Studio Update: October 15

Today I... was generally quite pleased with myself.

I achieved a nice, warm-toned dark brown (far left, not that you can appreciate it in this lovely lighting), which has been a challenge for me with this white leather. With buff leather, you have a warm base to build on, but when you put dark dyes on the white, it's easy for the color to come across as thin and washed out- if you've ever colored a model with pastels, think what would happen if you applied dark dust to a white pony. 

What worked for me was to first dye the piece Chocolate (the dark brown color of the saddle on my site's home page), wait for that to dry 90%, then add a thin layer of Walnut (tan color on the far right of the above pic). Score.

I did some more work on this odds and ends order, which is presenting me with an opportunity to rethink how I do my boots. In the past, my open-front jumping boots have always been a pretty dull affair. I would pretty much just cut out the pattern in the above pic, glue one end of some straps down to one side, and call it a day. 

My boots circa 2012.

In this scale, that's actually totally passable. But this year is all about reforming, updating and improving my old ways, so this pair is taking a little more time and effort.

So far, I've thinned the leather, adjusted the pattern shape, and molded the boot to the model's leg for a more contoured, snug fit.

Boot taco

I'm going for this kind of thing:

And this is what I have:

You can't see the majority of the detail on this baby in the pics- we've got the slotted strap action goin' on, as well as the added layer of the kick plate, and stitch marking galore. It still needs little silver "studs" on the closure end (they really just sticky wax into place), but I've gotta say, I'm really pleased!

(The other one is about halfway done. I'm giving my eyes/brain a break from it by writing this post.)

I might actually write a whole post about girths in the future, but here's today's product. Crappy basement photography doesn't show the stitches or neat edges on this guy, but trust me, they're there!

The pony bridle is also back in one solid piece (almost), with a new, longer crownpiece, but I've already hit you over the head with pictures of that one. 

Now back to that boot.