Plaiting Julip mane

[Wollepluis]

After me bravely hogging Oxfordshire, I knew there was one more pony I had to give a little makeover. I've always wanted to try giving a Julip plaits and I decided Whiskers was the one to get them. Just like with Oxfordshire, I've always liked him, but for some reason I never pulled him out to take photos of. His mane were very full and I never really seemed to find a good way to tame it.

So this afternoon I was done with it and pulled out his mane (which was very, very difficult actually) and gave him plaits. I used a technique that was explained to me a few years ago on the Julip forum (I couldn't remember who gave it to me, but it was astudyinscarlet . Let me include the quote!

Jul 29, 2017 11:29:03 GMT astudyinscarlet said:

You mean braids like individual plaits like on dressage horses? (Not some kind of fancy Spanish horse braids or whatever cos I can't do those). If so I'd pull the old mane out and make plaits out of embroidery thread (or sometimes yarn but they tend to get bulkier). You plait a long length together, tie knots in that long plait at intervals to form the individual plaits then you poke the sections in between the knots into some glue in the neck slot leaving the knots showing on top. That's how I did the plaits on the horse in my icon.

I've to say it's a lot easier to do then I imagined! Even easier then rehairing with mohair! I thought it would be nice to show you and pull up the quote again, so that it's easy to find back for whomever I'd like to give it a go themselves.

Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge astudyinscarlet ! And now for the photos... don't you think Whiskers looks incredibly handsome now?

   

[astudyinscarlet]

He looks really nice, plaits really suit him. 

[Wollepluis]

Aug 6, 2019 15:02:27 GMT astudyinscarlet said:

He looks really nice, plaits really suit him. 

Thank you very much! And thanks even more for explaining how all that time ago! 

[happyhoof]

I really want to try plaiting this way but could you explain a little more?  Do you start with the forelock and what do you do with the very ends which are not braided?  (if that makes sense?)  thank you 

[astudyinscarlet]

I don't know how much sense this description will make but plait the long strands of thread together, knot it at mostly even intervals though I would usually leave a slightly bigger gap between the first (forelock) knot and the next one otherwise you tend to get a plait right where the bridle would go. The loose bits at either end of the knotted strand I usually seal together with tacky glue and let that dry before sticking it into the mane slot. When sticking it in I'd poke that glued bit into the top of the head first (more or less between the ears) and then fold the plaited length forward on itself so the first (forelock) knot ends up slightly in front of the ears and the little glued end bit is pushed underneath down inside the neck slot so it's neat. Then you fold the knotted length back again to work down the neck. Glue the whole length in bit by, pushing the sections in between the knots slightly into the mane slot and trying to keep the knots just on top. When I get to the other end then I poke the other glued together bit in, making sure that glued together section goes quite deep in so you end up at the base of the neck with a knot and then the little extra bit on the end going down into the neck.

[happyhoof]

Thank you that makes perfect sense and extremely helpful