Imafam II, the camel at NAN

So how did this camel come to be? Well this one is all Danielle's fault. Over a year ago she had one of the awesome Herden camels up for sale and I really wanted it, but she had to go and sell it to someone else (okay to be honest I had my shot at it) and when I whined she said " Well its not like you couldn't make one yourself"
True, but where to start? Ready for a shocker????
This first pic is the original Imafam in the foreground, with her poor broken leg from demolding, and Imafam II, the NAN camel, is the background. Imafam II has a different tail, and from the molding the head position comes out a little different


This is the original in primer.....

And here she is in progress! YES that is the breyer FAM!!!! Amazing what you can do with some apoxy and aluminum foil isn't it???? I purposely left her feet so you can see the original FAM hooves on the bottom. The only other thing not covered are the eyes, the finished camel has the same breyer eyes.

The whole reason I made a mold and wanted some cast copies is what you can see here. She is quite the frankenstein thing, and I worry how stable the piece it. That and just think of the camel remakes I can do!

NAN auction, why the wait?

Here are a couple more pictures I forgot, and if there are any angles you want to see, I can take more of either the horse or the camel. Once the new rider is done I will post pictures of just him


I am really happy with the Dancing Horse, why is it this one has to go?

Well one of the reasons it took so long was damn Mountie the Moose. I got Mountie last weekend at the show in Spokane, WA that was invaded by the Canucks. The is absolutly no border control up north at all! First thing he did was dive into the garden....now I have been to Idaho twice and there are no such plants in that state...so don't believe the hype! In fact, the potatoes I ate there were grown in Washington! Whats next, Illinois apples??????

Then he jumped up on Sassy....oh I wish I had gotten her face in frame!

Then over into the corn field and started eating up the crop...as if we don't have enough deer doing this already!

Okay seriously, what a crazy Canuck he ate all the pig's food!

Then he tried to climb one of our maples and broke it....or what that the storm???

Moral of the story, we need a fence up North!

But really, if you ever get a chance to go to a show in the Northwest and get the pleasure of a Canadian invasion, you will never have more fun! They are a FANTASTIC bunch, duct tape and all, and the BEST FRIENDS!

AND they helped my Blackhawks get the Cup! WHOO HOO

NAN auction, all done!

WOW what a two weeks! Between the storms, sick horses, a trip out to the Potato Head's house (oh don't worry you know who you are) that I have a bunch of pictures to post too, Mountie the Moose tearing up my farm, but look! Its finally done!


This set is the most hours I have ever put into a NAN piece, but I want the set in Lisa's memory to be something special. All the colors were focused around the breastcollar set. Which again, I can't thank Kathy Wiggins enough to donating the halter and breastcollar set. The camel mold was way more work than I expected, but it does work (they are rough though) and the camel in this set is the very first cast. Well technically second, wait till you see the first one! These pics have to go off to the auction coordinator today, but I wanted to post them here first.

This is not the final doll though, his clothes were still tacky and we have more storms moving in so I wanted to take pictures before we got hit again.

The arabian dancing stallion should be a ton of fun in performance. This caramel chestnut color is a personal favorite, since its similar to my real purebred Gold N Ali daughter!

Okay so just imagine the spruce trees are palms....what can I say we don't have too many palm trees in Northwest Illinois!

Tomorrow will post pictures of the camel, the original Imafam, the remake of the breyer FAM is a little beat up from the mold making process, but she will be back at breyerfest this year...please let me know what you all think!

NAN auction

Well I wanted to do more this week, but thanks to a nasty electrical storm my satellite connection wasn't working! But wanted to show off the NAN piece I am finishing up this next week. This set is called "The Journey" and is a tribute to a dear lost friend of the hobby, Lisa Salamandick. Lisa lost her battle with cancer last year, and I will go into the full story of how I got to know her later....but she so loved arabians, especially dancing horses. So the horse of the set is a drastically remade breyer lonesome glory into a fiery dancing stallion. The set comes complete with halter and breastcollar set made by Lisa herself...generously donated my uber gal pal Kathy Wiggins (who I would be lost without!)
Here is the head, its a remade PAM head and I did a mane and tail full of action to really make him dramatic


Full body shot, he is doing a correct spanish walk, think of all the fun he will be to show!

And the matching camel, this is a remake of a breyer FAM, no joke! I showed her at Breyerfest last year and she was a huge hit! Now the set comes with a resin copy, the only copy that will be sold to the public!

Here is the poor thing under rubber, casting next week! Gotta run for today, its getting ready to storm again I have to unplug everything so it doesn't get fried again, let me know what you think!

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?