That looks amazing and super fine work! scale looks awesome, I think I can see a few tiny specs of fuzz on the edges of your leather straps if you want to get rid of them gum tragacanth works well to smooth out the edges and back of you leather and I find sealing with Tan Kote cleans them up well too! (you may have just not gotten to sealing yet but still useful info for others too!)
Yes tan cote from Fiebings is great to work with, it really makes the back of the leather look way prettier and it also makes tacking up easier cause it stiffens the lace a bit.
Here's what I'm working on ATM, it's gonna be a pleasure harness. Not super exciting yet, but it's getting somewhere
Charlotte Pijnenburg CharArt Because tack will always make it better! charart.wordpress.com/
That is amazing Char I love all of it the details are just perfect! Looks like you've made the metal keeper bars and the overcheck hook yourself? I love how you have done the panels on the roller/saddle so clean at the edges where it meets with the top!
Emily, yes I've made those two myself, since I haven't found good overcheck hooks for sale yet... The metal keeper bars are easy to make, I probably wouldn't pay for them even if I knew where to get them haha.
Becca, I buy most of my hardware premade, but it still takes a lot of work to prepare (cutting it loose, shaving down the edges and adding tongues, and all that times 32 for a harness ).
Touchstone, this part excists so far from tooling leather (the larger tan parts), lace (the straps) and skiver (the natural coloured cushions).
The whole girth is also made out of lace, since it's fabric dyed I like that better against the model than a piece of dyed tooling leather (which might have been easier to work with in this case). Cause I don't just want pretty tack, I also want the pretty models to be able to wear the tack and still stay pretty, lol!
That looks great so far! You use fabric dye instead of leather dye? That's interesting. I always fear that the tack might stain the models. What kind of dye is it? That powder stuff that you have to mix with water?
I think you get me wrong. When I say "fabric dyed" I mean that it has been dyed in a factory, so I've bought it pre-dyed. This is probably something that, to me, seems to connect really logical, because in Dutch a factory is called a "fabriek", lol.
So for me, fabric dyed automatically meant factory dyed. Now I'm wondering about the term though..?
Anyway, it's pre-dyed leather that I've bought as it is, while I dye the tooling leather myself (with leather dye from Fiebings).
Charlotte Pijnenburg CharArt Because tack will always make it better! charart.wordpress.com/
Aaah, okay! It is the same in german, "Fabrik" for factory. :-) I needed some time, too, to get used of the english word "fabric". I also use factory dyed leather as well as leather I dye myself with Fiebings.
Ah yes you are from Germany I'm planning to come to a show in Germany sometime when I've got a job and money! English-speaking people are always telling me that I talk German even though I'm pretty sure I'm speaking Dutch... Do you have the same thing but reversed? People telling you that you talk Dutch while it's German?
Sorry, off-topic big time! lol
Charlotte Pijnenburg CharArt Because tack will always make it better! charart.wordpress.com/
No, not until now, but I think for a foreigner the two languages might sound similar. I wish I could speak dutch (more than "tot ziens" and "dank u wel") because we live only 10Km from the dutch border.
And so that it is not totally off-topicc: I am working on an australian stock saddle tree. :-)
Uh.. I am currently working (or at least trying to) on a bridle for my ISH to go with the saddle I got from Emily Not sure if i can do it but it's worth a try lol!