real culprit:  the edging was coming clean off.  (A black felt lining is showing.)  I do hate it when an adhesive fails.

Thus I was faced with a difficult job:  How to polish, or else replace if that failed, the silver lacing itself;  and then, how to re-attach the coil to its edge?  Tertiarily I wanted to replace all the rings and hardware with stainless steel since there was ample proof they were turning green.

I'm afraid I didn't take any 'before' pictures of the chocolate set.  It had Rio Rondo conchos so deeply tarnished they looked black.  These were small handmade conchos available circa early 1990s, when Carol Williams was selling hardware she made herself.  The whole chocolate saddle was in better shape than the other.  I replaced every ring with stainless steel and polished and polished.  I coated the clean silver with top coat nail polish, which does not let oxygen through.  That was a trick.  And then I pulled out a horse and blanket from my own collection that set off the ensemble very well, I thought.

Above, birds eye view.  Below:  This horse, Matriarch / LaJewel, finished by Katie Richards, looks good with the simplified yet detailed braidwork on the bridle.

It is always fascinating to me to see how other tackmakers tackle the problem of model braidwork, in this case flat braid.  Shannon used a tried-and-true method:  She braided floss, wrapped it around the lace and glued down the ends.  What I don't remember seeing before is that she glued thread interweaves on top of it.  Such a clever approach mirrors the silver edge lacing in style.  Her eye for color was good.  Her glue for thread must have been very good, because it worked and has lasted.  Below is a view of the reverse or inner side of her work.  The purple arrow points to the other end of thread of that knot's interweave.

The chestnut saddle caused me the most problems.  Here is a pic I sent the owner, explaining my thinking.  The problem was that its silver lacing had aged to the point at which the lightest pressure (as for polishing) caused it to break apart and flake off.

In the end I chose to entirely replace the lacing with some sterling silver lace which I had.  After a great deal of struggle over method (we're talking multiple ideas), I gave up and used a white glue to re-attach the coil.  Embarrassing after my lifelong diatribe against glues and adhesives;  but nothing else worked.

Compare this shot with the second shot above.  What was a varied-width silver strip is now a constant;  what was corroded and grainy, with glue crumbs :(, is now clean silver.  

I re-used the same leather, in the spirit of retaining as much of the original tackmaker's work as I possibly could.  'Conserving' is the word.

 Here is the entire saddle after I finished.

 Unable to resist, I put Sassy / Tawny to work the same as LaJewel.  The two golden creations went together well.  The shot below makes her tail look big! leading to some creative photo cropping.  Note how the head has more space around it than the tail or off hind hoof.

In case you're wondering, that is my hair holding up the bit.  I'd cleaned off the bits and didn't want to dirty them again,...

.. and the horse steals the show.  'Twas ever thus with model tack.

One last portrait.

Tawny will be coming with me to BreyerFest, you may be sure.  And I will be looking for a companion, a palomino Stone ASB stallion, if I can find one...

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So what else is coming?  The Advanced Braidwork for the Model Horse is in the editing and polishing stage, and its working copy will be there for you to view.  The Plates are all drawn, the photos all taken, the text all written;  but changing the chapter order has resulted in having to re-letter and re-number half the book!  Plus digitization and proofing and signing and...  I'm so sorry, 'twill not be published by BreyerFest.  :(  August is my guess.  I will be taking names/emails for notification purposes.  The price will be around $27.00.  No preorders can be taken, but you can start saving, hah!

Sales horses abound, including Lafayette and Wells.  We have Mink enamel pins and stickers to sell!  As ever, check out a printed copy of the Guide to Making Model Horse Tack and purchase a digital copy for $13.99.  There's lots of stuff to give away, including my mother-in-law's collection of needlework samples and her DMC color catalogs, and some Tarzan cereal-box toys.  Scrapbooks and personal horses of course will be displayed.  Mostly I just want to say hi in person and show off the next book.

See you soon, Room 612!