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As a keepsake, I made this necklace from
Masada’s mane hair around 15 years ago. I used his mane
for many other projects that were sold, but had nothing for myself.
Masada was chestnut so his mane hair was an attractive color
for tassel accents on many braided headstalls. I braided this
necklace in a combination of roo and rawhide.
Instructions for the miniature bosal (H)
can be found in The Art of Braiding,
Romal Reins l, pages 68-70. To connect the miniature bosal
to the necklace, I plaited a fine 4 strand piece to make a small
loop (G) and attached it securely into the heel knot groundwork
of the minature bosal. The trick was to keep the loop as small
as possible.
The plaited body (A) of the necklace is
40 inches/102 cm long, (B-C). The 4 plait instructions for the
necklace body are in The Art
of Braiding, The Basics - Revised Edition, page 17. It
would help to refer to the Bolo Tie project, pages 63-64.
At this point, I slipped the loop of my
minature bosal onto the plaited necklace.
I attached the hair tassels (F) by folding
the ends of my plaiting over the middle of the small bundles
of mane hair. For additional ideas, see The
Art of Braiding, The Basics - Revised Edition, pages
59, 60, 67 & 68 and The Art
of Braiding, Romal Reins l, page 65-67.
Once your groundwork is established over
the tassels, you are ready to braid the long buttons (E). If
your string size and the size groundwork over the hair tassels
are small, you may choose the long pineapple button from The Art of Braiding, The Basics -
Revised Edition, pages 38-47. My groundwork was small
enough to use the 6 bight long pineapple button. You may choose
one of the long buttons from The
Art of Braiding, Romal Reins l. This book gives a variety
of long button to choose from depending the size of the strings
and finished groundwork.
Braid two 6 bight Turk's head with a gaucho
interweave as slide knots (D). Instructions are in The
Art of Braiding, The Basics - Revised Edition, pages
35-36.
To protect the leather and give it a finished
appearance, I used Resolene. |
