Working Away Sky is Gray

So much for the beautiful fall weather here. Today it is damp and gray. Yesterday I was gone all day at my first Scholastic Bowl meet of the season (I am the Fresh/Soph coach) and I thought it would be a short day since all my kids are neubies except one and out of 32 teams we were the 2nd smallest school. BUT my kids did awesome and we brought home a trophy, and sent a lot of big suburban schools home!
You can see that Pixel, A,( and B think its horribly cold. Pixel loves to lay in front on the heat vent and has taught her two little minions the trick. What a life eh?

This is step one of the house redo. We are adding on a total of 600 square feet, my studio will be 200 of that! The whole house will be resided as well. The studio will be off the end where my husband did a great job of letting the guys know where the barn power came off the house.

This is what the front looks like now after we cut all the trees away. There will be a full wrap around porch going on, and a new decorative window in that big empty space...I am so thrilled that its actually happening!

I am trying to work, after all there is a lot of flooring that has to be done in addition to the furniture. I am planning on painting the china Esprit, (which is way better than the OF plastic), that same fawn buckskin as the big remake but with flashy white markings. The little scarlet is a portrait model that I am way behind on, go figure! I didn't get a whole lot done with the models since the big TN show.

And I want to finish this neat arab filly remake I started. If anyone is interested they can pick a custom solid color for $350 postage paid.

I plan to go to the CCR show this weekend, but just found out that the hauler that was suppose to be here two weeks ago may be coming that day! Horse haulers are worse than doctors as far as time goes I think.

Busy Days

No I havn't been slacking, just busy with the real horses and the house. I actually sold 3 of my real horses in the past three weeks. I am so happy with my new foals that I made the decision to get rid of anything that didn't fit into my morab plans. So my champagne half friesian, my true roan NSH, and the palomino morab gelding are all going to new homes. Its hard to let them go, but that way I only have a couple to worry about over the winter while we are busy with the house. Its a beautiful sunny day here, hard to believe winter is coming. They have all been so happy growing up together, next week when they all start leaving I am sure I will be shedding a tear or two.


Now on a lighter note....is this wrong? Better than letting old eggs go to waste I suppose.....;)

Stamping Type!

I know I know more baby pictures, but look at this! The first is a purebred palomino morgan filly my stallion sired before he left for my place from his breeder.


And this is Deedee, two totally different mares that are different breeds!!! Apparently he is going to be quite the producer. I took down all his ads, I just can't let him go he is too sweet. I did sell all my young ones just so Lumi can stay a few more years till his girls are old enough to breed. I am so looking forward to riding him!

Baby pictures!!!!

The babies are just so damn cute! I have been busy getting stuff done with the house and my real horse herd reduction, but wanted to share some new ones. My husband thinks Deedee looks like she has a deer crossed with a bunny rabbit tail!

All I can say is She's so FLUFFY!!!!!!!!!!

Lumi loves the babies. He is in with both mares and foals and watches over them like a good daddy. Yesterday they were both passed out in the sun and he was standing next to them while the deat beat moms were across the pasture. If only he would stay clean just for a few minutes, the horse just loves dirt!

Ceecee will be much more araby looking than Deedee, but I just love them both to pieces and such faces on them! Hopefully I can catch some pictures of them playing together before the typical nasty Illinois winter comes, grrrrrrrr.

New Purdy D'Arry Work!

Here is the latest Purdy D'Arry creation, Wap Diva! This is the memphis belle resin with a whole new head and a new mud tail. She won in halter and workmanship lying down at Cookeville Classic...literally. D'Arry forgot the base so we have to show her lying down but she still did great!
Look at that blanket, no one does butts like D'Arry!

This new head is more in proportion for a mare of her size, its one of Lucas's warmblood heads

Sure to be a winner in performance too!

She is priced at $975 postage paid in lower 48 states, extra for oversees.

Surprise!

So this week after the show I have been slammed at work with quarter finals and teacher conferences. I ran home today after school to get the girls ready for the sitter since I had to come back into work tonight for conferences......I get home and look whats there! My palomino morab foaled, and its a chocolate palomino! This filly is so dark, darker than her mother and a snow white mane and tail already! I am just tickled silly, and the same matching blaze as CC


So of course, this is Dee Dee!!!!!!
Don't worry, no more foals this year and EE just doesn't have a ring to it. It would sound like a couple of nerds naming a foal after the exponetial key on the calculator
wait, we are a couple of nerds.......and if you don't know what that is, that means you are not a nerd so breath easy!

Purdy New Baby!

Will all the craziness with the show last week and getting ready for the contractor to start, I didn't post the extra excitement at the Purdy Farm! My purebred arabian mare had her first baby, and Lumi's first baby, a stunning minimal sabino filly! This is at 10 hours old. I don't remember seeing such a young palomino where the body is so gold and the mane and tail so white already, she is just perfect and doing great. The name, well, be careful what you ask your child to do. So we have A, and B, now we have CC!
It actually works well, mom's barn name is Gigi, so now we have Gigi and CC together.

Here is daddy, I can't wait to see what my palomino mare give me! With the wettness we have had the last three years in the spring and most of the summer, I decided to do fall foals, and its really perfect around here.

I will try and get some new pictures of her this week, she has already filled out so much, they grow so fast. I am selling many of the real horses though, including Lumi. I just don't ride as much anymore and have enjoy getting to travel with the models, so in a couple of months I will be down to just three.

Anyone want a cremello morgan stallion????

Show Report Cookeville Classic Pictures

Okay I am a bad show photographer, I really didn't get a chance to take pictures during performance, I was too busy getting this little gal into everything I could, and it paid off! Gizella, with all my Buxton and Granger tack, won overall performance champ. At a show this size, I was thrilled! And these were the first pink ribbons of the day!
She sold already........I am going to miss her in the performance ring, Breyer need to get this little mold out in the regular run soon!



Next the esprit custom got a workmanship reserve champ, he is still available for sale. The halter classes were double judged for workmanship and halter.

Jonker, the Dutch Harness horse, was double champ for breed and workmanship in his division, he is also sold.

Cornelia Marie was double champ and then took overall reserve honors.

Freedom Generator, my new favorite personal horse took double champ honors as well!

There are more pictures to come tomorrow, and wait till you see the gifts you get just for going to this show!!! I can't stress this enough, this show won Show of the Year last year and I plan to vote for it this year as well, it was so well done and so worth the trip, and best of all, the ribbons were PINK!!!!!!!!

Show Report Cookeville Classic

Just got back from Tennessee and I am wiped from the drive, BUT

This is the most amazing live show I have been to in years! I will tell you all about it the next few days, but look at all the pink I got to bring home!

Just what to do with those weird OF thingys......LOL

Remaking 101, Reference Photos

One thing I can not stress enough to remakers out there is the use of reference photos. I always try as much as possible to model every remake and its position off of a photo. Its not that it has to be exact, but having something real to look at helps me tremendously. So here are two recent remakes and their photo counterparts. The first is Freedom Generator, a Big Lick walker I modeled after the real world champion, The Whole Nine Yards. In real like the model's color looks way more like the real horse. It was so nice earlier today but when I took these photos it had clouded up.


The hardest thing on this guy was getting the stacks right in front and then the hip lines to follow. The stacks are the accepted 50% of natural hoof length, and will eventually have their straps on as well. He will also have trailer shoes behind.

Then for a breed you don't see often, a Dutch Harness horse. This is a huck body with a lonesome glory head. He is complete with the shaved tail top, and plaited mane. The trick on him was to get the plaits to stand away from the neck like they do on a real Dutch Harness horse groomed for show.

I actually took the right hind off completely to move it forward to get that look of him reaching way under himself. This overreach with the hind is a breed standard that they must show.

I hope to have finished photos on Thursday before I leave for the show Friday morning. For all those have asked I have decided on these prices for blog readers

Esprit Custom $550

Gizelle Custom $600

Dutch Harness horse $625

Prices do NOT include postage!

These are lower than what I was planning, but really, have I mentioned how much I want new furniture to go in the new addition?

TWH...dont ask, if I ever sold him Linda would hunt me down.......;)

Just think, real photos you could see the real colors in...whoo hoo!

Remaking Progress

The hubby and I took the girls to an indoor water park hotel last night, and as you can see, not only is Daddy wore out, B was a little stressed being by herself last night. The night off was well spent, since I have a feeling I will be up on foal watch tonight. My purebred arabian mare is waxed up and hopefully Lumi's first baby (my cremello stallion) will be here soon!


So only a week till the show, and I am down to markings and details. Here is the gizelle in her silver dapple pinto. I plan to show her as a morgan/paint cross.

The Esprit is my favorite. This fawn buckskin paint is so strange looking in the cups, and it takes about 30 layers of different colors to get this final result, but I am so glad I did this instead of the apricot dun going grey. I love that color too, but I want to always try new things and strive to improve on technique.

Here you can kinda see how I curled the lip a bit, can't wait to get his eyeballs and mouth detailed for the final effect! The hardest thing with this remake was keeping the flowing mane intact yet moving the neck and head. The shoulder was the easy part, I just cut the whole top of the right shoulder out and replaced it. I know it seems like a lot of work and Esprits out there have sold for a ton without having it corrected, but I just couldn't stand it! I also filled in the deep muscle grooves in places to give them not such a harsh look.

Tomorrow I will post the pictures of the Dutch Harness and the Big Lick, thankfully I have a day off from school to get all this painting done, can't wait till next weekend and Cookeville Classic Live!

Remaking progress

I will be so glad when I finally have a place to take decent indoor photos, but here is the new fawn sooty buckskin. The flash really kills the shading, but I loved how the warm, almost doeskin tones came out. Eventually I will get a close up picture of his face, his lip has the slightest snarl to it so there will be a tooth or two showing. Not a lot of white for this guy planned

On the other hand, the same base colors from above where altered to make this silver dapple, but she looks rather strange with those bare legs, pinto markings are coming!

Remaking Progress

Well after some thought, I decided on a really soft, light dappled buckskin pinto for gizelle, here is the base coat

The Esprit is going to be a totally new color I am going to try, but the base coat is the same. I always try to paint horses in the same tone at once. Saves time and paint, while one dries the you can work on the other. I do a lot of hand painting anymore for dapples and highlights, but for base color I use and Iwata with a jar attachment, soooooo much faster!

And remakes are always being tinkered with, I changed the crest on this guy so it wasn't lumpy, and refined and shortened his pads. He is still wet here, but I like his neck better. I may have to file the pads more since they still need their rubber grips sole at the end. He is more turned towards the side than his wifey

More pics tomorrow night!

Working Like Mad!

Sorry I haven't posted, but I have been working like crazy for a very good reason! With a lot of extra work, I am finally going to get my 100+ year old house redone, that means a master bedroom and bath away from the children, and a real studio!!!!! No more working in the dungeon of my basement sculpting and painting in my dining room!!! So for the next few months I will be doing my best to get cool sales stuff done to help pay for the remodel. Now this first one is the only one for me, this is Lady Liberty's husband, Freedom Generator! He won't get his block straps and hind shoes till the very end, but here he finally is!


This is what happens when you don't have a real studio, you need to hang the work out to dry....

But here is a Dutch Harness horse, complete with correct little plaits that stand away from the neck, top of tail is pulled and bottom is banged...but since his base isn't done he is being held up my diet coke cans for now....dappled bay with socks I think....

This little mare is going to get shown in every performance event I can at Cookeville Classic in TN in a couple of weeks. This mold with a new headset should be fantastic in everything! I am thinking a cute morgan/paint cross in buckskin tobiano

And I rarely do all halter horses, but how bout this snarky Esprit???? Not only did I lift and turn the head, but I totally redid that scary shoulder and cleaned up the raised front leg. Apricot dun going grey anyone?

Best of all, in this studio I will have a real place to take pictures! Can you imagine, no more dark basement overflashed pictures!!! We are looking to start at the end of this month, and I will post all kinds of pictures for all to see the transformation, WHOO HOOO

Other than the Big Lick Walker, these horses will all be sales pieces, email for info and more pictures will be coming this week.

Show Report, new QH mare

Yesterday I went to a local all halter show. I really am a performance person, but halter shows sometimes are fun, and man is it way less stress! Mole Bait was overall reserve custom champ. He only has a few shows left in his career, then he will be retired. I really need to get his wife, Rat Poison done!

This was by far the coolest horse at the show. He was painted by the amazing Carol Williams. The details in this paint job are unreal. Liz Larose owns this guy and he will be a force to be dealt with in the resin show ring.

My mini andalusian won the spanish class against the big guys. After my show in October in Tennessee, he will have to leave to go to his new home with out West.

And this is Sonny Bar Babe, my new QH mare. She is an ISH with a whole new neck, longer back, resculpted pasterns, and redone head and eyes to give her a soft mare look. The light isn't great today, but I wanted to display her. I had to redo her color a bit last night, in the flourescent lights she was too yellow, but I like her red liver color now.

Sadly you can't see all the dapples along her barrel and flanks in this light, but they are there.

She has details like eyelashes, veining, even little muzzle bumps!

She is for sale as long as I can take her with to my show in October. She is already NAN qualified for 2011-2012 in halter.

Her price is $700 plus postage, time payments are fine as well!