Chestnut Arab Gorgeousness

Hello everyone! Long time no post I know but hey married life you know!

So this is a little post about a little Arab...well actually he's a sorta medium sized Classic Arab but me and him are completely in love. Unfortunately he is going to a new home but I'm enjoying having him on my desk while it lasts.



Yep I told you he was gorgeous...just look at that lovely chestnuty goodness :D



And the other side of his gorgeous body





And his beautiful face which I love very much



He is going to one of our performance club members as a lovely Western hacking set up. I have a few more days of enjoying him before he has to go to enjoy him at least.

New Commission Pieces

I decided I would quickly share with you two new commission pieces done for Lacey Marshall. Lacey is one of my best customers and is a US collector with a passion for Paddock Pal scale models such as Schleich, CollectA, Papo and Bullyland. In fact she only collects this scale! She decided to commission me to paint two CollectA Friesians as well as purchasing another CollectA Friesian whom I had for sale.

The first piece is a rather unusual bay. She sent me a reference picture of a lovely red bay with a skunk tail. Unfortunately as this was a while back I can't find the reference picture for either of these pieces but you get to see the custom at least!

So here is commission number one:



A front shot showing the white blaze and wall eye which she requested:





The second custom has been named Voltare. For this the reference was of a very dramatic grey Andalusian. Although the reference picture itself wasn't great she was very happy with the end result.

So meet commission piece number two:



And the other side:



The beautiful veining on the Friesian model allowed me to get out the white pencil and highlight this to create a very realistic effect on the horses legs. Many grey's have this but it can often look a bit off on customs when the model itself does not have veining. I love a model that allows you to add these gorgeous realistic details!

Hello all! Just realised that you are probably all thinking that I have fallen off the face of the Earth! Well I haven't....although I have got married so maybe comparisons could be drawn...

So yes this is the reason for my recent lack of activity! On August 18th I got married and am now official Mrs. Catriona Harris....think of that what you will!

I followed the wedding with what was suppose to be two weeks honeymooning in Scotland. Unfortunately last Tuesday I got a call to say my Nana (who had suffered from demetia for years) was dying. As my parents were out of the country and we are her only relatives I made the decision to drive from the Isle of Islay in the Hebrides to Suffolk to see her and be with her. Unfortunately we did not make it in time, this did however mean my honeymoon was cut abruptly short!

But on a more cheerful note I decided that you may wish to see some wedding pictures so here are links to the albums and one of my favourites at the end! (look out for fellow model horse enthusiasts and some little china editions to the wedding cake):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151164715640155.486578.689360154&type=3&l=6404f32fed

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151168724885155.487346.689360154&type=3&l=5ca78e2995

Browbands

Most of the tack I have been making recently is boring commission based stuff...just a lot of bridles and breastplates and boots. None of it particularly interesting...

However a while back I had a go at making some fancy browbands (I was bored). They actually weren't that hard to do and my final one turned out OK. They are very simple to make, you just get some black leather and fold a loop at either end and glue to make the base. Then you get two pieces of ribbon, knot them at one end so they stay together and then just wrap them around the browband and knot at the other end.

Here are some early attempts:





And this was probably my best attempt of the lot:

Custom Work Update

As I haven't blogged in a long time I thought a quick update post was in order to let you guys know how everything is coming along and what I've been working on recently. So here are a select few of my recent customs for you to eye up :)

First up :)

This is a gorgeous decorator custom on the classic frolicking foal mold (think it is technically something like the AQH foal mold but hey ho). I very rarely do decorator customs to sell, normally any I do are for my own personal enjoyment so this is something very special. She is basically a hot pink base with dark purple shading and then detailing added. She has white dabbed on with a sponge on top of which I hand painted hearts that grow up into a tree of life. She has sorta tribal squiggles all over her body and her hooves and eyes have been painted with purple sparkly paint:



Second...

This is a recent commission piece. She sent me a picture off Google of a silver grulla highland pony and asked me to create it on a G3 Athletic Pony mold. I bought one in and completed this piece, she is very happy with it and after showing it at this Saturdays live it will be sent to live with her:



Third...

For this one I just have to share it with you simply because of the description the commissioner gave me. This is what I was told to create:

This is the model i would like he is €5.18+ postage :http://www.utterlyhorses.com/schleich-sergei-the-akhal-teke-stallion/

I would like his body to be thishttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/midnightspike/552775_444344078927524_146266528735282_1557676_1385001035_n.jpg

His face to be this color:http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/midnightspike/BrenHeadshot.jpg

and his white marking be one heart star and one big off center teardrop shaped snip:http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/midnightspike/katee_0211b.jpg

I would like his eyes to be amber like this:http://www.morgancolors.com/coachmanssimplistikeye.jpg

and lastly if you could draw on a mustache. i know it sounds silly and i appreciate your patience with this order 


For the first horse i ordered (and no im not trying to make him look as ridiculous as possible) could you give him to back socks that are roaned. i have seen a horse like this in real life but i don't know what the markings are called.


So yes I bet you are wondering how this horse turned out now you have read all that...well it was interesting to say the least. I played around with it and actually the finished horse doesn't look too bad:




Fourth pony...

Actually not a pony tis a donkey. Meet CRS Sammy Boy, my fiancee bought me this little resin last December, now he has been added to my collection of large SM scale lying down foals. He is a lovely little brown:



The fifth horse is another commission piece. The description for this one was buckskin minimal tobiano. The new owner is very happy and so am I, he is a gorgeous looking horse. For those who don't know the mold is the CollectA Hanovarian:



Finally a little piece that may not look like anything much but to her new owner is something very special. My best friend recently turned 18 and this was my gift to her. It is a portrait of her Welsh pony Champagne who she has owned nearly all her life. I wanted to give her a little mini Champagne so that when she goes on work experience to France she can take her with her:



So there we go, some of my latest pieces. I really hope you like them and enjoyed seeing all of them. Please get in touch if you want to purchase a completed custom or place a custom order :)

Forget Me Not Live Show

Forget Me Not Live show is coming up fast with only a few days to go. It is this Saturday and it is turning out to be a great show already. My major stresses at the moment are attempting to get everything ready and set for the show so that there are no hick ups's.

Judging lists are probably the hardest thing to get sorted, they are not helped by people who don't give you information about what classes they can judge leaving you to basically have to guess. I always send the completed lists out several days in advance so I have the chance to edit them as much as possible before the day.

Other things that are causing stresses are the fact that a set of rosettes for the lunchtime fun classes have not yet turned up!

My hall has been pretty much taken over by live show stuff...there are my own boxes of horses, raffle prizes, food, certificates and prizes, entry packs, all my own live show bits and bobs and lots of random stuff such as the lucky dip, paint a pony table items and raffle books and plastic cups. Basically there is just organised chaos....

To finish here is a little picture of said organised chaos which I took yesterday...the amount of stuff has since grown more...

Arab Costume

Right well first apologies that I have not blogged in a while, exam stress etc. has distracted me! Well I finished my exams on Monday and have already had time to create quite a few things! I have mainly been finishing off orders and finishing customs for CASMES live show on Saturday.

So I thought I would just share this little Stablemate Arab costume. It is in a native style and is done in green and gold. I sorta gave up with attempting to use metallic threads (I really do hate them) and went to a sorta goldey yellow normal thread instead. The bit and saddle tree are from Horsing Around. They do a great little Arab costume making set.

So here it is:




And the front:



And the other side:



Here it is with a custom rider as well:



I think someone has been in the sun too long!