While it is true I'm supposed to be working on two silver Parade sets, my Muse decided to keep pursuing braid projects after a recent bosal was completed. I chose to let it. A headgear piece is faster and more affordable than a saddle and, I confess, after the drouth of interest in braidwork after the book was finished (fall 2025), I was delighted to get some back. Why pink though? It's a color I've never done before. It's associated with several high-profile hobby artists (Sassy's inspiratrix por ejemplo [for example] Tiffany P 😀). Most inspiring, I had some fiercely neon-pink thread that easily stepped into the neon-orange niche of my tackmaking.
The beginning was a bosal core I'd had hanging around for who knows how long, though probably not more than a couple years. This shot is the only one that shows the tails of the core; one tail has a Breyer-box-source plasticized wire wrapped around it, proving supreme recycling.
This is also the only shot that shows the thread colors with anything like truth. Constantly as I work with this piece I'm confusing the neon-pink with neon-orange. In contrast with the other colors, the pink blazes out so strongly there is no grasping its difference from orange.
The shot shows the bosal well-started, with nosebutton and all four sidebuttons complete. As a matter of TSII history this bosal is quite unusual in that it got this far while on a road trip! This never happens!! Normally there is never time enough (nor space) to seriously make tack. But my recent trip to Tucson had both. I was staying with my father for a total of 6 days (half day plus 5 plus half day = 6 nights) and I had a room to myself.
The view above shows a tiny table with my tackbox on it. This small space, with a red-bordered pony pocket sitting where the actual tackmaking took place, proved to be enough. A sharp-eyed viewer can spot Magia Pesca, my blue Remington, on the top shelf above. Yes, he was with me on that trip, and yes, to no one's surprise, the hackamore will be made to fit Stone's Remington. P. S. It will also fit Troubadour, Carrick and other larger Breyers.
Nothing is more wonderful for an artist than a room with two desks. What one might assign as a more traditional, expected tackmaking space here went, instead, to the laptop. The sage-green chair with the curly wooden legs is a true antique from my grandparents' house, dating back into the 1950s and quite possibly even earlier.
Balanced with playing piano duets, enjoying birding walks and just visiting, the bosal took shape.
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| Photo taken October 14. |
The first step was hand-spinning the rose-pink thread (the middle color in photo 2) into a larger thread, a 3-ply. This was used for braiding the nosebutton, a 3B. Next, braiding in 2 colors of rings, red and white, the white actually being my wonderful linen thread (thank you Sue Rowe again). But when it came to the neon, things got challenging. I honestly don't think I've done a 4-color bosal before. (Dry's was a 3.) The crowding of the interweave rings in the center of the nosebutton caused some threads to get partially covered up, which turned out to be a good thing. At the moment I'm not completely happy with the single neon ring there; that situation may change.
This close-up shot tries to show the real colors, but fails. At least it portrays the relationship between the different pinks. The neon is the upper ring color on the lower sidebutton and the central ring on the upper.
I got home and 2 days later the heel knot was on. The below shows the first 3 of the 4 colors of the heel knot -- again, starting to crowd!
It wasn't until the 31st of October, 6 days later again, that the heel knot was finished. In the old days I used to boast that the TSII could make a bosal in 3 days. Alas, that is clearly not the case anymore!
Also alas, and also most clearly, I am still bedeviled by the problem of asymmetry in bosals!!
I can't believe this still happens --!! But it does. Look at those sides: One is longer than the other. (Most obvious in photo 1 of this post.) Though I got the sidebuttons to where they didn't conflict with Remi's eyes, the heel knot centering just didn't get the attention it should've got. Since there has been too much work put in to change (thus chooseth I), the bosal remains as it is: crooked. We'll say it has character. But gee wiz. Draw their attention, oh Remington head --!
On to the headstall. I decided to make my own hardware. Based on Dry's Orange Hackamore design, I needed only 2 brow conchos and 1 poll buckle. I found 2 brow conchos I'd made back in 2011,... only waited 15 years for glory!,... then sat down and cut out an oval of 22ga Argentium for the buckle.
This shot is a little confusing as to scale. The 2 lower left spikes are needlenose plier jaws. Going clockwise around the top, the upper left spike is a blunt awl; the next 3 points are jewellers' files (2 rattails and 1 round); and the last spike, at about 5 o'clock position, is a large triangular broken-headed needle I use to drive holes in thin metal. Which is how those holes got started in the buckle.
Below, the finished buckle, cut, filed and stamped to match the brow conchos.
My notes tell me the shanks on the Argentium conchos were sterling.
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