Merry Christmas!!

 Merry Christmas all! Hope everyone has a great day and received fabulous gifts!

Miniature creations

 My favourite gift this year was a bay, magnificent, marvellous, Clydesdale Breyer...

 

 Who other than SBH Phoenix? He's defiantly one of my new favourites, his colouring, markings, and detailing are superb! Of course, photos had to be taken...

 

His mane is amazing!

 

 

 Along with three new containers to hold hardware and such, horsey everything, food, hobby/prop items, and a marvellous mug, I think this Christmas was successful.

 

 And I did make mini stockings, along with the gift boxes shown above. It hasn't been a great hobby month for me. I did make reins for Ravel's bridle, but they're not laced. Or even leather for that matter. I hope the new year will bring me more luck! 

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (although I hope to post before then) to everyone!  

 



  

First Times

 There's a first time for everything. And this was my first time making a jump and a traditional English bridle. First off is the jump...

 

 

 

The standards were actually fairly simple. And I really like the outcome. Each standard is double sided, one side has a queen of hearts, the other has a jack. For my first attempt at nice looking standards, I think it went quite well.

 

Crossrails for all!



 The poles are just dowels cut, sanded, and painted. I rushed through the jump cups and really messed them up. I really wanted to finish... But I do like my finished product. And the poles work as ground/trot poles.

 

 The jump isn't really all to large. But it fits Newsworthy quite nicely.

 

 

 Attempted artsy photo in bad lighting, fails every time. ^

 

Now for the bridle...

 

Excuse the tape around the bit, I don't own any sticky wax and I need something
to hold bits in place..

 

You can sort of see the raised noseband...

 

 It is fully adjustable and has a darker colour in person. I could not get a good picture of the other side. I took about ten, but none of them worked out. Yes, there're keepers for the straps, but I got fed up with them...

 I adore this bridle. For my first shot at a) raised nosebands b) an entire bridle and c) a flash attachment, I think it went quite well. The whole thing came together quite nicely. I have a pair of laced reins on the work bench, not going quite as smoothly, but coming along.

 

 Next up is a figure-eight bridle for Sato, a something, probably one like this, for Newsworthy, and a leather halter for Black Caviar. And I'm going to attempt a saddle at some point too.

 

 As for customs. Nothing is going anywhere. Since where I live, it's generally below freezing this time of year and I spray outdoors, the matte spray and primer immediately begin to freeze as soon as they come of the can and onto the model. So, customs (at least unprimed and pasteling) will have to wait. But that means more time for tack and props!





Fun Bridle Hangers

As promised, heres a short walkthrough of how I make my mini hangers. They can be used for halters, bridles, leads, anything!! And you can use whatever shape you want!

You will need -

• A button or other small, fun shaped object
• Acrylic paint (I used black)
• Paint brush
• Wire
• Pliers
• Wire cutters
• Hot or super glue

First off, find something in a shape you like. I like to use buttons, as you can get fun shapes. If you use a button with a loop on the back, use an Exato knife to get it off then sand around it. I'm using a cowboy boot.



Next, paint the object, I personally prefer a solid colour. I also tend to think that black looks best.

Now, paint and leave your wire to dry. Shape it with pliers and cut off with wire cutters. Add another coat of paint if needed.



Finally, glue the wire hooks onto the button! Be careful when using hot glue, get someone to help you if your not comfortable.

They look horribly off center in this photo.. It's just the

camera angle.. The left one is what your aiming for.

 Add a layer of paint over the glue so everything looks good. And voila! A hanger for your barn! Just be careful with the hooks, as they can be rather flimsy.

 

 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial thing. Should I do more in future? Let me know what you think!!

Updates!!

 Hello my dear readers! In my absence I have actually accomplished several miniature and model related things! First off is two mini cakes...

 

 I love the icing!! They were very simple and look very realistic! Now I need to create a cake platter...

 Second, I finally finished a custom! This lil Pintabian has been hanging around my work bench for ages!

 

 She has some of the best eyes I've done, as well as markings. Her nose pinking is so precious. I promise more photos!! She needs a name, suggestions??

 

 I also made a boot shaped bridle hook, but I'm going to be posting a walkthrough on how to make on in my next post (which is going to happen immediately after this!!) Lastly, I been drawing. This one is of a lovely dressage horse and rider.

 

 

I love the horse, his head and legs particularly! Its my first shot at a rider, so please don't mind his strange features... This is going to be a gift to my riding coach for Christmas, along with another drawing and horse treats!

 Well guys, that's about it! I've been getting back into the groove, so I should be posting more often. =)

Royal Winter Fair

Today, I went to the Royal Winter Fair, located somewhere in Canada. I loved my day there! Lots of booths, I spent quite a lot of time in the tack/horse ones. I was very tempted to buy a halter or saddle pad... But I was good and did not become broke. There was best crop, veggie, fruit, squash, etc. competitions. I'm just wondering how you would go about judging corn or wheat....

 Anyways, onto the best part, the creatures! They had cows,

Icky photo...

Sheep and goats,

 

Adorable little tiny goat!

Pigs,
  I did not get any pictures.....

And the best for last...
Horses!!

 The day started with some young ones,



   Then went onto open hunter over fences (ponies, and I did not get one good picture.)

These guys were gorgeous.

 I took about 50 jumping pictures. Want to know why none of them are shown? Because my shutter speed only works well with a lot of light, other wise my photos come out dark. When they're edited into lightness they become very bad quality. Does anyone have any tips or how I can avoid this? Dimly lit indoor rings could be part of it, but whenever I generally use shutterspeed this happens.

 Besides my bad photography experience (help/advice anyone?!), I had a great day overall. Plenty of gorgeous horses and interesting things to look at and buy. Lots of cheese samples interestingly enough.

 As for the plastic pony side of things. I have nothing  a small amount of things going. And that photoshoot sort of happened I lied, the photoshoot never really started....

Oh So..

Sorry! I'm very sorry for being a horrible blog owner! I'm haven't posted for almost three weeks.
And, I'm shamed to say, I've done pretty much nothing model wise in those three weeks... I've made a few things, but nothing good enough to have it's own post!


  I really like this photo! The background is crappy, but the focus and colour is great!

Yes, more stall pictures..

Newsworthy's new flymask

 For my lack of posts, I'll make it up by going on a nice, long photoshoot! Outdoors and everything! I promise they'll be taken, edited, and uploaded by Sunday!

Jump Judging

  Today, I was out jump judging lower level cross country. There were some gorgeous horses and fantastic riders. Lots of bays, blacks, and a handful of dapple greys! A few appys and greys, but the bays and blacks had the ring!

  I took lots of pictures! I can't show you them all, but I can show you some of my favourite!!
Riders had a choice of a ditch or a jump. The majority took the ditch, but a few brave souls took the jump (and those brought out some good photos).
 

This horse was very good looking

   We almost had a refusal here...

 

But alas, the horse jumped.

Pretty in pink!

No, he's not having a hissy fit XD

Up 'n' Over

   I loved this pair. The horse was gorgeous and the rider handled her beautifully.

  This boy here, he was GIANT! And has quite the stride, not to mention was absolutely beautiful!

Wee!!

   And here we have our long awaited non-bay horse.

 

 

  I had a great time looking at these horses. Half way through it started raining, resulting in bad footing. No horse went down, only a few riders. This was an Entry Level class, but I also judged Pre-Training. I only got one photo, since it rained mostly the whole time.

 

 

This horse was also rather pretty and very stocky!!

  I hope to go to another event soon! I really want to work on my photography. I know I needed a much faster shutter speed, these photos have just the slightest blur. Anyway, I know for next time! ANd if anyone has any tips (photography wise), please comment!!

Super Stall

  Today, I decided that my lil' 1:32 guys needed some love. So they got a new stall. And this stall is a pretty nice one...

 

   I decided an artsy pic or two were in order... These two are some of my favourite stablemate shots yet!!

Particularly love this one, so proud of my camera for getting this mini!





  It didn't take me all to long, half an hour at the most. Several of my SMs got out and became famous, I'd forgotten how nice some of them are... It's made out of popsicle sticks for the walls, toothpicks for the bars, chain and wire for the stall guard, cardboard for the floor and name plate, all stuck together with some good ol' hot glue!

 The structural part is finished, although I may need to make a new hook on the stall guard. I need to add the details and props (props, is that the right word..?) such as shavings, a water bucket, maybe a hook on the half-door, maybe a feed bin, and possibly a few ribbons.

  I'm glad to have finally finished something. I have a bridle, several customs, a photoshoot, and several other things on the go that haven't been worked on in a while... I have a good reason for some others.... not so much. All in good time, my friends, all in good time.