Help With Coloring Dark Sheridan Halter Noseband

[AdamTill]

Hi folks,

Would appreciate thoughts on a halter project I'm going to be starting in the near future. This is intended as a gift for a special lady in my life who has a grey Arabian, and as such, I was hoping to do it in a very dark colours (grey's typically looking best in black tack).

The problem is, as you all know, black annihilates most carving, especially of the more delicate variety. As such, I was thinking of dyeing the edges to the border line with black oil dye, then using a black antique on the tooling. I've no idea how it would look, however, and while I'm going to attempt some test pieces I thought I'd ask here for some advice. Dyeing the background black would work too, but it would be nice if the border and backing leather was black since that's the dominant structure.

Any thoughts? I'll attach the noseband pattern here, but I was going to fully carve everything.

Cheers,

Adam

[kseidel]

Howdy Adam,

I'm surprised you haven't gotten any responses yet. You are correct in that black covers up the tooling and all you are left with is texture. Dying the edge and the background while leaving the tooling lighter should give you the look you want. Travis Stillson has a good example of this on his website. Black antique works nicely; be sure to use a resist before antiquing.

Now lets talk about your pattern. You want a more delicate "Sheridan" style tooling. The pattern you posted is not sheridan style. Even though you have classic Chester Hape domestic roses, you do not have the proper stemwork to go with them. You also have too much background and are not using your space completely. Redraw your pattern enlarging your flowers, leaves and stemwork to extend to and beyond your border. This will fill up your space completely and reduce your background significantly. I would also encourage you to change the roses some to be your own and not a direct copy of Mr. Hape's. I will attach a quick redraw of your pattern to illustrate my point.

Hope this helps you.

Keith

[AdamTill]

Hi Keith,

Thanks VERY much, that's exactly the sort of effect I was hoping to create. That gives me a minds-eye picture to shoot for now.

Thanks also on the pattern front as well. I'm getting a little more confident on the execution side of things, but I'm still very green on developing anything different. That pattern was just adapted from one of Chan Geer's belt patterns (I'm still very much standing on the shoulders of the folks like yourself who've been doing this), but I can really see what you're getting at in terms of minimizing backgrounding. Anything I can do to increase the carving area on straps this small is very welcome, so as much as my hand drawing skills need help, I'll give your suggestions a go.

My halter hardware should be coming in soon, so I'm going to get started in the near future. That should be enough time to redraw some patterns.

Much obliged!

Adam