HorsehairBraider

Awesome! I especially love the tooling detail, and the little scales are just out of this world, particularly where you change color on them. Very beautiful!

Taxes and licenses... Don't know about everyone else, but I have to pay state sales tax on things I sell in my own state, have to have a business license for states where I go and physically sell things including of course my own state. Show fees - entry fees, jury fees etc. that you have to pay for booth space, the jury fee to get in the show in the first place, electricity for your display etc. That's all I can think of on this small amount of coffee...

Really cool color you've got there! Did you dye it yourself? It's really nice!

Those are awesome! Oh yeah, they'll sell... Who could resist?

Nice stuff! I like that last one with the star... they are all very nice!

If you were standing here right next to me I could easily show you, but you're kinda far away... Do you have the Bruce Grant book? Or do you just only have the instructions for that one thing? Are you able to follow the pictures? They are not the best in that book but if you are patient and keep at it, they will work fine. If you have the book, I think it says you "crown the ends by passing each one beneath one" or something like that. Just try and follow the instructions. Even if they sound weird, or you think that can't be right, just do what it says - hey, what do you have to lose? Even if you make a mistake you will learn, and that is a good thing. I'd encourage you to just keep at it.

Yes, I think I was told it means something like "farm wife" there? And that there is some type of famous knife with that brand name? In Spanish "mora" means "berry" and there are a lot of chokecherries, elderberries and currants in the area. Oh, and glad you like the little bridle.

I love guitar music, so I often listen to the public radio station in Australia. They have a program called "FretNet" that you can listen to over the internet. There's a FretNet website where I can pick out the program and play it. When things are really rough - I am facing a lot of deadlines, have to stay up till 1 AM working etc. there is nothing better for me than listening to "Weird Al" Yankovic. He is so funny I end up laughing and enjoying myself when I should be miserable because I am working so hard.

I just dyed some with no trouble, but it seems to take up the dye real well so I got it soaking wet first to sort of tone things down. I have to say, it does dye a slightly different shade than I am used to (I'm used to calf) but I was able to sort of mix colors actually on the little strip that I dyed. Here's a pic of it, it's a teeny little bridle that I braided: It was originally too orange, but I added some darker dye after the first color and got the color I was after. I put a finish on it after I was done as I did not want any more changes. It's true I only dyed a very small amount, maybe only a meter total, but it did not seem to have any finish on it that resisted the dye.

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Myriam, funny but I feel the same way about not wanting to cut calf anymore... and I had just bought a hide too! Now I know better... Elton, get out your tools and get to work on your sterling silver! I'd love to see what you come up with. And yeah, I did pull some pantyhose over that head... it was just a plain styrofoam head and I wanted some way to jazz it up without too much trouble and that was all I could think of at the time... Never did get around to changing it.

You must be talking of a different style harness than I am used to then. I use a set-up virtually identical to this one, and have for about 30 years, to pull my two-wheeled carts. We have always called that a gig saddle, and that is how it is labeled on the site itself and in all my books on the subject. There are lots of different ways to harness, so I guess this is the way we do in the USA and you have a different style. Looking forward to your pictures! I wish I could make my own harness but I don't have the right tools, all I can do is repair mine. It must be so much better when you yourself can decide how long, how wide, how much adjustment etc. and make it fit your horse.

Some details: the front of the hatband: And the back tassels where the hatband adjusts:

Just finished up this job for one of my favorite customers. The horsehair used is from her two mares - one a black QH mare, the other a black and white pinto Shetland mare. For those who don't know, I did the sterling silver pieces too. The front piece is one I designed called "Quiet Time" showing a woman hugging her horse... and this customer of mine just retired, bought the little ranch of her dreams, and is moving soon to a new life. She'll have plenty of quiet time with her horses then. This was the first time I had braided roo and I really like it! It's really nice to braid.

The taps (or tapaderos) go on the stirrups of a saddle. And not on a motorcycle saddle! It's got a couple of purposes - it stops brush and sticks and so on going through the stirrup as you are riding through thick brush, and it also stops the rider's foot from going all the way through the stirrup (which would be a complete disaster). It's probably not intentional, but it also helps keep your feet a little warmer on those really cold windy days when you are out doing chores.

Wow. This is wide open because the size of the gig saddle is determined by the size of the horse, and that is all over the place for driving horses. Is this for a mini? A draft horse? A Morgan? You need to figure out the size of the horse. This is a website that has a harness I would dearly love to have: Camptown Harness and there are some pretty good pictures of the gig saddle. Notice that one is longer than the other. The longer one is better for the horse, and I think she says somewhere she stopped offering the shorter one because the longer one gives the horse better protection and comfort to do his job, and no one wanted the shorter one anyway. If you can, build it right on the horse. That way you'll know it's right.

Awesome! I love them! I wish all saddles had taps on them, I just really like them.

I agree with what Lady J said. What I ended up doing (finally) was getting an accountant. He has given me so much good advice, and always reminds me of things that are part of the cost of doing business that I sometimes forget. I think it costs me $150 a year, and is well worth it. He also helped me out when I had made a mistake in reporting my state taxes. He explained to me how to do it correctly and the procedure to take to report my mistake. If they had caught it first I could have been in trouble, so I was pretty glad when he noticed!

Beautiful! Nice and clean. Congrats on selling it! Here's to many more!

Nice!

Beautiful and very inspiring... thanks for posting!

Nice to have you here! I used to know a guy named Grumpy but I know for a fact you're not him, guy I knew never rode a horse! This is a really cool forum with lots of nice people. You'll like it here.

A better way! Huh, don't know about that... If it is nice weather I stand outside, tie my strings to a fence and start walking backwards.... Indoors, I usually tie to a chair. Then I just keep putting the chair further and further away. I've never done anything more high tech than that. I sometimes look at my loom, which has a system with a brake, for winding the newly woven cloth onto the cloth beam but that won't actually work for braiding, as in weaving both ends of your warp are tied down hard and fast and in braiding, one end of your strings have to be free to move where ever you put them. I've also used a clamp, but normally I just use an extra piece of short string and tie off to something.

Tina, I've been braiding horsehair for most of my life, and one thing I have learned is to not ever splice hair. What happens when you splice is you have these ends that stick out and poke you. As time goes by they unravel a little and poke you even more. Some people find that acceptable. I do not. My solution is to either: use longer hair (you can get some pretty long hair, sometimes well over 3') or, design the braided article with knots and so on, so you do your splice under a knot where it will not poke anyone or detract from the strength. This makes my work very smooth, comfortable to be around, and unique. I'm also sorry to tell you that if you want your braids to come out even, you are not only going to have to count the same amount of hairs into each bundle, you are going to have to turn half the hairs "upside down" (one set going from root of hair to brush of tail, the other set going from brush of tail to root of hair) to counteract the natural taper that is in horsehair. Good luck! I think everyone should braid horsehair. Then they would not have any time left over to start fights, pollute rivers, make up computer viruses, steal other people's stuff etc.

I don't know anything about roping, but Bruce - if you tell the guys it's "salmon", not "pink", they're more likely to go for it... "Salmon" sounds very manly...

Hey deadringer, that is a nice knot. I am wondering - have you ever tied the box pineapple knot? I have got to try that one... this one looks fun to try too. Thanks!