Studio Update

Hi all!  Well, it’s been a busy old year this year, that’s for sure!  The first few months were spent planning and making arrangements, as in May I got married…

…to my new husband, Adam

Then, in June it was the Queen’s Jubilee, which was a good excuse to make (and eat) cake:

Everyone really got into the spirit of the event - you may remember this stunning side-saddle also featured here back in June, created by a local bridal shop:

I got to work on a commissioned sculpture, a foal resin for Utterly Horses for their Hullabaloo event in August:

Then in July, the Olympic began (poor photo, taken from my TV during the opening ceremonies)

The Equine events ran whilst I was casting Union Jack, we got some great results!

Then in August, it was all systems go with the Utterly Horses Hullabaloo at Newmarket.  For most of June, July and August I worked on sculpting and casting the resin foal for the event; Union Jack.  This involved quite a lot of working during the evening and, on many occasions into the night.  I invested in some new equipment too, so Union Jack is the first model I’ve produced in bubble-free, pressure cast resin!

Following the British theme, I couldn’t help take this snap when we were boxing up the foals:

I’ll post separately about the Hullabaloo as it was pretty amazing!

Since the show life hasn’t slowed down much – Bruno and I were invited to the Burghley Horse Trials with our friends, I’ve never been to a trials before and it was a great day out.  Bruno loved meeting all the new canine faces in the crowds but he did find the hot weather a problem, so when we came across a stand selling “doggy cooling jackets”, he got a nice new coat which really helped (I can massively recommend these things!):

We’ve also been to TWO more wedding this month – 2012 really is the year for events!!  Congratulations Stuart and Sarah, who celebrated by the sea…

..and to Jim and Fiona, who married in a gorgeous village church, then celebrated with a wonderful rustic barn reception!

I had a job for Jim and Fiona’s wedding.  They asked if I would consider making them a wedding cake topper.  Having never made one before I was a little apprehensive, but they had such faith in me I really wanted to do them proud.  They planned on honeymooning on a canal boat and touring the area’s many miles of canals and gave me lots of information to work from.

So, meet Mr and Mrs James Lock*, a-la Fimo style!

*no pun intended (canal, lock….)

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So, back to that studio update!  Here’s the low-down including a bit of a shake up with the Pickle editions:

Jasper – Still waiting patiently, he’s such a good boy!

Pickle V3 (Crabbet Arab Mare) – well, since working on this model I’ve come to realise that the original Pickle heads are a tad too small for the new body I’ve sculpted.  I don’t want to start over as I’ve put many hours into this model now, so I’ve decided to sculpt her a new head, which means she is no longer a Pickle!  She’s shaping up nicely, I’ve had a few hours to play with her this week and I’m excited about how she’s coming on.

On this note, I am planning to release a new minibust or ornament-style Pickle V3 to complete the edition (there are about 40 copies left in the edition).  There’s no timescale for this but it shouldn’t be a massive project so maybe look out for V3 early next year.

Union Jack – I think* I’ve cast all 212 copies now!  I’ll be cleaning the remaining 50 over the next few weeks and they’ll be posted out to their new homes as soon as possible.

*if any turn out to be seconds, I may have to cast replacements for those.

Union Jack minibust – oooh yes!  Watch out for these little guys comin’ atchya soon, I’m planning to use this minibust to showcase the many, MANY casting variations I can offer now, so stay tuned and watch out for a colourful, sparkly, special run of these guys over the next few months!  Photo courtesy of Jackie Radwanski

I also have a few pet portraits I’m working on at the moment, so once the Union Jack edition is all wrapped up, I’ll work on these in earnest.

So, to sum up, Union Jack has dominated my Summer but now his edition is nearly there, I am finally able to start planning out a few projects that I’ve been wanting to get back to for some time and even start thinking about some news ones!