| Performance Showing - Making Tack |
| I've always enjoyed working with leather and decided to try my hand at making some minature western tack. It's a lot harder than it looks! Working in such a small scale is a true challenge because most of the leatherworking tools are just miles too big! So you have to get pretty creative about what hand tools can do the same job that your Tandy tools used to accomplish. Likewise, all the findings you need for making minature tack must be very small in scale. This means hard to find! For most situations, the very smallest size made is what you will need. |
| Thank goodness for Rio Rondo. They make kits to get you started with step-by-step instructions and all the pieces necessary for a very basic saddle. And if you wish to make the saddle fancier, Rio Rondo sells an amazing variety of etched decorations such as the corner plate set above. They are a great place to buy cast bits, stirrups and lots of other findings. Another great resource is Alison Benuish's "TWMHC" (The World of Model Horse Collecting). Alison sells on eBay, where you can find many useful things in her store. Tandy Leather provides "all things leather", though most of their inventory is not geared toward miniature work. The Unicorn Woman stocks leather, kangaroo lace and many other useful supplies. Then we end up looking for everything else by stalking the craft stores, bead sections, fabric stores, scrapbooking suppliers and anyplace else that might have things we can adapt for our minature work. Even the Dollar Store is not exempt! |
| It didn't take long for me to figure out I couldn't do this on the kitchen table anymore, so I made a little corner in my model room for a workspace. I have since added better lighting and a bookshelf full of reference pictures and "How To" articles. |
| So here are some pictures of my saddle making efforts: Each saddle set is a real learning experience for me and I am having fun figuring out how to make the next one better than the last! |
