Tiny, tinier, tiniest

In the last post I talked about my new Mindy resin. I really love this sculpture, so I tried making tack in stablemate scale (which I'd never done before).

I can't say that it came out spectacularly well, since I used selfmade hardware for this project. 

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It looks kind of cool on Mindy though, and I'm sure that with some practise...

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(and good hardware)...

...my mini tack could improve a lot.

The bridle and boot (yes, I was too lazy to make the other boot) have fixed buckles

And the tack needs to be sticky-waxed in place.

The bridle is cut at one side of the crownpiece, so it can be slipped on and then sticky-waxed. This prevents ear rubs and it's a really easy method to use. Credit for coming up with this method is Anna Kirby of Dreamflite Design - thank you Anna for sharing your tackmaking secrets! 

I need to muster the courage to try making a saddle in this scale (heck, I don't even really make saddles in Trad or Classic scale, let alone stablemate!). So far making tack in SM scale is *difficult*! But I like it and I hope to improve my techniques in the near future :) I have looooooads of minis that need tack, so enough projects for practise.

Teeny tiny tack

Yesterday the mailman brought 3 packages for me that I'd been waiting for for a few weeks.

They contained three beautiful resins

This is the Sarah Rose classic Rasam resin, customised into a cantering Arabian mare

She has a gorgeous paintjob by Liesl Dalpe! I can't wait to start making a tack set for this girl

And here is a shot of her with another new Sarah Rose mini resin, Mindy

She was not signed, so I don't know who painted her, but she did come with a NAN card

Sarah puts so much detail in her mini sculptures, it's unbelievable!

Some might think that plain black is a boring color, but I find that it really suits Mindy, and black TWHs are so elegant.

She will need a show bridle soon too - a new challenge! I don't have much experience in making stablemate sized tack, so this will be...interesting?

She has very pretty minimal sabino markings too

Another shot of the two Rose resins together

In the last package was Michelle Platt's Wee Wyakin resin. She needs stripping and a new coat. This is my first curio sized resin. This girl will most likely be a blue roan extreme sabino, but I'm not sure about that yet. 

With these new minis, tack making will take on whole different forms! I'm quite excited to start making teeny tiny tack pieces :)

Arabian halters

My wide collection of Arabians was begging for some colourful native Arab halters :) So I made these two:

A productive week

As it turns out, this week proves to be very productive for me. I just completed this pretty black hunter bridle with raised nose & browband, and a dropped noseband. It fits the Peter Stone ISH perfectly, and it needs very little stickywax to stay in place - very handy to put on quickly for shows. 

I really like how the little extra strap for the dropped noseband came out! It was a bit of a fuss figuring out how to make the noseband with the little loop that the extra strap threads through, but we got there.

And it was a relief to finally make a bridle again that did NOT have laced reins! The last three or four bridles all had them, and as much as I love the look of laced reins, they are a pain in the butt to make. 

Hunter bridle

This blog has been neglected terribly for the past four months! Sorry about that folks, I promise to keep better track of my tack making :)
In the time that I haven't posted, I've been able to complete several bridles and halters, including this commission piece - a dark brown hunter bridle with laced reins. It's now on its way to the USA (where it will hopefully arrive in time for a show that the new owner is attending!). It was made for the Breyer traditional Cleveland Bay mold, so it does not fit my Idocus perfectly, but you get the idea :)

Laced reins came out very well!