Murphy's Law/Dixieland Grand

Hey all,
I haven't worked on Murphy in a while, but I wanted to post some pix. I'm a little discouraged with him, as there's a couple buggers in the glaze that I'm not sure I can fix (but I DO know how to prevent on future horses!). So, any thoughts would be nice. I like his face. I do plan to add some underglaze stripes to his hooves. I tried something, and it didn't really work out how I wanted.

Dixieland Grand

Hey all,
Well, my kiln broke down, so I figured I'd just post these pictures that I took a few days ago of Dixie. I ADORE this little fella (tho he's so dainty, why wasn't he a mare?). These are pictures without hoof stripes, and he's only glazed a little bit lol. IF my master plans work out, his eyes won't be so creepy, the brown should fire down to a nice dark brown. When will that be? I don't know. I'm being ever so patient waiting for my part (I ordered it two days ago from Wa...so why isn't it here yet!!) lol. But, he's first on the list of stuff to be fired, followed by some very minor touchups in overglaze on the previous 3 mini's. Then, on to the AA Shetland pony (no idea what color yet...). So, anyway, enjoy!



A final thought. Always remember how fun it is to play in the rain :)

New Pretties

I know it's been a while since I posted last, but I have lots of good reasons! Here's a few :)

Also, none of them are quite done yet. And, my new camera really doesn't do the little horses too well. All of the white markings are WHITE, not icky yellow. Enjoy!




I have this guy's name stored somewhere in my e-mails, but I found this guy at Breyerfest HIN room sales. I just love him, and picked his pattern based on a little wild pony in a picture I have. He has etched hairs in his mane, to give a mixed mane appearance. Please note- his hooves aren't finished, and the end of his tail isn't glazed. :)



This little one is one of my experiments. This is "Bressay" I think is how she's spelled. I bought her last year at the room sales, with a broken leg, and never did anything with her. I have since repaired her leg- while it's sound, it's not as smooth as I'd like it to be. She's also still in the works, I need to finish up the black and glaze her face, but isn't she cool?


Now this one...I don't want to brag, but I was so stinkin' tickled when I pulled her out of the kiln! She needs a few more things glazed, but for all intensive purposes, here she is. I just love her. I am thinking maybe sending her to NAN next year if she does well this show season.




Wouldn't he have been neat if he'd turned out!! This is a Hagen Renaker Arab Stallion. He started out white, and in my need to tinker, I glazed him bay with two hind socks. Now, a neat thing happened, tho I'm not 100% sure why. What I glazed him with had reactions every time it went in the kiln. I was thinking about giving him some kind of name with electric or lightning or something in it. Going to use him as a decorator piece, he's really pretty, just...ya know, not really realistic :) I think I'll cold paint his base, I've tried glazing it a few different times and it just hasn't worked out lol.

Hope you liked them! What's next? I have two real nice horses coming over from Animal Artistry in England, an Arab and a Shetland Pony. Who-hoo!

Clikies Done!

Hey guys,
Gonna be short and sweet cuz I gotta get these guys delivered :)


AA Mule- he'll be for sale. High gloss, very cute.


AA Gypsy Cob- This is probably my fav. AA mold, so be ready to see lots more in the future. I'm not 100% happy with this guy, but happy enough to send him to Breakables lol. He's much darker in person than these pix show.


Loza Arab Grey- This guy will be for sale in the Artisan Gallery at BF!!


Loza Arabian Pinto- This guy will also be for sale at the AG, probably for a reduced price, as there's a couple things about him that I'm not happy with how they turned out.

Thanks guys! More to come after BF!!

Sleepy Shire All Done!!

I just wanted to post some pix of this pretty boy for you all to see. I'm pretty happy with the horse, but I don't like how the kitty turned out. He was supposed to be orange tabby, but apparently I was watching the movie more than the glaze color, and he's dark brown with a pink nose, black white, and a white tail. The shire, tho the pix don't show, has 3 colored eyes, cream off white main/tail/leg feathers, and kissy spots. He'll be showing at Breakables, along with 4 others if I can get them done in time!!



Here's a size comparative next to a Breyer Stablemate.


Til next time!

Dances with Kiln

After e-mailing Lesli, and reading her awesome post this morning about the exact problems I've encountered, I just had to post. First, her most recent blog if you want to read it (warning, you can get sucked into her blog for hours...days...) is Blackberry Lane, over to the right in the links.

Now, here's how I started writing to her. Check these bad boys out....

You can imagine my surprise when I opened my kiln, and instead of seeing two neat experiments, I got this mess. I didn't realize my glaze would have such an angry reaction with the masking (which Lesli was talking about in her blog). Basically, you see all those little dots all through the pattern? That's a big glob of glaze, sticking off the body. What a mess! And, to get it off (because I did get some off) you literally have to break the bisque. This is why I try out new stuff on my burro's, for speedbumps like this..
It's not really fixable, tho I was tempted to finish and glaze one just to see what happens lol.

On to some fun stuff. I'm hoping these guys will be done in time. The arab is the sorrel from previous posts, however, he had some weirdness that I didn't like, so he went black and white. I think he'll be sharper this way :) Concepts are hard to cover, I expect he'll be fired 4-5 more times before he's BLACK.
The other three are Animal Artistry, and have the BEST detail. Seriously, I was blown away how nice these guys are. I love the Cob (large grey appaloosa). He's going to have a black m/t, and black spots added. I haven't decided what I'm doing with him yet, but the other two will probably be for sale to fund more bisque.



This is the Lakeshore that I was working on. I masked off a big blanket, and airbrushed him black. While he turned out pretty much just like I had planned...his markings that WERE white (his two pinto marks and his face marking) turned a weird yellow color. So, I learned not to use pre-exisisting marked models, good tip for BEFORE Breyerfest lol. I'll be making his blanket quite a bit smaller to get around those pesky markings. I am, however, quite pleased with his leg markings, which I etched.



Til next time!! Breyerfest is right around the corner, are YOU ready!?

Sand Blasting

Sometimes called "air erasing", sand blasting is, for lack of better works, using sand at high pressures to remove things like rust, paint, or in my case, glaze. I bought my sand blaster probably 6 months ago, but due to this, that, and every other thing, tonight is the first night it's been fired up.

Why did I want to learn to sandblast? To me, it opens a huge door to doing neat things with china horses. Take, for example, the horse below. I am, as usual, sorry about the picture quality (really, what's the point of having a phone that is smarter than I am in so many ways, and yet it can't focus or adjust lighting lol).

Our two victoms:

A legless Hagen Renaker horse (I was told what would happen, but I'm just kind of a nut who has to see it for myself). I know it's hard to see, but you see that grey area around the tail and the rump? That's where the sand blaster literally blew chunks of the underlying HORSE off. There's large chunk of horse missing now. I was told that bisque (ceramic) horses are much softer than porcelain, and, they are porous, so they actually bond with the finish.



A Lakeshore horse I think called Touch of Sky. Regardless, I am going to just call her Sky. The horse to the right is what Sky looked like before she went into the sand blaster. I started out thinking I'd blast the whole horse white, but she sort of ended up with an appy pattern, so I switched to plan B. I am going to go over her black area's with the black that I have, so that it matches what I will be using. I'm thinking maybe very low or no front socks, and adding some black to the back legs but I need to find a picture first. I'm also going to change her face marking, so I made a blaze to start with. And of course, she'll get some spots. Neat thing about sand blasting, she's roaned all over the edges of her blanket.




So there you have it. Plan is to have her done in time for the Breakables show. We'll see. Hubby's leaving in a couple hours for his military 3 week romping, so I'll have the evenings to myself to work. So here's hoping. I have a few other horses I'm trying to get finished to raise some quick Breyerfest bucks, just a few weeks away!!

Til next time!