Anatomy of Prototyping a New Saddle Pattern

09/22/05

This saddle was made with the hard bake Sculpey tree shown above. I did have to reduce quite a bit of the bulk in the arms of the  tree and the very back of the seat. The bend in the seat of the tree is in the wrong place. It should be further back. But the back of the seat looks so much better now and the arch in the pommel does not give like with the metal/leather/foam solutions. What I really like best is that there aren't any of those annoying wrinkles in the seat because the skiver is glued with the tree already in the correct position. This tree was actually very easy to use, except for the bulk in the arms of the tree that bulked up even more with several layers of skiver and 2 oz leather.

Other improvements include the poleys (that now fit in the correct  position) and in the bulk in the middle of the saddle. I still haven't worked out exactly how long the skirt flaps need to be and need to trim them down before gluing into place.

The front looks very good. One small piece of piping in the gullet of the pommel and then another along the front edge works very well. It  has to be the rolled (instead of folded) type of piping. The folded piping just isn't thick enough.

This saddle was made with the flexible Sculpey tree. Though I do like the profile of this tree, the back came out uneven, another problem with clay trees!! It's obvious only in the top picture. This is the first attempt at adding tooling and other details. You can't see the tooling on the flaps very well, but the "6" saddle" came with a  very nice and simple tooling pattern. I even thought about coloring in the raised areas in black to accent the pattern. Maybe with the next saddle. This one I added the stirrups as I needed to figure out how to get  those right. Turns out, I have to put the stirrup on the front strap, glue the buckle to the end of the front strap and then buckle to the back strap so that the excess points down. I added a very simple stay to keep all the straps together. The tooling on the back of the saddle actually should be stitching. I have yet to work out how to add all of the stitching details. I'm partial to using a paper pattern on the leather and a sewing machine. I don't know how many others will be partial to that method so I'll have to see about hand stitching the designs. I've added some of the hardware. Aussie saddles have the D rings (these are a little bit large, but its the first go.) Aussie saddle also have a  very different piece of hardware that looks like a bar attached to a flat piece of metal. I used straight pins to try and create something similar. But I think another D ring will have to do instead. The Ds in the skirts add additional bulk, so I will probably have to switch to strips of skiver instead of leather lace. Or the leather lace will have to be skived as thin as skiver.
This is also the first time I've added  the crupper bar (top picture) in the lower padding. There are a few dynamics to work out with that piece of hardware. It is created from a straight pin.

09/28/05

After a long absence (about two months), I went back to the pattern. This time I scanned in what few pattern pieces there are from the "Making a Stock Saddle" book, the one that shows how to make a full size Australian stock saddle. There is tons of information in that book. But the pattern pieces are not complete (or are vague/cut to fit as you go). So I used a combination of what I learned from the 6" saddle book and those pattern pieces and put together a prototype (on the left).

I really like the way the shape of the tree came out. It seems to solve the cantle problem without using a polymer clay tree (just leather, foam and aluminum in layers). I also liked the flaps on this one, more modern. The flaps on the 6" saddle looked more vintage or even -dare I say - cartoon-ish. But the skirts and poleys are too small and don't work well together. I didn't add any finish work to the front of either saddle. But the saddle on the left actually looks finished.

So I decided to further modify the 6" Saddle pattern (right side), changing the shape of the flaps (this one Western style without the skirts). I added the back facing pieces to the cantle of the existing tree pattern and ended up with an undesirable lump.

I put these two saddles side-by-side to make it easier to see the not so obvious differences. Looks like the final saddle pattern (if I only include one in the book) will be based on the tree and flaps from the "Making a Stock Saddle" book and the skirts and poleys from the 6" Saddle book.

The next saddle should be the best of the parts from these two saddles. Hopefully, the last of the "blank" prototypes.

12/14/05

I really like the way this is shaping up. Most of the major structural problems have been corrected by combining the patterns from the two books. This finally looks like an English tree with a Western cantle. The stitching was done on a sewing machine (without using electricity) and that worked out okay. but I think I will try some faux stitching on the next one. I've worked out four different stitching patterns for the back (by the crupper bar) two stitching patterns for the skirts and two tooling patterns for the flaps. I will need to create at least two more tooling patterns (one easy and one advanced) for the book. And I want to finalize the Western style options as well. And, I need to create the blocking tool...

I qualify this saddle as PSQ and not LSQ because of some very minor issues. The skirts ended up slightly different in shape due to my cutting skills. The stitching on one of the skirts came out on one side because the stitches were too small. There's glue residue all over the place. I smeared some of the edge kote places it shouldn't be (though a rubbing of Neetsfeet oil should help hide that). The stirrups are too long. The slit for the overgirth isn't centered in the tooling area. The lower padding isn't long enough (it should be seen under the front of the pommel - first picture on the bottom left. I didn't use a blocking tool for the seat cover so there are wrinkles in the back of the cantle. Finally, the Dee rings for the Martingail should not be sitting between the piping pieces. All of these faults can be hidden in a good photo. But a wise judge may notice in a live show.