Goehring's Fenders Etc

This will be a brief and -- yippee skip!! already outdated!! --  update on the progress of this marvelous Mexican saddle order.  Pictures are always behind actual construction, for which I can only blame my photographer (me).  I needed some fresh outlook, so I tried the bridle and breastcollar on a different horse.  The result you may view above.  Oh, he looks good...

When last we saw this saddle, the stirrups were here:

Since then, I've finished them.  The bolt ends of the necks are covered in the tiny Aluminum star conchos, all of which were made by hand.  It's amazing that an X-Acto knife can cut metal, but it does.  The necks were painted in my Fiebing's Saddle Tan Oil Dye, the only bottle of such stuff on hand.  Boy it stinks but nothing else gives that color.  I tried it on the tree too:

I am pleasantly surprised at the results.
I still have a few questions about the tree, and the seat in particular (right now).  All my references but one did not show the seat front, er, the exact place where the rider's buttocks would rest.  It was hidden in shadow.  I supposed it would be covered in the same basketweave as the rest:

But a closer look reveals that it is plain.  There was one shot that showed clearly it was not stamped.

Surprise, surprise.  I think I can handle this.
While we're on the subject of Mexican style Charro saddles, I'd like to include a link to an amazing collection of reference pictures, posted by Luis Aguilar of Mexico City.
Nohuanda Equineart   If you aren't drooling by the end of that, you're dead!  On the other hand, I wasn't all that thrilled by Charro saddles when I started this order, yet now...  Oh now...
It has the challenge of something a miniature saddler can really sink their teeth into.

 Next was tooling the fenders.

The patterns seem to be a combination of traditional floral motifs and swirlies and mildly geometric intercrossings, almost Celtic (the strap).  This is the second time I've run across this particular phenomenon:   Interlacing geometric patterns, such as are found in Celtic knotwork, look exceedingly good on Spanish and Peruvian tack.  The first is in the TSII Peruvian sets.  See our website.. Timaru Star II Peruvian page 2

The scallops on the edge of the fenders was all cut by hand.  I did it in our local Toyota dealership...

What I've really enjoyed is the checkering on the fenders.

I'd known from the beginning that, while these are made with leather (or rawhide) lacing in full scale, they could not be made by interlacing at one-ninth scale.  Not by me!  I made the slits with my largest needle chisel.  The thread is the same as that used on the reins: waxed linen.  It has that old-ivory color, that ancient-linen off-white creamy color that goes so well with these old dark saddles.  One arm's-length of thread was the perfect length to go three times along one fender.

Close up it's clear it's made from passes of thread; but even at a short distance away, the effect is (I think) acceptable.

I had to make up some of the tooling on the flap of the fender... my references didn't show more than the bottom third.

Here is the finished product.  I'll have to lace-tie the strap ends together... there is not room for a buckle, neither vertically (in the thickness of the straps and the tree) nor in the length of the leather straps themselves.  My reference absolutely shows no buckle, so all I've got to go on is experience of how Old West parts of saddles were tied together.


And now for something completely different.  A friend was admiring my neckerchief slide, and I let her talk me out of a short order.

The first one, on the left, wasn't quite right.  But I was having so much fun I kept going.  There is a braided-leather core inside these slides.

Having filled an order in less than two days, it has now taken nearly two weeks to contact the customer, and we still haven't gotten together!  Frustrating and foolish as this is, it's a pleasant change of pace for me.  It is very important, sometimes, to succeed at something...!  when the rest of your life is stuck...
But fear not.  Progress is being made.  Things are, in fact, going well.  Next post should have more details on this extraordinary saddle, TSII #451.

Goehring Stirrups

I learned a very important engraving lesson with these stirrups.  It will be forever impressed (I almost said engraved) upon my mind.  It will also be connected with the movie I was watch/listening to at the time, which was Hiyao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro.  I don't have pictures of exactly what happened, only before and after -- but oh Lor', never again!
But to begin at the beginning.
Every big project has to start somewhere.  Thanks to Alison and Jennifer I had the tree.  Thanks to other factors, I'm finally starting to have some time, although 'tis a fraction of what I could spend on model tackmaking!  And thanks to some odd idea of working from edges inwards, I eventually decided to start this monster saddle with the stirrups.  Once it was broken down into parts, things began moving.
I'd better show you the reference.

This is the real Clyde Goehring stirrup.  The white checkering is present on both sides of the foot rest drop, front and rear.

Paper patterns are what I use.  This is a critical step, to practice with before actually cutting leather.  The bottom patterns here are for the stirrups; the rightmost one came first.  I knew I wanted to use the sheet aluminum ("Create With Metal") I'd gotten at Hobbytown USA.

Although the reflections are bad, you can detect a strip cut off from the lower right corner.  It was easy enough to bend this strip into a U shape.  It was very hard to drill holes through it.  This took a long time.  I knew what I wanted to use for the neck:  None other than a bamboo skewer I'd snuck home from an Asian restaurant!!  Ah, recycling at its finest...

The decorative pattern on the real stirrup was somewhat mystifying.  I'd rarely seen anything like it:  triangular groups of dots.  Grapes?!  In the stamping, they simplified themselves, a skill I don't know how to explain, other than to say that 10 groups just wouldn't fit.  At this point all was well. 

 It was time to try out my ideas on the checkering.  Like so many tackmaking solutions, this one came to me in the middle of the night, out of nowhere.  I knew I couldn't use leather interlacing -- the material has its limits, as does my patience!  But the soft Amish harness thread seemed to hold promise.

 And it worked.  It even had that weary-worn look.

At this point, a most enticing idea crossed my bows.  Should we not try to engrave the little beasties?  Fatal choice!!!

This is the "before" picture.
Take it from me kiddoes:  Choosing to engrave these stirrups AFTER putting the necks and leathers on them, burying them in a huge lump of plastic, was WRONG!!!!  BAD IDEA!!!  Oh, I thought I was clever:  I knew better than to put Thermo-Loc right against the leather, and embedded them in paper towels... but Oh, OH, DID I calculate the consequences of burying a 3-dimensional, inch-square leather-covered object in solid grey plastic??
DID I realize how hard that stuff would be to get OFF??
No, gentle reader.  Not at all.
It took an hour to free just one.  An hour of tiny little cuts, shaving the Thermo-Loc off bit by bit, aware every stab how easy it would be to cut either myself or the stirrup, making a pile of thin grey scrapings.  The Thermo-Loc could not be saved.  It is a miracle I saved the stirrup.  The second one took only 20 minutes.  There was some damage, but nothing that couldn't be glued or Edge-dyed.
Whew...

I only engraved one side, my own compromise.  The result was lovely and it matched the rest of the bridle and breastcollar.

These stirrups are incomplete.  Neck leather wraps are still needed, as well as conchos.

This extremely handy tool is my circles template, a heritage from my drafting days in college.  I have used this more than any other drafting template in tackmaking, throughout the history of the TSII.  Note my last name inked on it:  the 'N' is not curved, something very early in my career as a draftsperson, before I developed my "hand" (handwriting).

The scissors are my 'tin snips,' an old sewing pair kept exclusively for cutting sheet aluminum.  The tiny circle of the concho is at the upper right of what I'm holding.

One down, eleven more to go.

Cary Nelson's Charros

I was greatly privileged to photograph some outstanding tack during the Artisan's Gallery last BreyerFest (2013): two Charro sets by fabulous master tack artist Cary Nelson.  This post is also intended to push me a little further on my own Charro saddle quest.  Nothing like somebody else's tack to inspire you!  Haven't I said the best reference is another model tack piece?  It so happens (why do I have to be human!?) that I'm good and stuck on my Goehring Charro saddle...
I spent a lot of time drooling over these two fantastic pieces.

We should be familiar by now with Cary Nelson's calibre of work.  What I hadn't seen before was this particular subject.  Even after 33 years in the hobby, I very rarely see Mexican saddles.  These are about as far from those miserable rear-view-mirror hangers-on you can get.  :)

I spent a lot of time staring, close up.  At the time, I could figure out most everything,... eventually... but not the trees.  Cary wouldn't tell me.

 She created two Mexican style Charro saddles, apparently within the past year -- on top of all her other accomplishments!  See the end of this post for a glimpse of those.  The first saddle is this one decorated with what can only be the best model scale pitiado I have ever seen in my life.

OKay, so I've PhotoShopped some of these a little... I had a bit of camera shake, and used the Sharpen feature a couple of times.  Still you can see that this is no mere paint-on or even glue on.  These are real stitches, imitating the real cactus fibre used in pitiado work.  Think embroidery on leather. 

This first saddle includes a breastcollar, a bridle, a hackamore with leadrope and a fine lawn blanket.  The below pic shows the breastcollar and hackamore.  It's my worst in terms of shake; apologies.

 These two saddles are proudly owned by Colette Robertson, who I am sure literally pounced on them when they were first revealed.

The second saddle -- oh prepare yourself! -- could be described as pitiado in silver.

Museum quality anyone??!!  The black background helps.  But believe me, the quality in the handwork makes the whole thing kind of shimmer.  I know, who better, how much effort has gone into this...

And I also know that I do NOT know just how she did it!!  Some I can guess; the beadwork on the skirts (bastos), the silver on the horn and stirrups, and the cinches (notice there are two cinches for this saddle alone).  But some I cannot.  And that is how it should be.

Honestly, it looks like applique - cut out and fastened on -- but it could also be actually stitched in.

This shows the cinch with the tassels.  This is the only place, in my opinion, where the quality of the tack suffers just the teeniest bit.  The frizzies don't hang or lie very well.

The rest of everything is drop-down gorgeous outstanding. 

Once again the saddle was supplied with both a hackamore and a bridle.  The breastcollar in this case is formed from a pair of cinches.  You see this sometimes with Western saddles; I first saw it in a Denver Saddlery Catalog.  Those blue triangles are not painted, but actually stitched.
The knotwork on the hackamore alone must've taken weeks.  Cary told me "about a month for each set" but there is a lot of "about" here...

Probably from exhaustion, the rawhide bridle is somewhat plain.  But the bit is good and the reins certainly match the rest of the outfit.
Remember I said Cary Nelson had "other accomplishments" to show off?  Here they are:  a complete rack of Arabian Costumes!!  Other bloggers have documented them -- see Heather Abounader's Desert Night Creations -- so I'm contenting myself with just my one shot.  It gives an overall view of an entire man-year of work.  I'm some kind of awed:  I doubt very much I could match such an output.

Naturally, after all that, I had to try and shoot Cary herself.  Problem is, like most artists, she's camera-shy.  I couldn't get her to turn around in the time I had.

Cary's on the left, and Sandy Nyce on the right, facing.  Given that look in her eyes, something amazing must have been said.  Since this is Artisan's Gallery at BreyerFest, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out the subject...
***********

So I've been stuck on my Charro for much too long.  But hope is at hand.  Last week I took delivery of a cast plastic RDLC Mexican Charro tree, courtesy Alison Beniush!!!  The world's Lesser Rio Rondo!!  Not so lesser... there is so much there, and I hadn't known about it!!!  My own hobby is bounding around my ears...  Hopefully this little piece will help me bust my logjam.
Meanwhile keep tacking.

Lorrie's Mechanical Hackamore

 I give up.

Today we have a little lesson on the inadvisability of using an unpainted horse as a tack photography model.  Up til now I would've sworn the right thing to do is portray tack pieces against an unfinished horse.  Because, of course, that way there is no distraction!  Nothing else to look at!  The customer can use their own imaginations to fill in whatever color they want the horse...  You have only the tack to view, and it is front and center.

 An unpainted horse wearing tack is, at least for me, an unconscious gesture of frustration against the whole model hobby world which has chosen, oddly enough, to focus solely on the horse.  :)  Model tack, no matter how good it is, cannot compete with that supreme eye candy.  Model tack by itself is... boring, in so many people's eyes.
I have intentionally collected unpainted horses, and used them (so far) to good effect.  There's one in my last post.

(By the way, can anyone tell me WHY that post, the one on the TSII's NAN Auction pieces, is getting WAY more hits than any other post of mine??  What did I do...)

Apropos of Lorrie's Hackamore, this post is also about me giving up attempts to keep the TSII website and this blog separate.  Yes, right now there is a big exposition on this particular Hackamore up on my site, Timaru Star II.

 And these are some of the pictures.   My website has construction details and history of the piece.

When I went to photograph the Hackamore with its new roping reins, I started with the Ruffian.

Something wasn't quite right.  I was not falling-down-drunk delighted with the shoot.  Dare I say it...?  Boring....  Naturally, if the customer asks for a particular mold, the tackmaker is duty-bound to use it... but tack is, (or should be) adjustable... and what better way...
Who could bring this piece to life?

His name is Corsair.  I have plans for him.  This horse actually appeared to me in a dream.  He was featured on the cover of my next book.  I have always liked buckskins and duns.  In fact this particular release is unusual in that he has no white stockings and no white face.  In Breyer's world of white stockings, this was a huge relief.
Corsair is also my first horse to be on a stand, if you don't count Huckleberry Bey.  :)  For a person who so strongly focussed on "playability," this was a major advance for me, a concession on par with the Royal Family marrying a commoner.

Technically speaking, at this moment this hackamore has not been claimed.  It is one of the Nine (see my Tack Orders page for the significance of this).  If she doesn't want it or can't get it, and if 2 others of the Nine don't want it et al, it will go up for auction.

Thanks for reading, Enjoy!

Goehring Bridle & Breastcollar Done

Doesn't he look grand!!  It's only been... let's see...  nine months!!!  I started this project on January 21, working on the bit.  In condensed hours the bridle and breastcollar haven't been so unusual compared to other pieces of TSII tack (hours of actual construction); it was finding those hours at all that was the really hard part. 

I should start this post with a picture of the finished breastcollar.  Friends at BreyerFest will remember it in its almost-done stage, as will readers of this blog.  :)

It stayed at an almost-done stage for way too long if you ask me.  What would you.  We were involved in choosing an Assisted Living house for my mother-in-law and moving her 3 miles, ourselves living full one thousand miles away.  Now that is done, and dare I say it, well done.  Back to tack.
The buckles seen here, neck and martingale, were both handmade from sterling silver.  Tongues are stainless steel wire, hammered and filed.  Since I had such good reference for the buckles of this saddle set, and since I'd already gone to the trouble of creating "from scratch" every concho and plate, it was rather an easy decision to go all the way.

The breastcollar is lined on the back with superfine black lining leather.  (Thanks again to Michelle M. for this.)  It was at this stage I found out how cool it looked on Two Step, the dun Marsh Tacky from this year's BreyerFest. 

It was quite tempting to use him for the bridle, but alas, even though he and Alborozo look alike, they are not the same size.  I had to go with Albo.  This is the second time I've used Alborozo for a rather major tack order... and I don't own one!!  This particular Albo is a lend from a neighbor, Helen B.  Thanks Helen!

One of the neat ideas to come out of the Goehring bridle was how to do the pins on the backs of the 'starplates.' (I call them that because they have star shapes on their ends.)  You should know by now I detest glue and want some physical way to attach silver to leather.  The plates were too small for the loops I'd used on the other conchos. Pins were the only way.  But soldering individual pins on these tiny pieces of silver would be more trouble than it was worth.. dang near impossible with the tools I had.
As the writing says, 'Driving to the box [horse business mail box downtown], the answer occurred:  Solder on a handle & cut it afterwards.'  The drawings show how.  My tack notebooks are chock full of such scribbles.

You can just see the pins sticking out of the larger of the starplate pairs at upper right.  These sixteen pieces of silver took, as in the breastcollar, so much more effort and time than I'd ever imagined.  But whereas the breastcollar was begun in January and finished in August, the bridle (sans bit and reins) was started and completed entirely within the month of August.  Oh how I loved the month of August.  I didn't want it to end.
The bit was completed January 29, and the reins done in April.  We're up over 80 hours here, spread out over 8 months... and I haven't even started the saddle yet!!
But I'm not worried.

It's been too long since I've shot a horse on the railing next to the Callery Pear.

This shot is kind of dramatic.  You'd think that big concho wouldn't fit under his forelock.  It barely manages.

This bridle also has black leather lining.  All its buckles are handmade sterling silver ones, in the style of the ones on the breastcollar.  You can't see them well, but the poll buckle and the throatlatch buckle were custom built, "scratch-built" for this bridle.

In other news, a mechanical hackamore has been finished and I'm waiting to hear back from the owner.  My family will be staying in another house, a vacation rental, for 2 months this winter, and I hope to get some more tack made during that time!  (Knock on wood...)   Ideas for future posts include one on Cary Nelson's two Charro saddles, which I photographed whilst at BreyerFest this year: Artisan's Gallery.  I am interested in them as fellow examples of model Mexican style parade sets, such as is Goehring's.
Stay tuned, and Thanks for reading!