Hey Baby let's go to Vegas!

How ironic was it when that song came on yesterday, as I was finishing up the reins on the double bridle for my gold/black Arabian costume!

Well, like any other LVL year, I have been busy working my fingers to the bone. I have super glue and exacto injuries on nearly all of my fingers, (maybe I should super glue the cuts...it could be a sign, lol.) and my eyes and neck have been strained to the max, but I am so close! The gold and Black costume is DONE, and boy am I proud! It was my first ever attempt at a double bridle, and it is as detailed as anything I have ever made before, 5 tiny working buckles and a slip buckle for the throatlatch, it's so cool! The bit is from TWMHC/Allison Bennish on ebay, very cool stuff if you haven't ordered from them before! The rings swing just like on the real horse bits, which to me is so neat.

The green EDH will be done by tomorrow I hope, just the bridle standing in my way at this point, I'm a bit burned out on strap goods at the moment, but it will get done in time. I'll put some pics up of it when I have it finished.

I finally got around to painting the Matriarch who has been sitting on my shelf for two birthdays, she's turning out so much nicer than I hoped, I hope she does well this next week, she is a BLAST to paint! She is quite the demanding thing though, she said she needs a halter of her own, so she got one, it has 5 buckels for adjustment on it, and turned out quite lovely also, in my unbiased opinion! :0)

I also just wrapped up a customer commission for a simple cable style halter, the throatlatch is removable, and is done in super fine cable, just like the real deal!

Well, need to roll for now, my daughter just got hit on the head in a Pinata incident at the neighbor's house...off to tend to her! Hope to see some of you in Vegas next week!

Sneak peeks!

Two more things that are to be done in the near future, though one (the green EDH) will be much more near than the other. The pics are clickable as always, but do remember, the embroidered piece is in the picture with a quarter for scale, blown up it's probably gonna look a bit messy. It's also my first try at a hand embroidered set, and holy buckets is that a lot of stitching!

Here's hoping to have at least one model Q'd for NAN who can wear it...it just may take that long to finish!

Enjoy the pics!

Building a small stockpile...

Of Tack! This is the first of four pieces I hope to get finished by Las Vegas Live in another month. I know I will at least have three of them done, the fourth, my first hand embroidered piece is driving me nuts. I am not a very patient person, I like results, at least in a reasonable time frame, so spending 3 hours putting tiny little dots of color around a rectangular piece of cloth is not my idea of progress. I would be a lot faster if I was not so darn anal about spacing, size, etc. but I guess that's OK, and probably preferred in the long run. :0)

So anyhow, here is number one in my little tack arsenal, an 'El Badia' beaded style costume, complete with separate bridle and halter, so the halter and chestpiece could be used without the rest of the set. It fits a few different sizes of Arabians, so I am hoping to use it for the OF and CM classes, and then again at another show in April. This is the first Traditional costume (not EDH or anything else) since LVL '07, so I am so excited to have one done!

Enjoy the pics!

Carousel Costumes, for models?

Yes! I finished my first Carousel Horse costume this week, and wanted to share a few pictures here, and a little backstory I guess too!

When I first started cruising ebay, in early 2003, I ran across a seller Chey Ann Silver Fox (and I may have just butchered the first name, sorry, it's been a long time!) who was selling the coolest thing I had ever seen, Model Horse Carousel Costumes, all made out of leather, tooled and painted, and just awesome. I thought I would love to buy one one day, but I waited too long, as she dropped out of the hobby and no longer makes these lovely costumes! I managed to contact her though ebay (can't for the life of me recall her user ID anymore, gah.) about 2 years ago, and she was very nice, but said she probably won't be doing any more for now, but maybe some time in the distant future.

Fast forward to a few months back, one of the bead stores I buy from online was having a clearance on some really cool Swarovski crystals so I bought some, not knowing what I 'd be doing with them. So I get the crystals and begin to think of what I could use them for, and then I looked at my monitor and the wallpaper I currently was using,...pictures of Carousel horses from the Idaho State Fair I took the summer before last! Click!

So to make a long story kind of shorter, here it is, the first Carousel costume from my studio...but not the last, these things are fun!

Third Annual Holiday Halter sale!

Yep, I have been bugging you all with my holiday sale three years running, whew! *giggles*

Actually I am very proud to have quite a few new pieces to offer this year, and a few more on the way if I can get my errand running out of the way this week and get to my desk! The 5 pictured here are all available as of the time I am writing this, except for the copper/gold one, I have someone interested in it. (but wanted to share the picture anyway! ;0) ) I can be reached via email at mrsmelissage "at" msn "dot" com if anyone is interested in one of the pieces! (all priced at 35.00 except for the mini halter, which is 25.00)

Thanks for reading, I'm off to go take care of more pre holiday crazyness!

The last piece of the puzzle...

It's finished! I just about killed my neck with this one, but it was so worth it, it turned out exactly like I was hoping, and a pretty good representation of the original 'real horse' set as well!

I am now free and clear to do sales pieces, and a few pieces for Las Vegas Live, which will be here before I know it, time has flown!

Coming soon will be 4 holiday halters and a few of the royal show halters as feature in some posts below...and maybe a few wire/cable style halters as well, I haven't decided just yet. I am also planning on a Hunter green EDH costume as well as my first hand embroidered native set, so things will still be busy, just no one waiting on me, which will be very freeing.

Well, enjoy the pictures, I'm outta here for 10 days starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to post any for a while! Have a great Thanksgiving week everyone! :0)

The inspiration piece...

Busy Busy Busy!

This has been a great week of tying up loose ends, and boy did I have a LOT of ends to tie! I won't bore you (if there is a *you* that is, lol) with a bunch of text, here are some pictures!

OK, so I lied, here's a bit of text...The halter is the prize for a drawing I did on Halloween, the Pony is still a WIP, but he is coming along nicely, I have a poll going on to pick his color, he looks to be going towards Golden Palomino...

The Necklace is...wouldn't YOU like to know...;0)

I have one more item I'm working on here tonight, that should be wrapped up by tomorrow, I'll post it here when it's finished... Ok, back to work!

(click the pictures for gigantic sized pictures!)