First tries are never so good as they should. I colored white paper with a blue Copic marker, and then put painter's tape on it. Well, to keep it less weak... And that only because I have no clear tape here right now.
While I cut the taped paper piece to lace, I also colored another area of the paper and sealed it with varnish (only one side...)! That is what worked! I cutted that to lace too. The taped laces got sealed after I cutted them, not so easy thing...
Then I, of course, made halters. They were more OK than good, but I was going to make more and try different papers also.
Next I tried thicker, brown paper. I drew the lines to make it easier to cut, and sealed that from both sides with varnish, before I cutted the laces.
Well, it got four individual halters to see that it works. I now know that this is a good material, if you know what you do. Paper is not similar to leather, it is weaker and sharper, easier to cut but worse with fails. When used well and carefully, it seems to look perfect.
Here are the examples.
First blue halter, pony or small horse size. The noseband's upper part is slightly too long and loose, but better that instead of too narrow noseband. (Narrow nosebands are a big problem in model horse tack...) Could fit better without the 8 -shaped ring piece, but well, I often make those just to make a bit longer cheekpieces. Too much visible mistakes what I don't bother to fix as I fought with this halter so much already.
Second blue halter, with painter tape. Very wide straps, hmm... Not so good. But they are in better length, the halter is too inflexible to show how it really fits. Buckle is bad, blergh.
Third halter is brown. Buckle isn't nice (but it works), the 8 -rings aren't the best for Schleich halters, I see too. Unfortunately, this halter has flaws; folds in areas what aren't meand to look folded!
Fourth looks best and is practically a better version from previous one. This has no folds, no 8 -rings, and it has two hooks and a squared buckle! Well, I really needed to start enjoy of making small buckles with corners... Because it makes life so easy. I also made sure that THIS halter fits to my unfinished hannover mare CM, who is going to be a trotting finnhorse stallion. He has yarn mane (tested... found the idea of yarn from other blogs) who allows halters.
So, if anyone wonders what material to use for Schleich halters... Try paper. I personally find it useful, although leather really has things that make it at the end better material; you can punch holes to leather, not on paper, and adding thin straps to buckles is more safe in leather than paper.
I am making more paper halters at the future. In Schleich scale.
