For a while now I’ve been doing leather work, making basic tack (bridles breast collars etc). I’ve got my hand stitching down, learned a lot about picking good quality leather and so on. Recently I’ve come into a large collection of costume jewelry and vintage bridle rosettes…really nice stuff. My stepfather was a bit of a collector…since he passed away a good bit of his hoard has passed into my possession. Nobody else in the family really wants to mess with it, not the boxes of tangled up costume jewelry at least.
I was looking at some of the pieces today and they are gorgeous. I could see them being worked into tack…big blingy brow bands made from bracelets, brooches and earrings re-purposed into rosettes, big hefty sparkly necklaces worked into breast collars…you get the idea.
Trouble is, what would I do with all this hypothetical tack I’d be making? Western folks are the kings and queens of bling, do you think I’d be able to sell something like that? Or would be too much, too dated, too tacky? Everything seems to be straight rhinestones and silver right now, this stuff would really deviate from the norm. Would I be wasting my time on something like this?
