Masja

The tile-man recommended Basalt for my work because it is the hardest stone, better than granite, (granite was available), And I have to say: it works very wel.

I got me a basalt gardentile. 1-1/4" thick (the gardenspecialist recommended basalt) 1 from 30 x 60 cm (12" x 24") let it cut into 1pc. of 12" x 16" and 1 pc. 12" x 8" Nice clean cut, the tile was allready polished, no rounded edges, but the cut is clean, so it's not sharp. I don't want a big slab, I want some handy slabs, 1 on my bench, I can push on the side and 1 to go (so I can work in my garden or anywhere I want to) I put some furniturefeltpads under (the big ones 6" x 8" cost me about $3 to do both whole slabs. And the slabs costed me incl. shipping (is expensive here in the Netherlands) $50

Because she allready has a custommade saddle, we designed a headstall that fits with it. She helped a little with the tooling of the earpiece, but she can't carve, so I did the rest. This is the saddle (NOT made by me but www.vaquero.nl , my teacher) You see the flowers in the corners of the skirts that are the same as on the headstall.(sorry no bigger pic)

Herman Oak Quality (from Germany, so not the real stuff but about same quality) tooling leather. Is that veg-tanned? I don't know exactly the english name. It's doubled 2,5 -3 mm (Is that 6-7 OZ?) And lace from a roll .

I started at the buckle with 2 strings for a 4-string round braid. So you kan do the 2 strings round the center bar of the buckle, and just start to braid. At the end, I skived the strings a little, cement them together and cement the leather (also skived a little at 1 side) on both sides and stitched it. It's a simple ..

Thank you!! That's True, I allready made a headstall (for a bosal) for a customer, she wanted that throat latch and the braidings on the rest of the headstall, but than in black, and the buckle on top.

And because I had found my cotton mecate again in the dusty hollows of my stable, I made some matching slobberbars. My horse looks happy with it. It's a halterbridle, so I can click the snaffle out of it, and my horse can graze. She's an amazing model! Her name is Gabion and she's a New Forest pony.

Our christmas-wishes (yes my partner made this one he's a cartoonist/webdesigner/photographer/......):

I can only dream about doing carving like that, some time! (I don't think I have the right tools too) @Mike: I like yours very much too!

Wow, is that your first project? I don't dare to post pics here anymore.. Very nice! Like it a lot.

Oh, wauw, I really, really like that!! It's beautifull! Thanks for sharing how to do it.. uhm.. I think of so many uses for that cuttlebug now! Very inspiring.

Does anyone have an email-address of spurwink? The website doesn't work, and it's a little expensive to call from here.

Hmm, don't know exactly, because most of them were for friends, so they get a nice discount. But I think between $ 150 and $ 300 for normal clients. (i don't know exactly what the differende between dollar and euro is) The lightbrown with natural braided one I just sold for € 260,- Throatlatch is not neccessary with these bridles. But you can add a troatlatch and browband if you want. Or some earpieces.

Wonderfull!!! I don't think I have the time to do that kind of detailed work.. I want to try it though

Some recent and older work... but all bitless... 1: bitless Tan with natural leatherlace braidings, ASB-buckles and leather concho's. 2: customer wanted ASB buckles and concho's, and a carving that looked like the inscription on the ASB-buckles. 3: customer wanted an indian-look and the name of the horse on the noseband. 4: same customer as 3, wanted again name of horse and saw some flowercarvings I made, so she wanted something like that. 5: customer wanted narrow straps and no padding under noseband. It had to fit with her saddle (med. oil with black braidings) I'm making a new bitless-bridle now, I think I have pictures next week.

Thanks! I don't have really new work (because of my illness: MS) But I'm starting new projects now. I can't do work on the computer very long at this moment, so I started to show some of my older work. In the next few days I try to post more pictures of other work.

Very nice!! Thank you for the tutorial!! Basketweave is not my specialty, maybe it's better now!

Thank you!! Not? And if I send a vacuum-sealed package? I listen to books now. Very nice.. I'm reading/listening Harry Potter at this moment. Next week I will start with Lord of the rings, I think. (I allready searched for audiobooks about leatherworking, but there are none.. lol)

Here's some of my work when I just got started. (about 3 years ago) The handbags I made first, (not bad, isn't it?). Made all the patterns and carvingpatterns myself. 1 handbag for my mother in law 2+3 handbag for my mother (thin leather, so I didn't carve deep enough.. ) 4 bananabag for the back of a saddle (carvingpattern from Tandy) 5 hornbag with waterbottle 6 showbridle double-ear. 7 unicorn carving (I wanted to make it on a bag, but the bag was not ready, and someone wanted this carving so badly, so I sold it without the bag) 8 little jewelry cupboard with all different flowercarvings.

I'm sorry, haven't been here much. Sometimes I tried to see some of your pics.. but.. :ranting: my eye didn't work like I would. Last month I spent some time in the hospital, because one eye went blind, I got infuus (bags of liquid medicine in my vein, i don't know the word in English). I found out last month for sure (MRI), I have muliple scleroses, so sometimes some parts of my body stop. Then I need some medicine and it will be better, but not 100%. My eye is better now, still blurrie, but I can read better. Still have a deaf feeling and pain in my hands and arms and tinklings (is that the right word??) all over my body, but I can live with that. Since a few days I started leatherworking again, one step at a time. So I hope I can post new pics of new items soon. I still can't read a lot, I have to rest a lot. Missed reading about your work!! @Pella: you like goudse kaas? Me too! I can send you some :biggrin: ! Here some items I finished just before I got one eye blind: * headstall little western, little spanish (with a horseheadcarving on the browband and a name on the noseband) * westernheadstall for a little pony named Belle (it's carved in the browband) both with an all black leather lining.

Thank you! I'll post some more pics of my work later, first I have to get 2 headstalls done, customers are waiting. I like this forum very much, already read many tips I can use. But questions are popping up too, so you'll hear from me soon! @ Timberwolf: where in the Netherlands did you go? I live in the south, almost in Belgium.

Good evening (yes it's evening here, half past 10) My name is Masja, I'm from the Netherlands, and sinds about 2,5 years a fanatic leathercrafter. It began as a hobby, but after a few months I got so many questions for custom products, that I thought, lets give it a try, and begin my own business. I still have a daytime job, I work in a shop (for housekeeping articles and toys) but in the evenings I work in my own shop/workspace. I made bags, belts, buckles, phonecases, halters, headstalls, saddlebags and more horsetack, dogcollars and leaches, bracelets, At this moment I mostly make custom headstalls and collars. I made 1 collar for my parents dog 2,5 years ago, and almost everybody wants something that looks like that. :angel_not: I learned the first things from a dutch westernsaddle maker (www.vaquero.nl), I had kind of a course there for 1 day. I asked him, because I had a little horse with a little head, that never fit in his headstalls, the browband was always too big. So I wanted to make one myself. But at the time I could make it, I couldn't ride my Lucky anymore (now you know were that business-name comes from ) , he was too old. So I made him a halter last year. We went for a walk together about 4 times a week. Unfortunately he passed away a few months ago. Still missing him a lot. After that day with the saddler, I purchased all I needed (Most tools at Tandy.. there's nothing like that in the Netherlands), and did it all by myself. Most of the things I had to learn the hard way. And I still am ( shouting and cursing!). But most of the time it looks good at the end. Sinds 1,5 year I have a sewing machine, an Addler from the first worldwar. It doesn't exactly what I want (again shouting and cursing), but sometimes it's easier than handstitching. I'm saving money for a good electric one.. To give my customers an extra service, I'm a dealer for other horsetack, groomingarticles, dogfood, and much more. I'm always looking for quality-products. So my webshop is still growing. Thank you for reading! (I hope you can, I was never good at foreign languages at school ) I'm going to sew a little... and then: Some of my work: