Carnage!

Yes I did survive the school year, so where have I been? Well my husband qualified several of his relay teams for the state track meet (he won a state title last year) so its been just me to handle the two girls and the farm....crazy! During the day the little one goes to daycare and the oldest likes to go the TMCA camp, so I get a few hours to work. Tuesday I got back in the studio to tackle this pile of carnage.....wanna see more????? Starting tuesday I will go through how to drastic remake leg position, when cutting just isn't enough.
I worked on the camel mold, ran out of mold material, it should be here tuesday, the NAN piece will be getting its own press next week.


And I gave Lumi a bath! Cremellos are NOT easy, especially him. He really is a male pig. Except the pigs I have raised were actually cleaner. SO I took some pictures before he rolled. He is still a little damp, and you can clearly see the color difference between the body and the mane and tail, but not nearly as much as you see on many models. His pink skin is freckled too, a lot like my champagne horses. Champagne has not been found in morgans, but with new finds like Bar link and the pearl gene (not necessarily in morgans) I am sending his DNA off to UC Davis. Mainly I want to know what he carries at the Agouti locus (don't want smoky blacks), but am really curious about what else he carries.

He is just shy of three, and stands 15.3 hands and is built like a truck. He is heavily Flyhawk bred, and has a wonderful neck which should only get better with age. I loved my arabian stallion I had, but I have to admit the baroque look to Lumi's neck is really want I want my horses to have. In a couple years he will be bred to my morab filly from my arabian stallion, whom I still have a breeding contract with his new owners (the arabian that is)

If only he wasn't backlit in this (above) pciture! Below he is chilly with his woman. I have always raised my stallion to breed only with a certain halter on, and they are always kept with bred mares, never isolated. The mares keep him in line and Lumi is a kitten to handle. He is totally submissive to female authority, if only we could do that to all men eh?

Then I went and got Payton, Julia was at grandma's...Payton loves to help do chores, and she found Lumi's bridle path hair very entertaining! His hair is really neat, completely different than palomino white hair. His hair is really wavy and will rope up if left uncombed. Its not hard to imagine that Morgans have some Friesian in there somewhere.

See ya tuesday!

I survived!

This has been a crazy year (I live by the school year). I can even express how relieved I was to finish grading all those senior projects and officially begin my summer "off". I have so many cool project in mind, first of all finishing the NAN piece. But I take this newest edition to our farm a sign of good things to come. Little Joe was born Sunday morning. This is the first calving I have done, and it was so special. Way easier than a horse! He is so friendly, and weighed 83 pounds, not bad for mamma's first calf. He is a purebred Angus, so just plain chestnut I'm afraid....LOL


This is one I am finishing up, didn't mean to put this one in there, whoops! She is going home with the new owner of the matriarch...there is some tack involved go figure!

Jen Buxton didn't wimp out of showing like I did this weekend, here is Khemotigre, a horse I did for her last year, if only I knew which saddle it was for.......he was overall reserve breed champ at her show

And I finished up some old projects that are getting mailed today, here is the American Creme draft mare I did for Sophie, I tried an tried but just couldnt get the light right so you could see the subtle shading and dapples she has. Cremello is tough, Lumi, my real cremello, has never been this clean in his life!

Tomorrow the camel gets molded, and will begin the whole slew of new customs that are going to the breyer show, whoo hoo. And requests, already have a drafter in the mix.....

End of the Year

Sorry that I haven't posted, its the end of the school year at good Ol Rock Falls High School so been swamped with grades, seniors turning in last minute stuff, and other fun stuff. I did manage to get Jen's Scarlet to her for her show, but that was about it. I do have one more palomino to show, this is Sassy's filly from two years ago, at her new home where she is beginning training.



And the best, with the weather warming up here we get the joy of watching a fox family grow up at out farm. There are four kits in all, they run around like crazy but did manage to get one good shot in.

So next week I begin my summer and plan to work on many many things! Have two old horses that MUST get out the door, then watch out, it will be a Purdy Parade

other than dapples, any requests of what you would like to see?

Blonds have more fun!

After seeing Jen's post about her hopefully new morab mare, I thought I would try and get some pictures of my real horses for a change. Now its rained the past 6 days here, with over 6 inches of rain and the horses were going crazy locked up. So it finally stopped raining yesterday, it was still cloudy so the light isn't the best, but here are my babies. My friends laugh that I am a collector, which is true, I love color genetics! And I am really biased towards the golden end of the rainbow, and it all started with Jericho's Royal Secret, aka Sassy, aka B^%%$. She is trained through second level, has done some beginning level eventing, and at almost 15.2 is a pretty big morab. Her arabian side goes back to Raffles, her morgan mom is an Upwey Ben Don bred mare. Look familar Jen?

No this isn't the same horse! This is Gypsy, Sassy's sister, scary isn't it? But they are half siblings, Gypsy is 50/50 arab/morgan, where are Sassy is 75% morgan, 25% arabian

This is Sassy's colt from last year by my purebred arabian stallion Khemos Desperate Echo

Whats this????? Well the darker one is Ambriel, my half friesian classic champagne mare (she is just two)

And this is a real prize! "Pig Pen" was born in a puddle weeks early and almost drowned! His mother is one of the very rare true headed roan ASBs out there, Winter Mist. His sire is my arabian stallion, so according to the NSH registry he is the only true headed roan they have on record! His color is so cool! His mom was much darker throughout, more chestnut hairs than white on the body, but he is just the extreme true headed roan I wanted! He will be staying here forever!

What that white thing????? Well that is Amberfields Luminesence, my cremello registered Morgan stallion. Someday when he is clean (which is a challange because he is a PIG!) I will do a whole post on him. Not quite three and stands just over 15.3 hands, and he really looks all morgan too! The liver chestnut is my purebred arabian mare, who is in foal to him for this fall

oh and ya, this scarlet thing....giggle

bad light so you can't see all the shading well, but Jen, what markings should she have????? I need to finish her up this weekend for you! It was so windy bout had a heart attack getting this one picture, But hey, there is the really bright thing in the sky today, not sure what it is but think it will let me get better pictures this weekend

Darcy OOAK

So this Mother's Day weekend was not too exciting, I didn't go to the show since there was just too much to do at home, but I was able to make good progress on some projects.

I was lucky enough to get chosen to be a guest artist for Darcy, and Jenn wants her for the upcoming CO show, so I dropped my own projects other than Scarlet (for another Jen LOL) to make sure she gets done.

I wanted to make her one of a kind, so I changed her head set to go along with her really stretched out look. I flipped her right ear back to give her a snotty show mare look, and refined the tail so it sweeps out behind her. I normally don't prime in red, but I am planning on her being a really highlighted dappled dark bay, where she has deep red highlights and dapples along her belly, some down her neck...any other suggestions?

Depending on how severe the storms are that are heading this way I will try to take pictures of Scarlet in her new color, but that may have to wait if the storms beat me home after school.

I believe Jen will be selling this Darcy....will find out more details from her, and will get some nice photos of her in the next couple of days

Scarlet's new look

Well here she is with her new look. The hardest thing of remaking a resin like this is to make sure the new sculpted areas look like the old. The new hair is texture with the same ropey style as the original. I like the new look of the forelock being towards the near side. There are many Scarlets out there, so even if Jen wimps out of putting her in harness, she should stand out on the table...(oh crap, I still need some NAN tack......where is the delete button LOL)

The off side. Note how the bridle now lays flat behind the ear. I also filled in some of the harsher sculpted lines down her throat on that side. Not that I had to, but I thought it looked nicer

Now the crupper fits around her tail. She also has her mare parts under there. This way the harness can be properly tightened up much more so than sticky waxed on breeching

Don't ask, I still can't get pictures to delete.....oh well

And lastly a full body shot. The tail has the same texture as the original, but the new position does add just a hint more character, don't you think?

Now she just needs color!

Run Scarlet Run!

Many people have asked how I get things done with a full time job and two kids...easy, I built them cages!
Actually this is a new house for the baby turkeys that are coming home today but Payton seems to like it!


Okay so poor Scarlet, she needs to be tack friendly. Now to me, I don't like putting bridles over bulky forelocks and an furry bridlepath area. You can see how the forelock and the mane behind the ears pulls the bridle up and foreward, giving it an ill fitting appearance.

A top view of how it sits incorrectly up on the back of the ears. Now this may not seem like a big deal, but in a highly competitive class, it can be the difference.

So I remove the offending mane area and the forelock. I use a small sanding drum and an oval cutter bit to do this. Notice I take extra off the neck so the sculpted in new area can be blended evenly.

Her tail is also a problem, that big poofy tail would be difficult to even put a fake crupper on since its so wide. That, and fake cruppers never look as nice as a real one since its difficult to tighten up the crupper and breeching strap without pulling it loose. And the wax build up gets into the tail hairs, which is damaging if you want to show your horses in halter. So off with her butt!

This is a hollow mold, so once the tail is removed I fill in the area with aluminum foil and a wire for the tail. Using foil saves so much apoxy!

Here is the basic fill in of her butt. For the first layer I make is just flush with the edges of the hole. I wait for this to set up before I sculpt in the "cheeks"

This wire is highly flexible, once the base it set, you can move it to decide on tail position. I plan for her to have a gently swished tail, like she is swatting at bugs waiting to move out......

More Friday, have Great America Physics Day tomorrow (I am the Physics teacher) so won't have time to post. Thanks for looking!

Feeling Esprit final cuts

Well this week was suppose to be getting ready for the Stones Mayfest.....but it is really looking like that won't happen. Family issues sometimes get the better of us no matter how we try. BUT, maybe its for the best, since I do have show horses that need to get done for people, so these two projects will be sitting in primer for a while.
Here is the first step in doing an elaborate mane. Now you can use Fixit Sculpt for manes off the neck since its more firm, but I prefer to do a metal armature on long mane pieces that are away from the neck. I start off attaching long metal strips with apoxy and letting that dry. Then the pieces can be split and arranged before being covered with apoxy. I do the underside first, let that dry, then the top side. You can't do both at once, it will be too heave an the metal won't hold the shape


Here is his finished on side, sorry for the dark photos, I did these quick upstairs.

His off side

Details of the mane, I was careful to make a the flowing section have a gap below it so reins could pass from the horse's mouth to the rider...you know everything does performance!

The little filly, this one is going to be dunalino paint (frame overo)

This was NOT planned, but don't they look cute together???

Oh and special thanks to Beth Lamm for sending me this photo of her super winning foal Music Maker. The original model was done YEARS ago in my parents basement when I first moved back from Germany, then I recently updated the baby for her. I wish I had photos of what he looked like before, it was quite the change!

Next comes Scarlet...and frankly my dears I really do give a damn that she can wear a harness!