One of the most important parts of tack making is prep work. You can’t have a nice finished product if the material used is sloppily prepped. Prepping leather is far from my favorite thing to do, even if I do love the end result.
Leather lace is different from cow hide. It generally doesn’t need to be dyed, sealed, or split. It’s finished but not enough for a hobbyist. To make lace model horse friendly, one must prep it. It’s one of those skills that applies to all aspects of tack making.

Supplies

Rivet Maker Hobby Tool Master Tools Trumpeter Scale Model Accessory

I use this to make faux stitch marks on lace. It adds the next level of detail. I used to use another one until I came across this one because it has a higher marks per inch. I did modify mine so the teeth of the wheel can dig into the leather a bit more. I took the outer layer off, which can be seen in the video at the bottom of the post.

X-Acto Knife

I use this to cut lace and cut away any fuzzy bits. You can get one of these at pretty much any craft store. The blade size doesn’t really matter. I never spend a lot of money on these since I have a habit of misplacing them!

Leather Lace

I use Kangaroo Lace. I find that it’s tighter and more flexible than lace you buy at craft stores. I also like it better than calf/cow leather. If you’re serious about tack making I recommend buying higher quality materials. It’ll leave you frustrated to be in the process of learning a new skill while also battling subpar materials.
There are plenty of places to buy lace. Tandy used to carry it, and sometimes you can find a spool of it for sale.  They had nice Kangaroo lace. The last time I stocked up on lace I got it here. The seller was incredibly nice and even sent me extra lace and pieces of Kangaroo hide.

This is Tandy Kangaroo Lace

Sand Paper

I use this to get the leather to be even throughout the whole piece. I just buy the packs of it at my local dollar store and it works perfectly fine.

After you’ve thinned the lace, pull out the sandpaper. You’ll want to sand the leather until it’s even and consistent through the whole piece. Then pull out the Gum Tragacanth and rub some along the rough side of the leather. You don’t want to make the leather soaking wet. You just want enough so that the leather is smooth again.

Pull out your X-acto knife and cut away any fuzzy bits along the side of the leather. The nice thing about using the skiving tool is that it usually leaves the leather pretty smooth after thinning it. But you still want to be sure that there aren’t any loose fuzzy pieces hanging out along the side. 

The last part to prepping lace is to to stitch mark. You want it to line the outside of the lace and to be able to see the impressions. Being able to get the lines straight takes some practice. 

Once you’re finished with that your lace is ready for whatever tack project you want!

Video:

I was asked a question about documenting weird things that occur in common breeds. So here it goes. The first thing to do when documenting anything is to ask:
a) Is the documentation allowed? 
b) Is it common?

Just because documentation is allowed doesn’t mean that it needs to be used. You use documentation to highlight uncommon things, because you can’t expect judges to know everything. Always follow the rules of that particular show though. In some classes documentation is needed. An example would be in an other breeds class. If the breed doesn’t fit into the commonly seen breeds then it would need documentation because it would fall under uncommon.
If it’s a common breed, like Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred/Shetland Pony, it shouldn’t need documentation unless your show rules say otherwise. A trick to figuring out if your breed is considered common is to look at classlist of the show. If the breed is separated and has its own class, it is common. When looking at a show packet you’ll often see something like this:


If you want to see the whole show packet, here it is.

See the breeds? Arabian, Morgan, and Standardbred have their own breed class. So they don’t need documentation unless you’re trying to show a rare color. If there’s a show packet that spells out particular breeds in the Other Light or Other Gaited, then you won’t need to document those either.
This show has the ponies split up by country of origin instead of individual breed. For ponies, you can guess which one is common or not. Breeds like Shetland, Welsh, and Quarter pony would be common. But if you aren’t sure if it is common or not, then make documentation and take notice of how many of that breed are at the show you go to.
 So when do you document common breeds? If a model is a color that is commonly found in your breed there’s no reason to document it. But if you have an obscure pattern or color that is not commonly seen, you should document it. You document it to show proof that it occurs.
How To Do This
Throwing down a picture next to your model is not enough. That doesn’t show proof because it has no sources. Sources are important for models in the same way that they’re important in school. Sources give validity to your claim that something exists. But you must use reliable sources. This is something you learn or should learn in school. It’s an important life skill, to be honest. You don’t want to be that person that reads on some website that aliens are invading a city when reliable sources say it’s an influx of birds. Discerning between reliable and unreliable sources is similar to shopping for chocolate. There’s a ton of obscure never-heard-of-before chocolate brands that aren’t sweet enough, crumble into a weird mass the second you bite into it, or don’t have its ingredients on the wrapper.
That’s similar to unreliable sources. They’re missing the components needed to make a well rounded presentation.


source

Then there’s the good brands of chocolate that are sweet enough, don’t crumble, and list its ingredients in a non-sketchy way. Good sources are not impossible to find, but they may take a minute longer than scrolling through Wikipedia (Wikipedia is a good starting point, but go down to their list of sources instead of citing the actual wiki page. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone so it isn’t as creditable compared to an actual vetted website). That extra minute of searching is worth it. First, you have a well done piece of documentation. Two, you learned something.
Researching is the key to success in model horse showing. The more you learn, the better your entries will be. In halter your models will be assigned the best breed you could possibly find. In performance, your entries will be realistic and portray an event correctly.


Anyways, my brain is misfiring and I can’t think of anything rare at the moment. So let’s take Sato the Thoroughbred. I don’t own a Breyer Sato but he’s still easy to make documentation for. He is an unusual color for a Thoroughbred.

Source

When using a real horse as an example for a breed you want to make sure they’re registered, which Sato is. Next you’ll want to get a clear picture of the horse. Pictures are important for showing a rare color in a breed because it gives the judge a visual.
To make the documentation you don’t need every piece of the breed on it. It’s a common breed so you’d just need to document the color. If you’re using a specific horse as an example, start research by going to the breeder’s website (if there is one).Sato’s breeder has a website so that’s where I started getting his info from. They had his info but they also had that he is registered with the Jockey Club. That’s the most important part. It’s hard to claim a color exists in a breed if that horse isn’t registered. Sure, you can have unregistered horses that are an odd color but being able to have it registered helps to show the breed registry accepts it.

Blazing Colours Farm

Animal Genetics

Started my spring semester today! Which means not as much studio time.
But I did ship some halters so, here’s a short how-to/tip for shipping small tack things.

For halters, I use jewelry shipping boxes. If it’s been used for jewelry for so long, it’s safe for plastic pony items. The inside has stuffing inside too. More protection.

Then I put it inside of an envelope. Not any envelope. Padded envelopes. They’re lined with bubble wrap which adds to the protection. Shipping is a game where you want everything to end up in great condition in the most efficient way. If the halter fits and the box fits in the envelope, then it’s off to its new owner! These boxes come in different sizes, so you could go smaller for boots and miniature props. Longer boxes would work for bridles and girths. I wouldn’t send a saddle this way, so that’s a post for another day.