Jeremiah Watt

Carving, its one of the most fulfilling parts of making the saddles I have ordered. It is one of the areas that the artist within is allowed to reign. At least that’s the way I look at it……….Do I manage to wow the world every time……..Heck no, but I give it an earnest effort.

My customer gave me a little room to be creative, but a limit on the budget I could spend on carving………all he asked for was a little something that wouldn’t turn up at the next branding he went to…..I had a certain amount of coverage to do in a geometric pattern and a certain amount in floral. So take a look below and tell me what you think about the combination and balance of each.

PHOTO BY JEREMIAH: A nice saddle for a valued customer.

I played with leaves a bit before I started, and I really liked this version of a Maple that I came up with as a result, but in the end I decided not to use this leaf in this item. I wanted a leaf that would fill areas a little differently than the Maple. So I came up with what would best be described as something of a Calla Lilly form and used it as a leaf motif.

The whole process of coming up with the Maple and a way that I wanted to stamp it to create a very tight triangular shape, also had me build a special shader that I will be introducing before to long in our little Company called Horse Shoe Brand Tools. I have since used the NEW SHADER on several other experimental pieces and I really like the look it gives the work. Unique and different should be two qualities that we strive for, right?

Next I had to come up with a flower that is not seen everywhere, followed by a method of stamping it that would aid in creating a different look. I started with a form of the Water Lilly, and worked my way thru a few flowers to find a shape I liked and a method of stamping it that I liked the look of. Just in case some of you have wondered, there is no “Office of Fine Flower Carving” that dictates just how a flower is to be shaded or for that matter how it has to look. We are free to experiment……….ain’t that cool!

I tried a few and decided that I was going in the wrong direction. I moved on to what some would call a Daffodil and others may call a Jonquil…………I am not a horticulturalist so I may screw it up as well. I was working on a view that was a little more direct over the top of the flower, and one of my kids commented on how flat the flower appeared to be from that angle. Kids, ya‘gotta love their honesty

I worked on another view that gave us a view of the trumpet portion of the body of the flower and I liked the results much better this time around. These experimental pieces of carving are meant to give us a chance to try various methods of shading, and new tools for flower centers etc. If we pound our flowers out by the same manner each time………….well they begin to look like pounded out flowers. And we are artists, right?

Once we have the flower and the leaf form that we make main use of, we can work on some new buds and leaflet forms that we use as FILLERS. Again there is no body of “Grand-POObah’s” who decide on what flower, bud nor leaf is right and or proper. Yes, I know I could open an Al Stohlman book and grab a leaf or bud, or maybe a pattern pack from Tandy. I am old school, and firmly believe that if you fall prey to that sort of approach that you will take that route more often than not, and it will show in your work. So it is that I sit and struggle at some times, and then others the floral motifs simply fall of the end of my swivel knife so too speak.

When we do it right, there is symmetry and balance in the curves and sweeps of the pattern. There should be a visual interest that leads the eye on a floral journey over the cowhide canvas, a pattern should avoid being stade and didactic in its form. The carver should attain either perfect symmetry or obvious asymmetry. There is always the danger of a carvers attempt at just a “LITTLE ASYMMETRY” as being seen as a mistake rather than that artistic attempt intended.

There are those areas that by nature do not allow any of us to get too carried away, such as a saddle horn which even on a nice Wade horn has it limitations. But consider it this way, which is, from the riders perspective the top of the horn and his view of the top of the fork and front jockey’s which all becomes one plane on which we can encompass a unique pattern.

It isn’t a matter of pass or fail. It really comes down to YOU seeking the real inside. Reach that, and you will attain a much higher level of self satisfaction and in all likelihood a greater degree of financial satisfaction as a result of the unpaid effort you have made at home at your own bench when nobody was watching. Nice work isn’t an accident, it’s the result of hard work. If its your work and you have done it, then be proud of it by all means. If it happens to be somebody else’s work, then be sure to compliment their efforts.

Good Night and God Bless