New Faces!

I always love receiving photos of my sculptures painted up, so I was very pleased today when I was sent these photos of a Blessed Broodmare Medallion painted up by Dottie Freburger.  This model is currently available at auction via eBay and advertised on MH$P.

Dottie’s other work can be seen in her Picasa Web Albums here, or on her Facebook Studio Page here.  I’d particularly encourage you to view her Medallions Album in Picasa, I don’t know many artists that have painted quite so many medallions as Dottie, her work on them is incredible.  It’s really nice to see an artist that puts as least as much work and detail into her medallions as she does into full model horses.

Jubilee Side Saddle

As I’m sure you know, the 2^nd-5^th June was the Royal Jubilee Holiday Weekend here in the UK.  We enjoyed a wonderful four-day weekend of stunning celebrations and parties to mark the 60 years Her Majesty the Queen has reigned.

Little signs of this popped up everywhere, from bunting to bridal shops – the red, white and blue theme could be seen!

You might need to click the photo below to see the lovely dresses more clearly, but that’s not what I was actually trying to capture in this photo.  If you look at the white dress furthest to the right, you might just spot a little bit of bling that caught my curiosity and has had me wanting to go back and take more photos ever since I saw it there on the 2^nd June:

This morning I did my regular drive to work passing this shop and did my regular rubber-necking in the window and made a mental note to pop in the shop at lunchtime and ask if they would mind me taking photo of this intriguing object.  At lunchtime I hurried home to walk Bruno (the dog) and dashed back to the shop, only to find the window display empty of this treasure!!  I decided to go in regardless and ask if they might mind my taking a look, if they still had it.

So, what was this item?……

It’s an uber-blingy Swarovski-encrusted full-size side saddle!

Isn’t it fabulous!  I don’t know the full history of it’s creation but in the brief conversation I had with the lovely ladies at Stunning Bridal here in Northampton (UK) I discovered it had been created as part of a challenge held by Swarovski crystals to make something as a tribute to the Jubilee using their product.  I think they said it had 10 (or maybe 30?) THOUSAND crystals, each one hand applied with hot glue over the course of several weeks until this incredible design was complete.  It even has a sparkly buckle on the stirrup!

The saddle will now be sent to be displayed in Harrogate for a while and then it is set to be auctioned off for charity later on in the year, possibly somewhere near Essex but I’ll try to get details closer to the time.  The saddle itself is, I believe, a standard side saddle that was used as it is no longer serviceable.  I would LOVE to see this design recreated by one of our hobby’s talented miniature tack-makers.

Enough talk – here are all the photos I took, I wish I had taken more but hopefully there are enough here to show the design off fully:

…and here is the magazine feature:

It’s amazing where inspiration can come from – I do love driving by the bridal shop to see the lovely dresses each day, but I never thought my daily commute would become linked with the hobby!

Addition to the last post:

Apoxie Sculpt in Super White is NOT non-toxic!  No clay is 100% non-toxic but I discovered that the super white grade is not labelled as non-toxic (as some other Aves products are) and as such should only be used whilst taking the necessary precautions of using gloves.  This goes for all Apoxie products when using for any length of time.

New tools…

I’ve been spending this week.  Well, not much but a few new bits to add to my rather full and varied arsenal of tools.

First up – Apoxie Sculpt in Super-White:

I use Apoxie Sculpt, Apoxie Clay and FIX-IT (all made by Aves) for lots of projects in my studio; I sculpt with Apoxie Sculpt in neutral or silver, or Apoxie Clay and I repair any dings or bubbles in resins that I am going to issue with FIX-IT, and now Apoxie Sculpt in Super White.

The reason I bought the Super-White* is that, when preparing a “clean” cast of any of my models, when I fill those inevitable little bubbles and seams, I always feel I’m offering a less-than-perfect casting and feel a little pang of guilt.  Even though the finished article is the same, if not better than a cast without any issues, I’m just not happy about posting out a model with a little circle showing up in a different colour to the resin!  So, the super-white should save this by allowing me to almost-invisibly make these final fixes!

The next item I feel I MUST tell you about is this – now, I’m sure you’re all pretty familiar with these:

Apart from Bruno the dog and the random wood pieces, those are Royal Sovereign Clay Shapers (I can’t find the website for the manufacturer so have added a UK sales site link, but search on Google and you’ll find them easily enough).  As you can see in the photo, whilst Adam was doing some work on the house, I asked him to cut the handles down for me (that sounds very old-fashioned – I would happily have cut them down myself, being a modern-day-capable woman, but he had the circular saw going and I’m just not going near that thing!!).  I find them much easier to use shortened down like this as I can get them into small areas, and tend to poke myself in the eyes less while using them!

Well my point here is NOT the tools above, it’s these ones:

eBay Link to Kid’s Colour Shapers

Made by the same company and at less than a quarter of the price for the equivalent “grown up” set, these arrived this morning and they’re perfect!  I get through these tools and find I need to keep buying them, so this is a pretty monumental find for me!

These are the grey “Colour Shapers” - as far as I can tell the Kid’s tools only come in the grey “firm” grade and sizes 6 and 10 (the most commonly used, I find), but their short handles (with rounded tips in case of people like me hell bent on poking their eyes out with sculpting tools!) and colour coded-handles are absolutely great for quick tool-finding. I can thoroughly recommend these tools for any sculptor and the price can’t be argued in my opinion!

I’m back!!

I just checked my blog-writer (I use Windows Live Writer – took a bit of setting up but works very well for me!) and it seems my Studio update and notice of time-out went AWOL somewhere between the writer and the blog!

So, I’m very sorry for just disappearing on you for a month or two without explanation, but here’s a pic showing what I’ve been up to:

I got married!!!

That is me with my husband (I love saying that!) Adam.  We tied the knot on May 6th and it was a wonderful day!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to on the “real life” stuff, but I’ve also been quite busy on the hobby front too.  I’m working on the Utterly Horses Hullabaloo model at the moment, in fact I think he’s finished – I’ve sent photos to Utterly Horses for approval and am anxiously awaiting their feedback!  I can’t share photos until I have the go-ahead so he’s still under wraps for now, but if all goes well he’ll be casting by the end of the week and hopefully off to a painting artist to bring to life for your viewing pleasure soon!

UPDATE!  Well, I just heard back from Utterly Horses (good timing!) and they love him!!!!  I’m absolutely thrilled, I can push on with mold-making this week and will hopefully have resin copies very soon, I’m so excited!!