Studio Update: February 8

You know what I haven't shared enough of? Pictures of this hand jump.

But I really think it's starting to find its groove! 

I've cut the painter/easel, so now each standard is a tidy square, and (after I give the easel its white base back and add all the flowers) will hopefully look much more balanced. 

The hand itself is getting a lot of attention in the places that I previously thought I could live with before realizing that no, I can't, it needs help. Lots more sanding, painting, and general touching-up to do there. 

Thanks to all of your incredibly helpful comments on the last post, the fence is no longer too tall! Using a scale calculator? GENIUS. I'm such an eyeballing kind of girl that I was hesitant at first, but I'm now completely devoted to that method. Honestly, I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier!

The actual shrinking of the jump involved the slicing of a bit of wrist (thanks Devon!), which was fine as long as I didn't think about it too much. Cutting off a horse's head? No problem. Cutting off a slice of human wrist? Bit icky.

Tack has been happening too- the most fun project recently has been these saddle pads, which are a step up from my usual plain aida cloth design to this fancier aida cloth design. 

Old pad design, in a December commissioned set.

I've really liked the textured, "quilted" look of aida cloth for a while now, but the transparency bugged me a little, and I felt like there was a bit of room for improvement to bring the pad up to the level of the tack.

The new design has fun embroidery borders and details (see the little Irish flag?), as well as a cotton lining that makes the whole thing look not only more finished, but less see-through. They aren't perfect, but I think a step in the right direction!

As a shout-out to my Irish roots, I decided to make my WEG jumper from Ireland, which means lots of fun green matchy-matching.

Some fun hardware happening here: green stirrups, and a Rio Rondo etched D ring as a bit! I think it works? I ordered some 1/16" D's with my last order to give it a try, and I just love having thick, shiny metal instead of my usual wire. I'll probably mess with the little "tail" that goes into the mouth more to make it less harsh and square, but overall I'm really pleased. 

The other pad is of course part of the surcingle set, which is now down to needing boots! Or wraps? I've been doing some experimenting with wraps-that-look-like-wraps-but-are-secretly-boots... we'll see how that turns out. I'm so excited to get this set off to its new owner, and to see it on the beautiful model it's actually for!