What Are Horse Brasses? {Check Out Lisa's Guest Post & Find Out!}

It's great to be hanging out with Carrie again!  We took a brief hiatus to deal with food allergies, a dead water heater, and a cranky car, it's nice to do something fun :)

Today's project centers around our collection of horse brasses.  Horse brasses, you say?  Never heard of them...

Horse brasses, as the name implies, are made of brass and were designed to adorn the tack of large-breed horses, much like the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.  Here's an example:

source

So what do you do when you're half-English and have a collection of horse brasses that you want to show off, and don't have a huge draught horse in the back-yard to put them on?

If you live in our house, you drag out a piece of left-over wood from another project and get creative.

First things first:  get your horse brasses and dust them off (because they've been sitting in the garage for a month waiting for you to put them up).  They will look bright and shiny when you're finished:

Next, lay them out on your board and figure out the spacing.  I wouldn't get all technical and pull out the yardstick and t-square.  Trust your judgement and go with what looks good to you.  Find some pretty ribbon to hang your brasses from.  Ours came from the clearance bin at Michael's for $1.

Once you're happy with your arrangement, slide the brasses off and flip the board over.  Get your staple gun (you do have a staple gun, right?) and staple the ribbon to the back of the board.  Keep a hammer handy, just in case you need to tap the staple in.

Easy peasy.

We found it easier to start at the center and work our way out.  Keep going until all of your brasses are attached, flipping over each time to check for placement and spacing.  

We hung our collection over the book-cases, attaching it with a couple of wood scraps so that it would stand out from the wall.

Ta da!  

Horse brasses can be found on eBay and in antique stores.  We can find them at some of our favorite haunts for $3 - $5 each, although some of the rare and collectible brasses can fetch considerably more.  

In case you're wondering, the brass forks are also English.  They're toasting forks, used to toast bread over the fire place.  

So there you have it - a quick lesson on English collectibles and an inexpensive decorating idea!  We're getting back into the swing of things over on our blog, so stop by and see what's happening.  Here's a hint - there's nothing like the threat of company to motivate you on a bathroom face-lift.

Thank you, Lisa for another fabulous guest post!  Now I am going be on the outlook for horse brasses when I visit thrift shops and yard sales- how about you? ;)
Make sure you visit Lisa over at her blog, Paintbrush and Screwdriver and say hello!