Artsy Remakes

I love to remake, but have a bad habit trying to make everything a performance horse...so with the new studio my goal is to unleash the artsy beast and make some horses that are just Purdy to look at...giggle
So something totally new, a Salinero with an Esprit based mane and tail! This is just with a rough sand and light primer coat.


So what should he be, andalusian or lusitano and what color??????

And its no secret I love the new Eberl breyer. The palomino is for a customer and this is the ultimate performance horse, the other is a snotty Sorraia mare inspired off the picture below

This is the color I am planning on too, get ready for eyeshadow attack!

She will have a peg in that front foot. I just love how you can do anything with this mold!

Both are available for sale, inquire for details and make an offer if you like!

Show Report

Due to bad weather this year, I didn't get to show at all in December and January, so despite a bad cold I was happy to get to a show yesterday. This pictures are all out of order, so I will explain each of them myself. First is Anateke, the Nez Perce horse, who was saved from being put down with a new paint job. Here he is waiting for his class.....


Now anyone that know me should realize if not given a name for a horse, my creative twisted mind is going to come up with something...so the stock foal class was huge and I was wondering how this little gal would do against some of the more flashy marked foals. But, she was the only one customized and it paid off. So she is going to NAN with the name...

MOOSETRACKS!!!!!!!! giggle, rather proud of myself for that one!

Anateke was his division champ and overall resin champ, not bad for a horse back from the dead! He is sold, that you to all the people that asked about him! I can't take all the credit, its D'Arry super cool remaking that really causes him to turn heads.

This little gal is sold as well, and she is going to her new home with a performance champ and a halter champ! Her owner is planning on going to NAN, so her cards in halter and performance should be a happy bonus.

Here she is in some of my Buxton tack and Joan Yount doll, with her cards for the day. Below is my awesome Buxton endurance saddle that Jen had thrown in a box and I begged for which I think she let me have just to shut me up......;) Now I take full responsibility for the pink leopard saddle packs! I don't make a lot of tack but I was rather proud of them.

Leonardo Lena (had to get a famous art name in there) proved himself to be an awesome performance horse. He won all of his western classes, and won the other performance class so he was overall performance champion for the day! With his tweaked position and neck set, he can do just about everything. I had Skipperkay, the jumping pony, in english so he didn't go in there, but no reason he couldn't. He had a great day, and won his halter class too.

This last picture was suppose to be first...With my big studio window you can see right through at night, so I had to get some curtains....But not just any curtains, FURRY leopard ones! THEY'RE SO FLUFFY!!!!!!

Hairspray!

I am still decorating the Purdy Place, next this I knew there were moose staring down at me from my precious collection of Duncan carts. The little pink moose just blends into the wall, scary eh?



I had to laugh at Jen's post about the puppies and the photo box. I splurged and bought big soft box lights so I could expand to just about any size photo frame, and it seems to be universal that all pets are attracted to cameras.

I was able to work on the arab mare. I cover the wire with soft skiver. That way the tail is flexible when finished.

The hair turned out perfect for her! Still needs some styling, but it nice to have something different in the herd.

The Lucas arab head has beautiful expression and tons of detail.

You can see all the different colors of hair in the mane and tail in the last photo, now to clean up the mess on the floor!

Purdy Hospital

Help Doctor, I am seeing spots! No really, this is the first of what I like to call "Purdy Hospital". These post will be about how to retouch, repair, and give face lifts to finished pieces. These two are not meant to go together. The weanling is a redone Still Dreamin I am working on for one of those crazy moose people (giggle, you know who you are). The valor is the topic of today's post. D'Arry did this guy a couple years ago when the valor resin was first released. Originally he was a flaxen chestnut appy, he is now a dunalino appy due to him having an accident.....



He was traded to me by a good friend in exchange for my mule custom. As you can see, his original paint job had suffered greatly due to having a costume left on him and being exposed to a high temp/high humidity environment

The first step is to wash the piece in warm soapy water lightly, and let dry. Then coat with Testors dull coat and buff down any rough spots. The dull coat will give the new paint something to stick to. I wanted him still to have that fantastic appy outline D'Arry is so famous for, but be able to cover up the parts when is paint had been removed and the black rubs he had all over his legs and in his mane and tail.

Whoops....the jumper pony was suppose to be last..this pattern has been taking forever!

Some close ups of the worst areas. There was no way to paint just the barrel. The colors wouldn't look right unless blended all over the body. So I chose a similar paint job with enough contrast in shading to blend in the areas of repair. After each few layers of new paint, I applied more dull cote to make sure the paint would adhere well to the existing paint and be durable.

And here he is so far! Since he is suppose to be an Nez Perce, I added in metallic powder to his coat to give him that unique Teke golden sheen. Once all the body color was done I still have to go back over the while markings that got partially covered, reshade the mane and tail, and new striped hooves. He will be available for sale at $1200 obo postage paid, this is less that what he originally sold for in the height of the new valor craze. I will be showing him starting this next weekend

And Padrons Mystique....she really needs some hair doesn't she??

This got thrown in on accident, the pony jumper before she got painted. This was the Justa Dream mold and I am looking forward to showing her in performance for her new owner.

The Studio is Open!

I am now officially opening the new studio! This morning after a crazy week trying to move stuff in around all the chaos everywhere else I finally sat down and worked a bit. I can express how much it means having my own little space to do this in! The walls and trim are a bit lighter than this picture seems...but you can get the idea! Thats my new spray hood just for the clear sprays I use. I do a series of different sprays to make horses very performance durable, and man do they smell. This hood is amazing, it sucks everything to the outside.


Here is what it looks like just as you walk in. Not everything is in here yet, still need to install some more shelves and get a glass case for the show horses, but its still heaven!

The view out my wonderful window can't be beat! The window measures 5'x6' and its what I always dreamed of having...a place to work and look at the babies I have raised! They have been snowed in the barn for a week so they are super happy to be out and playing for a change

And look, studio pictures! I have a new area with soft box lights and does it ever make a difference!!! The reiner has been sold, and I do get to show him for a while so I will have plenty more pics of him under tack soon as well.

Here is what the custom dyed mohair looks like for the halter arab mare. She will be quite the show pieces, and is available for $550 ppd in lower 48

I have others I am finishing up that are orders, all new horses in 2011 will come with new studio certificates....The Purdy Place is finally open!

Stay turned for more, now that I can work I will be turning more pieces out that are truly unique and I can not thank my customers enough for helping making this studio dream come true!

Hugs to all!

Really??????

So a few days after Snowpocalypse here in the Midwest, and I wake up this morning to this.....
More on the way tomorrow, honestly we get snow all the time, but this is just getting silly!

So the contractors didn't come at all last week, I worked on markings and such but I have to get the reiner and arab done in addition to the ones I am putting finishing touches on. This is what has been my studio for the past two years and its always been cramped. However, all the materials for our new bathroom and such is taking up a lot of room, and all the stuff they have out on the table their just isn't much free space. So I pushed some stuff out of the way last week while we were trapped at home and got some work done.

Here is where the reiner is at, this is a sooty buckskin with most of his layers on, still needs the really dark highlights to make the color pop but you can get an idea of what he looks like. I want to make is clear that I remade this horse for performance reasons, I could never sculpt anything this amazing to start with, I just tweak things to my own tastes. I think its awesome that so many super talents sculpting artists allow free rein when it comes to remaking unpainted pieces. Just always be sure to make clear what you have resculpted and what is original. I wish I could have a dozen of these heads alone to work with, oh what fun that would be!

I have real studio photography lights on order, they should have been here last Thursday, but for some reason the UPS tracking says "emergency conditions beyond UPS's control" Wimps!

For something special I remade a Herden cow to go with him for those working cowhorse events. I wanted the cow to look like she was being pushed to turn by the horse

I thought the original turning cow looks like she would run away from the horse in the smooth turn so I remade the running straight cow with a saucy head turn

A head shot, you can see the mane and points are fully shaded yet, but I am liking the overall look of the color. Can't wait to get him done, almost hate to put paint marking on him at this point!

Gotta get to work on mane and tails for some pieces I have been needing to finish up and then back to this guy. He is currently up for offers on salespages!

Dying to get out!

Day Two of being snowed in.....they finally cleared our road about 5 last night, but with the drifting and low temps outside we are out of school again! I can't really paint thanks to the temporary studio filled with all the materials the contractors were suppose to be working with these past two days. So I decided to work on the custom dyed mohair for the PS halter mare remake.


She is going to be a flaxen liver chestnut, but I hate uni colored manes and tails. I start with bulk fine natural mohair I buy off ebay in bulk.

Since it a natural hair, human hair dyes work great! I buy colors whenever I see them on sale. I try to do as much as I can and save the extra hair once its dyed. Its not safe to save the hair dye itself once its mixed.

I pull out hunks of hair and coat the dye on them. Let sit for a half hour then rinse in warm water..tomorrow you can see the finished shades of blond!

Snow Day!

What a night! We have had snow storms in the past, but this was the worst in the past few years. We are at home with over 14" on snow so far and the wind is brutal! But at least I can get some work done. With all this chaos in the house I feel like I am losing my head!
One of my new years goals is to complete a ton of projects that I have been wanting to do, and had buried away. We had to completely clean out the basement during this whole process, and did I find a lot of stuff I had forgotten about! This is a old PS arab body I used the head for something, and a Kristina Lucas head. You can see how I always put long wires into the head for attachement.


This is why I had to stop painting again for a bit. My dining room studio is again a hopeless wreck..but there is light at the end of the tunnel, they are suppose to get all this stuff cleared out this week and I can start painting in the studio!

I suppose it could be worse, I could be outside trying to tackle the ridiculous drifts around the house. Poor husband, I suppose I need to make some sort of nice meal for him today!

here is the arabian, in the new studio! Eventually I will have a real photography booth set up, and yes, I won't use the pink background of my walls! She will have a custom dyed mohair mane and tail when finished. I am planning on a dappled liver chestnut with all kinds of colors in the hair. Her tail will be posable as well.

The lucas head. I love this head, very soft and feminine. I made new metal ears so they would be more delicate than the ones that come with the head.

And finally my rose reiner! This model had a couple things that really bothered me. I didn't like the way he was bent the wrong way through his legs. He is turning right but his right leg is crossed over to the left, looked like he would trip himself to me. I lengthed the neck, corrected the turn which meant moving three legs, and a new tail that flowed with the motion. I also changed the mane a bit to make it more tack friendly.

Here is the front before

The new look.......

And a front view, it make a big difference with the legs moved and no base! More pictures with him in gesso later! I am thinking dappled buckskin frame overo....

Both of these guys will be for sale!