Recent Leather Projects

I keep forgetting to post pictures of some of our recent leather projects. These are for our own use (and good practice for the intention of later selling some things).

DH wanted to make some hair-on spur straps. We lined these with pig skin. We actually managed the stitching with my regular machine, but it isn't as nice looking as I would like. In the future, we need to get a stitching pony and sew things like this by hand properly. They might be a little on the thin side, but the pig skin inside gives them strength. He bought the buckles in the US on eBay specifically for this project.

For myself, I did some drawing, using some Tandy patterns to start but making a lot of changes. My goal was a floral strap with our brand/logo in the middle. They ended up pretty nice, in my opinion, although they are far from perfect. I have learned the following lessons while making these spur straps:

1. Do not expect leather designs made while the drawer has a concussion to work out right. I had mirrored the ENTIRE strap when I made the pair, including ending up with a backwards logo. I had to redraw and redo that strap.
2. There is a reason most leather designs leave a plain border around the outside (not carving all the way to the edges). Things get a little messy when you try to work all the way out and it is much harder to burnish the edges properly. Would be fine if I had laced the edges, but laced edges and buckles don't always go well together.
3. Use heavier leather for spur straps. These are nice, but a little thin. We had to add a second layer under the tips to use the metal ends that came with the buckles.
4. This project is also when I have finally gotten a better feel for how dry the leather needs to have been allowed to get before tooling.

Next we made a simple set of slobber straps. Once again, we should have used heavier leather, but this is what we had on hand and DH wanted to ride with a hair mecate instead of regular reins on the bit of his mare. Next time I make some of these, I am going to make a style that is easier to remove from the bit or switch the bit it is on without taking the mecate out. Getting the mecate through the holes isn't easy and I worry that it will increase the wear or potentially break the hairs on the mecate. Horse hair mecates are NOT cheap.

These are without any fancy tooling. The mark you can see is our new larger makers mark for leather projects. It says "4 BARS RR DENMARK" with our logo in the middle.

It did go very well riding with them, but DH found the horse hair a little annoying at this time of year. The weather is warm enough for riding without gloves, which he prefers, but the prickly hairs are uncomfortable with bare hands. As far as I can learn from reading, the prickliness is part of the advantage of riding with a horsehair mecate. The hairs will "tickle" the horse's neck, making it easier to train neck reining. I've been riding Ria in the bosal when I can for the same reason--there is a horsehair mecate on the bosal. We're not feeling quite ready to try a bosal on Quintas.

The final project is also something started when I had the concussion. I originally intended this business card case to be closed with a magnetic snap, but the snap can't fit! I didn't realize it until after I cut it out. So that got put aside for a while until I realized that a leather button would be an excellent way to close it. So I set to work learning to tie an appropriate knot. So with that worked out, I finished the whole thing. I think it came out really nice.

It is made for hanging on a belt. I think that will make it comfortable to have with, easy to access, and at the same time keep the cards from getting messed up very easily.

The edging on this one is a mexican round or basketweave lacing. It's the first time I've used that lacing style on a project and I like it!

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

Oh, what a beautiful day. Oh, what a beautiful morning. Everything is going... okay.

Yes, I know that's not the proper words to the song but the proper words do not fit. But at least I'm feeling better today.

If you've been following my tweets, you know that I was down much of yesterday with a really bad migraine. DH had been up overnight because he couldn't sleep. He had gone out to the computer to check on the status of an auction on eBay. We were bidding on a new headstall for Quintas, because the pretty one that supposed to be hers I've been using on Ria because it has the bosal on. But that bosal and headstall match each other. The bosal is red and headstall has red details. They should, after all, both were bought for the same horse. What we didn't realize was that Ria would need one because she has stallion teeth.

To get back to the point, DH came back to bed after winning the auction. He woke me up because apparently I was whining, moaning, screaming, something like that in my sleep. So he asked me what was wrong, which was a migraine. Sweetheart that he is, he brought me a headache pill.

He brought me another one along with my regular painkiller before he left for work in the morning. When I first got up, my head wasn't too bad, but my hands were killing me. Sometime in the afternoon, my headache came back with a vengeance.

I took a pill and went to bed a little before three. Around quarter after, I had to run to the bathroom. I was sick. After a little while I went back to bed with my favorite bucket.

The noise was also bothering me of the traffic on the road. That I could fix with earplugs. I couldn't do anything about the blinking lights in my eyes because they were there when my eyes were closed and covered.

I guess I finally fell asleep because I don't remember anything else until DH got home. Even that I didn't hear at first because of earplugs.

When I told him about the squash situation he was mad. The first half of the squash situation is good. I put out 4 squash in the morning and by mid day two of those have been replaced by 10 kroner. When I went out to check later in the afternoon, the third was missing, but no money. I am still little bit optimistic that the person just didn't have change, so after making sure I had one in the garden for dinner tonight, I put the last one back out this morning.

Ria eats too much. She is the horse of our herd that needs the least to eat. Unfortunately, Daisy is still on the thin side. Because of an extreme lack of grass, we had to give the horses a big bale of hay. Since she's a bit of a pig, Ria stands there eating all day. Last time we were in a horse supply place, we bought her a grazing muzzle. So when DH got home last night I helped her put that on her. She handled it quite well.

So, getting back to the point of this morning, I woke up pretty much okay. My head's not too bad, but it's not great. I let the girls out right away and got a load of laundry started. After I had my glass of juice, I put my steel-toed boots on to go outside. I needed to put grazing muzzle back on Ria.

I did that without problem. However, Tracy was rubbing her head quite insistently on my rear end. I decided her fly mask was bothering her. I pulled off to find that there was a lot of hay under it and it was pretty dirty. The flies didn't seem bad, because there's a nice breeze outside. So I decided to take all the fly masks off to wash them. I took hers and Ria's and both seem relieved. Not long after I took Daisy's, she asked for it back. So Daisy is back in her fly mask.

Then I went to the garden to check on the squash. We had a new zucchini, which I need for making an omelet for dinner tonight. Oddly enough, I can't find the yellow roundish one that I had taken a picture of before. I hope it's just hiding in the leaves somewhere. The pumpkin on the giant pumpkin plant is now larger than a cantaloupe. There are also pumpkins on the other giant pumpkin plant. I'm very happy about that.

Since I have squash I need for dinner, I put the basket back out the road side. But if another one gets stolen I may have to give up this idea. I'm still hoping the person will come and leave money. Maybe they just didn't have change on them. If I knew it was someone that was starving and couldn't afford vegetables I be quite happy to give them my squash. DH thinks it's just the way people are -- that they suck.

So after that I came in with the fly masks, I got out the old dishpan and got them soak in the sink. Then I put Molly to work getting my boots off. I tried clicking and treating more often in the hopes that she would be quieter. It did seem to help a little bit, but it also annoyed her that I kept interrupting her work. However, she did her move my socks almost silently, and I clicked three times in the process.

I'm not sure how many times now change the water on the fly masks, but it seems to be getting cleaned out.

And while writing this my tea steeped (keemun with ginger). So now I'm going to have breakfast.

Rode Again Today

Despite feeling pretty rotten today, and the fact that DH woke up with a killer migraine, we have both ridden today. At first I didn't think DH was up to coming out with me, so I started on my own. I had to stop and rest after got to the pasture before I could get a hold of Ria.

When DH came out, we decided to ride in the bosal instead of the bridle and bit we usually use. This is nice for horse because it means there isn't any bit in its mouth. We haven't tried that with Ria before, although Daisy is regularly ridden that way. Initially, I just tried to get Ria to loosen up and respond to the bosal.

After I rode for 25 minutes or so, DH took a turn. He pulled the riding girth off right away. The stirrups were far too short for him. After about five minutes, he hopped off and went to go get the saddle. I think he is now quite impressed by the fact that I have ridden as much as I have in the riding girth. Ria is not easy to sit on without saddle. She is too fat. Even in the best condition I've ridden her in with it. You pretty much slide all over the place when you try to ride her.

So DH saddled her up and adjusted the stirrups to his length. Then he rode for a while. Ria went really well with him and he was able to ride with only one hand for a while. Ria definitely seems to prefer the saddle over the riding girth, and I do to. We'll have to try to ride with that as much as possible in the future.

Then I got another turn on her. While I was riding DH went in and got the video camera. The result follows.