acox4t4 Report post Posted August 24, 2011 Howdy there Friends !!! Well now that my reins are done time to start a new project. My sister got a new cowgirl hat and wants a hat band. I'm thinking about suprising her with a braided horse tail hair hat band made of her own horses tail hair. Has anyone done any horse hair braiding?? Anyone have any pictures of your horse hair projects?? His tail was not real long but was able to get several strands of hair pulled out, anyone have any ideas on how I would go about doing this project or if its even a good idea or not?? I tried a test run using 6 hairs tied together, braiding 3 groups of those 6 hairs. It came out far to small, and to short. I can always add more hairs to make it thicker but how do you make it longer?? Can tail be spliced, keep adding another hair when I come to a short one?? I was trying that and then I would have a hair end sticking out in the middle of the project. Got online and didn't see any real good information on it so hoping someone here will have some insight or know where I can go look for it. Thanks Annette Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roo4u Report post Posted August 25, 2011 i think if it was me i would just braid a roo hatband and then use the hair from your sisters horse to make tassels...that wont take too much hair and you can use shorter hair. i did a keychain thing for my mom with hair from her horse and i was able to use just the hair from his bridle path that i trimmed after it hadnt been done for a long while. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bburks Report post Posted August 30, 2011 I have done a little braiding so I will try to help if I can. First if you are planning on doing flat braiding, you will only be able to braid as long as the hair is, you can't add to the braid. If you are planning on doing a round braid than you can make the braid as long as you want. With horse hair all round braids come out square, they are usually done as a 4 braid , 8 braid , or 12 braid. To braid, you will have to make what are called PULLS. To make a pull take a number of hairs and hold the thick end with your fingers, then take another set of hairs and put the thin ends next to them, keeping them seperated. Tie the end together having the long ends hang over one of your fingers. Then take the tied end and twist it. Keep twisting, keeping the two groups seperated. When you get to tghe end tie it off. Putting the pulls together thick end to thin will give you a more consistant pull. Different colored hair have different thicknesses. For black hair I like to use a total of 14 hairs per pull, 16 hairs for brown, and 18 hairs for white. Braiding is done just like with leather. 4 braid is under one over one, 8 braid is over 2 under 2, 12 braid is over 3 under 3. The best way to do it is to use two pulls as a core. start braiding. After going at least one inch take the third pulls down on each side and pull them down to where the core is, these will become the core, them take the core strings and pull them up to take there place. continue braiding at least one inch. when these new core strings get short, cut them off and add two new pulls as cor strings. After braiding for an inch you can use these to extend the braid. For 12 braid always use 3rd string from top, 8 braid always use 2nd string from top, I have never tried to extend a four braid, but it would probably be the top string. I'm sorry for the rough explanation. This is harder to explain without pictures than I thought. If you are really interested there is a book called braiding with horsehair written by diane gadway and richard schneider. It is only about 25 pages, but is very informative and is only 10 or 15 dollars. you can check the web, there are a few people that sell it. My descriptive abilites are not very good. If you are interested I could try to post some progress pictures. The pictures I have attached are all multiple 12 braids sewn together. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
acox4t4 Report post Posted September 4, 2011 THANK YOU. I think I get what you are saying, I'll give it a try and find out . Love your work, I didn't realize that horsehair could be used to make all that kind of tack, didn't think it would be strong enough. LOL my simple idea of just making a hat band. I love this web site, every time I log on I learn something new and interesting and get to met new people, seeing that great work gives me new ideas. Thanks again for taking the time to post a message, I'll give it a try and hopefully before Christmas there will be a finished product that I can give to my sister. ROFL my horses might not like it when I drive up anymore and since brushing their tails to get hair from them is alot cheeper then buying or having to buy roo, rawhide ect.... They both might be bald by the time I'm done learning Thanks Annette Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anonnymouse Report post Posted September 4, 2011 Just let the horse walk around in some cockleburs; you'll have a lovely braided tail sooner enough! :D Sorry, couldn't resist... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TwinOaks Report post Posted September 4, 2011 Look up posts by one of our long time members - Horsehairbraider. She had excellent examples of what can be done, and also IIRC, posted good info on HOW it was done. ETA: http://www.beautiful-horses.com/bracelet1.htm Here's here website where she shows making a bracelet. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
