NAN raffle!

At first I wasn't going to donate to NAN this year, but when Jen gave my name and agreed to make some tack to go with it, I couldn't say no. With the house I really didn't have time for another new piece, so I thought this mare that I did last year for myself would be a fun piece. This is a nahar body with a khemosabi head, sounds crazy, but both parts came from damaged resins so this gal is proof that you can save anything you put your mind to!

Now in a alert walking turn, she should be a blast for performance! Jen is going to make a showmanship halter for her.

Wonder who this is for, and its not Jen, its for Mrs. Potato Head! This Keltic has been redone to a more forward trot (medium trot/collected instead of passage) so he can be shown in more events, along with a traditional USA style braided mane and all new tail. Wonder why he has an all new tail.....well that story is on Shannon's blog!

He can still be shown with the plastic dish but he will come with a nice resin base as well. Too bad Shannon never posted the pictures of the base she made for this guy at NAN 2009 (when he was an OF), lets just say it was quite the flop! Did you know how soft cured sculpy can get when heated??????

Stormy Days

The school year is almost over, and it can't come soon enough. This has been a rough week in my little community, a shooting right by one of our grade schools(thank god not involving students) another in a nearby town, and a student's parent missing assuming drowned in high water.....whew. Time to take a moment and be grateful for all the amazing friends I have been blessed with. "Khompounded Interest" (that interest on the friendship tax I owe) can finally go home tomorrow!
I like to joke about friendship tax, but I really do believe its a tax we should all try to pay a little more of......

So many people have been devastated by the terrible storms this weekend in the midwest, knock on wood, but so far all we have lost is the one of our little lean-tos. Thankfully our apple tree caught the roof before it could do too much more damage

Just when things look gloomy, a wonderful surprise shows up. These beautiful personalized blankets for my girls showed up from my wonderful Canadian friends, handmade with squares that go along with each girls favorite things. I am so lucky to have such incredible people in my life THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

The pink moose princess I was hoping to keep for myself, but Payton got a hold of her...I might get her back when she goes to college eh?

Paint makes all the difference, Khompounded Interest (love those Khemo bloodlines) is all shod up and can't wait to show this weekend! Hope her new owner is happy with her, she should be a great little performance horse!

Cool Discovery

Every once in a while my husband does something right....(okay, quite often he does when mycology is involved).Yesterday he found some Morel mushrooms in the woods behind our pasture and man were they delicious! So there is your proof Shannon, drugs no but schrooms yes!

Remember all those pink halters? Well now its my turn to pay friendship tax. I forgot to put this winning photo of the lunging set being used in a lesson horse set up.

Can you imagine how cute this one will be all tacked up?

But there are still a few bridles I need for Breyerfest...sniff sniff wink wink ya know what I mean?

I have had a few people ask if I was worried about showing off customs before Breyerfest....and the answer is yes and no. I have had it happen the past few years where customs I did and featured had look alikes show up in the ring. Honestly, I care more about sharing ideas than worrying about "copies" showing up.

I think we all benefit from the free flow of information. This guy was created with a flash body, weather girl head, mane, and tail. Now a great little part bred arabian gelding. I am thinking dapple grey tobiano.

Stay tuned to the blog for purchase details!

Talking Heads

No one is happier that I am now spending tons of hours in the studio than Pixel. I keep the door shut when I am not in there so she can't sit on her throne. Is the pink bobble jem collar too much?

So on to the breyerfest remakes. This first head swap isn't going to be at breyerfest this year, but better show up next year.....any guesses who this rockin english performance arab will belong to?

This next one will be a breyerfest sales horse. I love showing my youth dolls, and wanted a cute little part bred gelding youth horse that could do it all. Here is a classic extended canter pose you see in the show ring version of arabian costume...

And here is the model version! Poor flash lost his head, and it would have been way too easy to put the palomino head back on the palomino body...no worries, that arab body won't go to waste either. Can you say braided up sport pony????
This is a great example of how you can get a drastic looking remake without a lot of work. The heads are removed then two soft armature wires are inserted into apoxy stuffed in the head. Once that dries, you can stick the head into the neck or the foil filled body of choice. Don't waste tails, switching tails is another great way to get a whole new look without having to sculpt the tail from scratch.

With all the chaos of the house remodel and model chaos itself, I totally forgot about getting this medallion painted. A thousand apologies for this Heather! Here is the real kitty Jade

And her almost finished portrait. Before you know it, Meows and Minis will be back this fall! I love to donate to shows with such wonderful causes behind them, and to make up for my tardiness on this, her portrait will come with a pretty stand to display it on. Thanks again Heather for your wonderful donation to the show!

Countdown!

It is now officially two months before I leave for Breyerfest, and I want the show string I put together this year to be extra special. In addition, I plan post some more "how to" posts and progress remaking posts for all of you that like to follow along. I have been so busy this spring with the house that I haven't been posted as much as I would like. Its gotten so bad that Shannon threated to have her arm eaten off by a shark if I didn't get more stuff done.

Shannon and I spotted these metal sculptures along the road when we drove to Portland together in 2009. She almost rolled the car pulling over to get some pictures. What can I say...she has issues....high latitude radiation exposure I would suspect.....
This morning I worked a little on some projects that need to go out in the next few weeks, and found these two guys I started last year, think I should finish these guys up eh?

These are now at the bottow of the breyer remake basket.....Help I've lost my head and I can't get up!!!!!

But again, I want to stress that Shannon is the one with issues!

Reference Photos

One thing I have noticed with my pintos is that I have been in a homozygous phase....in other words the patterns were starting to look too much alike. So I went on line and found a picture of a pintabian with a neat and different pattern. I can't wait to show this little mare this weekend!

This colt is 31/32 arabian, and is a bay pinto, but I really liked the neat front leg marking and balance of white front to back. I made the two disjointed spots on the barrel a little bigger just to add a bit more flash.

Would anyone be interested in a haired weather girl???? I really want to do one....any takers?

If only all the countries of the world could come up with a peace accord like Pixel and A, can you imagine what a world it would be?

Happy Easter!

I am still determine to have all orders done by the end of May, and its looking good! This request was for a super snotty snorty liberty arab. I just love weather girls! With this one I have to do a whole new neck with a metal armature for the mane and tail.


Easter is suppose to be about sharing love with family and friends, I don't think Pixel loves sharing her pink princess bed with A......

This was the inspiration for the remake, but she wanted her head and nose up a bit more for an ultra snotty look.

This should be a fun liberty class and showmanship entrant! She hasn't been sanded much yet, and her pegs are covered, but she is coming along!

Feeding the Addiction

Its no secret I have a serious tack addition problem. Well not just tack, I love props, especially vehicles, too (oh and dolls!). The mare and foal set will be the last sales pieces I have for a month or so. My goal for the next month is to finish some cool pieces for my tack pushers that keep my addiction fed. This first one is a PS weanling redone to a paint filly for my BFF Kathy Wiggins. I am fortunate enough to worship three tack goddesses, Kathy, Shannon (even with that whole potato nonsense) and Jen Buxton. To be fair, Kathy insisted on buying this one when we were paying for the bathroom fixtures for the addition. She still needs eyeballs and little details but she will be going to the show this weekend. If you remember the head down matriarch from a while back, this is her baby. Daddy will be a rose reiner done in a similar overo to the baby. Wait till you see the wagon Kathy feed the addiction with to get daddy done! I can't say enough how lucky I am to have not only great trade deals with these wonderful tack artists, but to have also forged wonderful friendships with them all. I am truly lucky!

Kathy also spoils me with the most awesome surprises. I really do love rocks, and she has given me the coolest collection of rock skulls. The dragon one is my favorite.

And people have asked for the mare and foal from the other direction. Just a few more layers of paint and these guys can get their final details before the show this weekend.

I also have a few trade deals I want to settle up on and the weather girl customs, so the next sales bunch won't be for a while. I will post pictures of the different projects I am doing for these deals, and don't miss out on Jemez Kohl's makeover!

Remaking Progress

I had wanted to post last night, but thanks to a whopper of a lightning storm we wisely unplugged everything last night. No worse for the wear, here are the progress photos on the mare and foal set. The mare is a flashy super dappled liver chestnut, so she can be a purebred. But she fooled around with someone outside the breed and her colt is a elaborate tobiano. The mare is on pegs which are covered in tape still and the foal is mounted on a small base. Still a lot of work to go but you can get the idea of how they will turn out. The set is available for $1200ppd for the pair. For now I am not going to split them up, if they don't sell I may at a later date

When I do a performance horse, I always go from photos. Here is one of the photos I used to model the performance arabian. This real horse is turning a bit and the model is straight, so the legs are a bit different but the idea and phase of the gait is the same.

She is also on pegs which are tape covered for now. I made the model's headset a tad higher than the show ring extreme broken neck set you see, I just can't bring myself to set a model's head that low, and I did want this little mare to go junior huntset and endurance as well.

I got the best April Fool's joke. I have said many times of what a rip off it is that all the Idaho Potatoes are grown in Washington....so Shannon actually sent me a bag of real Idaho potatoes for April Fool's, and here when I got the heavy box I thought it was some rocks! No really, I love to bring rocks home from places I visit! Until I got this box, the guy with the hat was the only Idaho potato I had seen!

Spring Break????

This past weekend marked my spring break from teaching, and it started off with a fantastic trip out to Shannon Granger's show in North Idaho. Only one problem with going north....Canadians. Ha ha! I can't say enough how much fun that whole group is. If you ever get a chance to go to a show in Idaho or that area, you will be hard pressed to find a nicer bunch of people. This is the fine piece of Canadian....well, hmmmmmm, I suppose artwork that I was able to bring home with me. The theme for the show was 70s tie dye and did the Canucks know how to party it up! I will truly treasure this always! But on to work, we are finishing up the house and go figure, found out a few days ago we are a bit over budget (well thats an understatement, but wait till you see the porch!) So I really need to get to work. These guys are just in first primer coat, still lots of sanding to do, but heres a sneak peek! THe windblown ISH will be a cool paint of some sort

And look what you can do with a weather girl! She really is full trad sized, and what a performance horse this one will be!

Another weather girl and her snotty son!

The mares have clear pegs, and the foal will be on a little base

These guys are available for sale, ask for details

This is one of my full sized western saddles on this gal, won't she be awesome, she can do it all!