Ready, set, go!

By the time I've finished typing this post it will be around midnight. The official start of NaMoPaiMo 2019 and the moment I can start painting my model. She is not quite ready, but almost. During the prepping phase I felt like I started to develop a bond with my Pepto. She's been sanded quite thoroughly and I feel like I know all her nooks and crannies and muscles and wrinkles. Over the course of two weeks I grew very fond of her.

Then came the priming and the love was gone. Her tail is in the way, her hind legs are in the way, her nose is in the way, her forelock is in the way. How do people do this?? The underside of her butt is so hard to reach if you don't want a triple layer of primer on her tail and legs. I'm honestly worried about fixating the pastel layers. From what I understood it's not a good idea to put the spray on too thick, otherwise it will become grainy, if I remember correctly. Ugh, I guess I'll just have to develop some fancy wrist movements to spray around the tail and the legs and still hit the buttocks.

Above is my official entry selfie with my nude horse. I waited to take the selfie until she had some primer on her. She still has a few crevices that are not fully primed, but I think I will just prime those by hand since they are hard to reach with spray primer. By the way, don't you think Pepto looks like a shampoo model in this photo? Makes me think of the L'Oreal commercials "Because you're worth it". Some more name ideas: Worth It Pepto or Sheza Painted Pepto.

After my last post I thought long and hard and after more than a week of hemming and hawing I finally decided to make a new facebook account solely so I could join the NaMoPaiMo facebook group. I've been in the group for a day now and it is awesome! Since it's now past midnight I should really go to bed. I've got work in the morning and after that I need to finish Pepto's primer so that I can put the first layer of pastel on her on Saturday.

Still alive! ... also Namopaimo, whoop whoop!!

Soooo... I've managed to neglect my blog for eight (!!) full years. Needless to say I've been busy and a lot has happened in the past eight years. Some of it good, some of it not so much, but I'm back! I got my degree (yay!), I have a job and we just sort of finished moving into our new house. All of this means that my life is finally stabilizing and that I can start spending my time and energy doing things I like doing instead of only trying to hold everything together. This also means that this year I finally signed myself up for Namopaimo. The past two years I followed Namopaimo closely on Jennifer Buxton's blog but couldn't participate and I really felt like I was missing out. So when January came around again and the first Namopaimo announcement was posted, I decided that this year I was not going to live vicariously through Jennifer's blogposts. I hunted down a body, decided on a color, paid the optional $2 entry fee and sent in my submission. It's happening!

This my victim: a Breyer Paint Me A Pepto. Funny side story here. There is a webshop in the Netherlands that sells Breyers. I suspect they did some automated translating on some of their products, because they sell this horse as "Verf een Pepto", which is Dutch for Paint a Pepto. I'm now actually going to paint a Pepto and that made me chuckle. If her paintjob turns out somewhat showable (I can have high hopes, right?) she needs a show name along the lines of Pepto Has Been Painted. But let's not gallop too far ahead.

She will be buckskin. I envision her as a slightly sooty buckskin with faint dappling, three white socks with ermine spots and a tiny star. We'll see how that goes. I'm not exactly an accomplished painter. As far as model horses go I've only painted a stablemate once and it still hasn't got its eyes or hooves painted. My medium will be pastels for the coat and acrylics for the details. I entered as a 'beginner' and my personal goal is to actually finish my model this time. These photos will be my main reference for everything but the markings.

I'm not the only hobbyist in the Netherlands who is participating in Namopaimo this year. Anna Dobrowolska-Oczko of Horse and Bird studio hosted a prepping party yesterday and the turnout was good. In the photo you can see Marjolein, Marchella, Niels (Marchella's boyfriend), Anna and myself. Anna is a great sculptor and had some helpful tips, tricks and advice for us. There was some seam removal, some hoof adjusting, some airhole relocation, but mostly there was a whole lot of sanding. The black paint on my Pepto was very rough and I've been sanding for hours. Good company made that so much more bearable. I'm very grateful to Anna for inviting us!

Since I deleted my facebook account 2 years ago I'll be posting my Namopaimo progress here. I'm sad to miss out on the tutorials and the awesome community in the facebook group, but hey, at least I'm finally participating.

Namopaimo will certainly not be the only thing I'm going to talk to you about, although it will be my main focus for the next month and a half. There will also be posts about tack and props that I made and that I'm currently working on. Most notably a bridle to go with my western pleasure saddle (the one with 165 flowers carved and tooled into it (yes, I counted them)) and two in progress Crow women's ceremonial horse costumes. Because of course it makes sense to start a second one before the first one is even finished. But that's for another time.

Ground poles

The above picture shows the ground poles I made for my friend. I really like the color scheme and I think they stand out from other ground poles. It was hard to give them away, haha! The next picture shows my donation for Hearts n Horses Live Show on February 12, in Leeuwarden. They were originally intended for the ChocoTastic Live Show last month but because there were only four entrants Erin decided to keep them for the big show. The Christmas theme is a little out of place in February but I think they're nice regardless of the time of the year :)

On the workbench

This is only part of what I've been working on. In the past two months I've made two sets of ground poles. One set as a donation to Hearts N Horses Live Show and one set as a gift to my friend and live show buddy Marcelino. I do have pictures of them but I'll have to see where exaclte they are. On this picture you see the arena wall that I'm building, a barrel and a headless horsewoman. The arena wall and the barrel need more paint and the doll is in need of some plastic surgery (haha!) and new clothes.

Jump!

Can you guess what jump I'm building? The flash washed out the color; it's really a darker blue. Please excuse the mess in the background, I just snapped a quick pic ;)

Almost wordless Sunday

My mini Fabrizio is currently being prepped and will then be painted a yummy chestnut with four white socks and a blaze. He'll be painted by the Dutch painter Birgitte Konings :)

Current state of affairs

There's still a lot to do but it looks like I'll be able to finish my saddle in time for the show. I haven't got much time to write so for now you'll have to do with these two photos I took earlier today. Only six days left before we leave for Leeuwarden! Now back to tooling the upper skirt ;)

Stirrups

Just a quick update on the western pleasure saddle. Almost all tooling is done and today I made the stirrups. This is the first time I used silver tape and I quite like the way it looks. Working with it takes some practice still but I'll manage.

Long overdue update

Wow, I managed to neglect my blog for way too long! The saddle pictured in the last post has been done for nearly two months now so it's about time I show you some pictures. I still need to make reins and a chin strap before I can show it in Groningen in three weeks.



And here's what I'm working on now. It's going to be a fully tooled western pleasure saddle with custom silver plates. I want to have it finished before the show in Groningen, so I've got exactly 18 days left to finish it. Less if I don't want to be too stressed out at Erin's model horse get-together the day before the show. Ambitious, me? You're kidding, haha! Both my other saddles took me more than six months to complete but it helps that I know how to do things now and Erin has been a huge help with finding the right tools and materials (yay for gum tragacanth and silver tape!), so I think I should be able to pull it off. I'll keep you updated :)

Almost there

Still alive and still working on my cantle pattern... I'm almost there though, after 7 different versions. All I have to do now is draw a final 'clean' version :) Apart from the cantle and the stirrup keepers the saddle has been done for a little over two weeks. I only have various in progress pics now and it's too dark to make new ones so these will have to do for now. I hope to have this saddle finished by tomorrow evening because I'm going to visit Erin in Leeuwarden! Woohoo!!

Making progress

It's my second western saddle, first attempt with tooling and dye. At the moment I'm tweaking the pattern a bit. I didn't like the way the cantle looked on my first saddle so I'm changing it. If I can keep up this pace it should be done within a week, maybe two :)


I really should be writing a paper right now...

Show photos

Here's a selection of the photos I took at the live show in Amstelveen last weekend.

Awesome tacky tack by Erin Corbett!

Winning western entry, also by Erin Corbett.

Really cool German harness entry

Performance Reserve Champ. Tack by Jennifer Buxton, jump by Melanie Miller, the model is a Vertical Limit resin painted by ?

Arabian costumes by Sanne Heldens

Arabian costumes and diorama by Querine van der Weijde

"Breyer collector" by Marcelino

Lovely Finnegan, he's got such a nice, soft color. Painted by Sommer Prosser

My favorite horse of this show! Knightly Cadence painted by Carol Williams

Sencillo painted by ?

A beautiful Caprice

Totilas CM by Querine van der Weijde

Gorgeous CM ISH

CM Norwegian Fjords by Querine van der Weijde. Mine is the third one from the left

Western saddles by Erin Corbett! I could have looked at them all day

Just.. WOW!

Halter is finished!

Woohoo!! My first finished Arabian halter! I finished it close to midnight the day before the show so I had to take my final pictures at the show before giving it to my friend. He really likes it, yay! This certainly won't be my last Arabian halter; I had great fun making it, playing with threads and fimo clay :) I have three more weeks to go before my summer vacation starts and I really can't wait. There are so many things I want to work on. First my mahogany western saddle, then my racing set and another Arabian halter and and and... No time to get bored this summer, haha!

Here are two pictures I took at the show:


The cowries before I glued them onto the halter:

Show preparations

Dusting, tacking up, packing, checking and double-checking. And then there's still the yellow Arabian halter I have to finish before tomorrow. Currently I'm making cowries.


When I've finished those I need to make six tassels and put it all together :)

Another Arabian halter

Hmm, I thought I'd mainly be making western saddles... Oh well, I might just as well do something else while waiting for my saddle tree to arrive. This is what I've been working on:


It's for my live show buddy, for driving me to the live show in Amstelveen. I'll probably make a matching collar for the live show in Groningen in October. It's not finished yet. I still need to trim the ends, make the cowries and maybe tassels. I found two versions of this type of halter so I'm letting my friend choose if he wants it with or without tassels.

Some details:

Note that the middle braid is facing the opposite direction.


By far the largest part of yellow Arabian halters (as far as I know) is finished with red:

This one is finished with black. I should have used gold chain but I couldn't find a chain that I liked. Also note the different type of cowrie medallions, with five shells instead of four:

Surprise, suprise!

Every Saturday I help out at a therapeutic riding center. I've been doing it for ten years now and it's really rewarding. Last year they bought a Fjord mare, Ozenka, from a horse dealer (?? not sure if that's the correct term). She's a great horse. Very easy-going, friendly and she's not afraid of special equipment. After some time she started getting fatter and fatter, even after she'd been put on a diet. They called the vet to check if she was pregnant and he said she wasn't. Eventually it turned out she was.

May 13, at 02:30 in the morning she gave birth to a beautiful red dun tobiano filly. Nobody knows who the father is and since the dealer sort of refuses to cooperate it could remain a mystery forever.

Isn't she cute? I'm completely in love!!

Arabian halter

When I first started collecting I planned to stick to Quarter Horses, Paints, Appaloosas and anything else that could qualify as a western horse. For a time it seemed to be working but somehow Polaris managed to find his way into my collection and since I love the bright colours of native Arabian costumes I decided that no traditional Arabian horse could just sneak in without getting at least an Arabian halter. This is my first halter and it's still in progress. The pictures aren't really up to date. It does have a nose chain and I've made the tassles and throatlatch but I didn't get the camera out yet. I'm planning to also make a collar and have them both finished for a show on June 5 in Amstelveen. Maybe in the course of this year I'll also attempt a full costume but I'll have to find a lot of courage to do that.

Headpiece

Lead rope

Cowries


Three of my (many) reference photos