Aurelie Report post Posted October 17, 2011 Hello, Just a quick "re" presentation : I am a 35 years old french girl living in France I 've been trained to build "basic " and resistant saddles in Montana during 2010 summer Now i am in France and building saddles on my own What can i say? I 've been well trained because i ve got the "basic" process to build a saddle What i have learnt so far? => you learn something new, you experiment something new every new saddle you build and you better have a load of crazy ideas in your brain to come through the troubles you can have and 1 of the big difficulty i have come across? it's about tools here in europe many tools are different or simply do not exist so you have to have a great idea to turn 1 tool into what you need It's just a great job! i do not regret having put my fingers in this! I am a rookie, my saddles are not perfects (and i am the 1st to say so) but i am improving myself everyday and i keep in mind what my teacher used to say : “Knowledge builds the saddle, Experience makes the Difference" and that's so true!!! even more when i see all the awesome things you do guys with leather and saddles Ok enough chating around! Here are the jobs i have done so far ; here in France by myself : 1st one is a Wade tree from Timberline - Inskirt rigging - balanced ride stirrups system (really like that) - saddle for a QH - saddle for going in the "backcountry" - saddle finished on April 2011 what can i say about it aside it was hard to build because i was pregnant and tired? i came across troubles with the fork cover - i did it 3 times it was my fault ! i gambled about the leather and knew it would not work...and it did not work i am not "at ease" with the step where you cut the hole to fit the horn : 1 time is too wide or the other time it's too tight i tried the option with scallops (i really do not like that , it's not neat) and i tried the option cut at the back and laced (it's better but longer) the second one: it's a sid special from Timberline - Inskirt rigging - saddle for a paint x fjord - "backcountry" saddle - saddle finished on october 2011 the welts : i could have done them better but the result is rather good for a whole hand stitching (no sewing machine so far) i ve come across BIG troubles with the padded seat - i did it twice because of big wrinkles- and after a big brainstorming with hubby...we won! in fact , the leather i used for the padded seat was an oiled leather, too thick for that BUT we finally won over the "too thick leather" and ZERO WRINCKLES! i am rather proud of the seat on this saddle because the final result is nice what i could have done differently? = the back jockeys are a wee too small, they could have come a bit farther underneath the side jockey (duly noted for the next one ) the binding : that usually easy peezee thing just drove me crazy...... drill bits are too short here for the thickness of the cheyenne roll so i had to find some tricks to finish nicely the job It's acceptable but for me the holes of the stitching line could be a wee smaller and it would be perfect if you put aside the troubles with the padded seat, this one gone better than the 1st...even with a 4 months old baby around what part i really like on this saddle? the back jockeys ! why? i do not know...they just look fine i am going to start a new one next week and i will keep in mind all the "errors" i do not want to do again.....just because i know that i will come across "new" troubles! AhAH! Next one : saddle tree : old mexico from Timberline - i think it will be inskirt too - black leather and yellow latigo and padded seat - straight cantle (never done that before = > by the way : i am interested if you can explain how you stitch the binding on a straight cantle because the way i know is just "scaring" me) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harrington Report post Posted October 17, 2011 Looks like nice work, especially for trying to work being pregnant then having a baby to take care of later. Keep up the good work. Are you making the saddles for customers there in France? From what I can see in the small picture, your padded seat on the 2nd saddle looks great. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aurelie Report post Posted October 17, 2011 Yes Harrington, i build them for special orders here in France and yeah, the padded seat on the 2d saddle looks nice..... but it really was a "pain in the butt" because i wanted to use a specific leather and it turned out to be to thick and not stretchy at all... then when i pulled the seat => 2 huge wrinkles appeared at the base of the cantle had to tear apart the seat and redo it from scratch after 1 phone call to the USA and the answer : "Aurelie, it s impossible to do that with this leather" and given how "hard headed i am" more than a mule if i can say so i finally found a trick to pull that seat the way i wanted wew.....not sure i would do it again though! next saddle , i am going to "try" a straight cantle and a padded seat ...but with a leather more stretchy and since , it's not a special order, i am going to try to experiment some things and try to improve what i was not happy with those last saddles Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aurelie Report post Posted October 17, 2011 Not sure this picture is bigger than the others (i did not want them to be too huge for computers) Not sure you can see the padded seat better... but here it is Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GianniWest Report post Posted October 27, 2011 Congratulations Aurelie. Much good work Gianni Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
