My Life and Nazguls

Hello!

It's been a while. Here's the situation, in bullet point form in an effort to make this all easier to digest:

First, the fun news:

• I just recently got back from a summer away at a pre-college art school program, where I had the time of my life and picked up SO many new artsy tricks, both technical and to do with the creative process in general.
• The micro mini diorama set I made and sold last spring went with its new owner to NAN 2015 and ended up with a gold cookie! Check out its trophy shot here. I'm completely flattered and shocked that my work could be recognized at this level of competition- a big congratulations to its proud owner Amy!
• Last fall, Bobbie Kolehouse contacted Anna and I, asking to write a story about us for MEPSA. We were more than happy to comply, and that story can now be read in the 2015 MEPSA Champ Book! Bobbie wrote a lovely piece about our friendship, real horse lives, hobby histories, Christmas raffle, and tack making careers- we're so honored to be featured in such an incredible publication as the Champion book. Jennifer Buxton recently posted a picture of part of the article, featuring a picture of Anna and I circa age ten. (See two little girls in helmets, one in an entirely royal purple outfit. Oh, little me.)

The less fun news:

• I'm starting college this year, and will therefore have a considerably smaller amount of time available for the hobby.
• I'm also in a bit of a hobby slump; I don't feel that inspired to make tack, I don't have much desire to add new ponies to the herd, and I'm feeling burnt out on working on my own performance entries.
• All of this meaning that for the time being, I've decided to stop taking on tack orders. I don't feel like it's fair to a customer to have to wait for however long it could take me to find the time to finish their order, and it's not fair to myself to spend my free time working on things that I don't feel passionate about doing. This hobby is a happy, restful place for me, not a job, and anything I can do to keep it that way is a good choice for me.

Looking forward...

• I'm definitely not leaving the hobby altogether- I still have some fun projects that I want to try to make happen, mainly in micro scale! It's such a challenge, but it's a fresh new challenge in a way that Stablemate tack hasn't been in a while.
• I want to do more experimenting with base/diorama building, trying to bring my pieces to the next level of realism that mini performance entries tend to be lacking (understandably- this stuff is tiny!). 
• Anything I finish and feel confident about will probably be for sale, seeing as I don't have the time or energy for live shows right now. 
• I'll also be thinning out my own performance showing supply a bit, trying to get my tack and props into homes where they'll be able to get out in the show ring where they belong!
• As I work on my micro projects, I'm making an effort to take more pictures so I'll have plenty to post about on here- maybe some tutorials as well?

And finally, some pictures!

I busted out the Apoxie Sculpt and found an old Breyer Mini Whinnie during a recent Lord of the Rings marathon, and this happened.

A teeny tiny Ringwraith!

Overexposed, but at least you can kind of see him better.

I was originally just going to have this guy be a sculpting practice piece, but I really like how he's coming out. Maybe I'll sell him when he's done? Is there even an interest for teeny tiny Nazguls? Worth a shot!

Blogidays Day Five: The Other Cool People

Continuing down memory lane/slow news day... 

If some of the pictures seem random, that's because they are. Nothing got done in the studio today and I don't really have any relevant pictures to go with some parts of this post, so enjoy some random pictures from the past two years or so, just purged from my ancient phone.  

Over on the right side of the blog you've probably noticed a little list of links titled "Other Cool People." Those aren't just interesting blogs- each link has earned its way there and has little anecdotes behind it. So let's spread some love, shall we?

Ebb & Flow Studios

Anna. I feel like I talk about Anna almost every single blog post, but she's worth it. Hands-down my favorite human, partner in crime, and talented tackmaker to boot. I could wax on about her forever, but I'm going to leave it at that because I'm sure I'll be doing plenty more loving on her in the future.

Braymere Custom Saddlery

I know I'm not alone when I say that Jennifer Buxton is the one who inspired me to start blogging in the first place. I can't even remember how I first stumbled upon her blog some five years ago, but as soon as I did I was struck by how clean, visually appealing and genuinely interesting her posts are. A visit to Braymere is as much a part of my daily routine as mealtimes are, and I'm never disappointed.

The first full mini tack set I ever sent out into the world,
with some A+ phone photography.

After reading the blog for about a year, I figured it was high time to get myself some materials and start making tack. With some vinyl found at JoAnn's and a bottle of superglue, I pieced together a Classic scale English saddle, complete with paper clip stirrups. My heart is not broken over the fact that this monstrosity has somehow disappeared since...

Beyond her essential Tack Tips, I don't think there are many performance documentation sheets I've ever made without at least one of her gorgeous pictures. Her blog has been an invaluable resource to me as a performance shower because she makes it easy to bridge the gap between model horses and live ones.

The start of a time-sucking project earlier this week...

Her Tack and Performance Reference Indexes are bookmarked on my laptop- I know I can count on her clear, high-quality pictures to be a better tack reference than digging through Google Images.

On the blogging front, as soon as Jennifer added this blog to her sideroll, my traffic just about doubled, and I know a lot of people stay updated on what's going on here by monitoring my blog's icon on Braymere. I love being interconnected like this, and am still honored that I'm mentioned in the company of such wonderful other blogs!

Dreamflite Design

While Braymere inspired me to try tack, it was Anna Kirby's work that made me think that mini scales might be fun. Anna (Yager) and I fangirled over her blog and her website, at first in the "Who would ever want to make tack that small? That's insane!" kind of way, then slowly into the "I wonder if we could do that?" kind of way.

One of Leah Koerper's amazing entries at Sweet Onion Live earlier this year.

At the time, the only other mini tackmaker we were really aware of was Becky Yeager, who had some really amazing stuff out there too. Dreamflite was really the push in the right direction we needed. We took it as a very serious sign from the universe that if you combined these two artist's names, you could come up with Anna Yeager- which is one letter away from a perfect match. Clearly this was supposed to happen.

One of my favorite carriage horses working the downtown Seattle route.

By the time I'd decided to try making Stablemate tack, I'd read the entirety of her blog and spent hours just staring at the work she had posted on her website. Seeing the tack in this scale, and reading about how she did it, made it seem so easy. As yesterday's post attested, a lot of the methods I use to this day are inspired by her.

Shoestring Stable

I discovered Leah Koerper's blog shortly after my mini tack adventure began, and I quickly became very attached. While Anna Kirby's tack seemed almost unreal, Leah's tack and customs were presented in a way that felt a lot more relatable to me. Her entire Tips and Tricks tag is a thing of beauty.

The rider! The horse! Gimme!

Shoestring is another blog that really inspired me to get things done, because Leah just makes customizing look so easy! I still go back through her pastelling posts to get myself pumped when I have a horse to color. 

Leah is a fellow Region 1-er, and I briefly ran into her at Sweet Onion Live earlier this year. While I was a bit too scatter-brained, busy, and generally shy to really have a solid conversation with her, I did get a chance to sneak a few peeks at her absolutely amazing mini entries. I'm so jealous of her riders!

Five Paws Studio

I've never met or talked to Kristian, but hers is another blog that I've found myself becoming attached to. We have similar interests (inside and outside the hobby), so a new Five Paws post is always fun for me. Her current zombie horse is especially reminiscent for me of my past customizing adventures...

Kristian also took notice of this blog and linked to it on Five Paws before anyone else seemed too interested. The traffic she directed my way was huge for me- it felt like actual people were really reading my stuff!

Desktop Stables

There's something about making tiny versions of normal-sized things that's just so delightful, and I find a lot of that delight through Desktop Stables. Nichelle's blog is always visually amazing (I love how her header changes with the seasons!), and her miniatures are to die for. She recently made a bunch of Traditional scale western saddle pads that just absolutely knocked my socks off. 

Leah's jaw-dropping micro mini flat racing entry- how, Leah???

CK Tiny Tack

Christina Brown is quite possibly proof of magic. That, or she has a shrink ray that she's hogging all to herself, because I really struggle to picture any of her tack as starting out as just leather and materials. Her tack is a huge inspiration to me, and a standard that I hope I'll one day achieve!

My new reindeer slippers currently snuggling my feet.

And those are my Cool People! There are a few people I know I'm leaving off, but these are the people I feel most connected to or inspired by. 

I guess the last person I need to mention is collectively all of you, the people who read this here blog- all of your comments and even your views make me feel like I'm going in the right direction! Thank you so much to the commenters and silent readers alike. I know you're out there, and I appreciate you.

Back to real-time tack tomorrow, I promise! Another week of Blogidays to come- the question still stands, anything you'd really like to see? Tutorials? Performance thoughts? I promise we're done with memory lane. For now. :)

Cheery

As you may be able to tell from the blog's new wrapping and the whole holiday raffle deal, I am a Christmas mega-enthusiast.

Now, I personally celebrate Christmas, but it's more the feeling of December that gets me excited than the specifics of the holiday. Whatever gets you excited this time of year is just as worthy as Christmas, just be prepared for lots of Christmas-y posts on here in the upcoming weeks. 

To those of you rolling your eyes at me and saying, "It's not even December yet!", I hear you and I respect you but I have struggled to contain my holiday cheer until after Thanksgiving, so in my mind now is fair game. 

I hit up Micheal's earlier this week to stock up on joy, and lo and behold they had half an entire aisle dedicated to holiday-themed miniatures in just about SM scale!

This tree had to come home with me. 

It's cute, but its fresh-from-the-package condition was less than incredible. The base was a solid flat white, the tree was a bit crooked, and its decoration situation was weak.

Luckily, I keep a little box of little things handy just in case of emergency miniature tree decorating.

I ended up using the little pom-poms (originally purchased with corona pads in mind) and gold jingle bells as bitty ornaments, a pendant from a thrift store necklace as a star, and gold chain I'd bought back in my Traditional tack adventure phase to be curb chains as a sort of garland. 

The tree's base also got brushed over with shimmery gold paint to give it a more dimensional, well-loved look.

And voila! A SM scale Christmas tree. 

Speaking of cheery...

...we got our first snow this morning!

Where I live is great because we do occasionally get snow, but it's never more than a few inches overnight that looks pretty in the morning but has melted almost completely away by the afternoon. So all the fun and beauty of a fresh snow, without the stress and worry that "real" snow causes in a place like this that is not at all equipped to deal with it. 

Knowing that this winter wonderland will be a slushy by this afternoon, I rushed out in my bare feet this morning to snap some pics of the raffle set with a real snow background.

I love the glow-y light snow makes!

That railing is my trusty picture-taking spot, perfect because I can kneel down and get level with the horse without having to get on my belly on the ground.

Looking forward to a day of tackmaking, hot cocoa sipping, carol listening, and cookie munching!

Fright Night

(In the spirit of Halloween, here's a post rambling about my insecurities. Woo!)

(and then I remembered nail heads.)

Today I listened to my Rocky Horror Picture Show playlist ten times and made a dressage saddle that will be part of a lower level set, up for sale in the next few days. 

I also refreshed my site with some updates prices- updated meaning slightly higher, taking into consideration the higher and higher quality of my work (she said humbly), as well as the increase in work time that entails. While I realize that most of my customers won't really mind a $5 increase, it is something that I really wrestle with. 

It's important to me that my tack is show-ring quality and much more affordable than Traditional show-ring quality tack, mostly because I want my tack to be accessible to even those who can't drop $500 on a tack set. But the other biggest reason I want to keep my prices relatively low is that I have this constant fear that higher price tags come with higher expectations of perfection from my customers. 

This is totally unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, but I'm convinced that once someone buys my tack and has it in their hands they'll be able to see every single little asymmetry and flaw in the piece. This is one of those issues where you have a rational brain (mine says "You've never received any feedback like that in the past, and most people just don't/can't see the minutiae of your tack like you can"), and an anxious brain (which says "they must open the box, look at it, and think, I paid X amount of money for this??").

Having extremely low prices (it took me over a year to increase the price for a full set from $20), to my mind, says "hey if it's awful they can't complain because they only paid $X for it!"

Now that I'm charging more (and more), I'm both aware of the improvement in quality and more paranoid about the little flaws in my work. This leads to improvement and refinement in my tack, but sometimes it's more worry than it's worth. The bottom line for me is that I am not a machine or a factory, and every single one of my saddles is slightly asymmetrical, and every single one of my bridles has at least one tongue that's kind of wonky, and sometimes my stitch marks aren't perfectly straight.

And sometimes my panels are completely different sizes and need to be redone.

To me, these imperfections (excluding those panels) give the tack character. I like knowing that even with the exact same patterns, the next dressage saddle I make will not look like a carbon copy of this one.

But I also need to remember that in some cases, others literally cannot see those flaws. 

I'm reminded of this every time I get an email from a customer when they receive their new tack and only have good things to say, or read a positive comment from you guys here- not everyone is out to find the flaws or point out the weaknesses in my work. 

In fact, I'm probably the only one. 

Horse Shaped Robots

Quick updates first:

The good: I have a shiny new MacBook that I am 300% in love with... this thing makes everything look a million times better, and runs way smoother than my old PC. And it's so pretty!

The not so good: New laptop means none of my old pictures are on here (which is inconvenient for today's post). It also means I need to learn the ways of the Mac (which shouldn't be hard, but if I'm a little slow in posting or responding, that's probably why.) Also, school. Sigh.

And now, a quick 'n dirty post about horse robots.

In my younger and more vulnerable years, I was really into making weird customs.

I didn't (and still don't) really have the patience for clean realistic customs, so I turned to the strange. That was also around the time I discovered that there are such things as riding simulators:

These are basically machines that move and respond to a rider like a real horse. They're kind of like really high-tech rocking horses:

They have sensors on the mouth, sides, and back area to receive cues exactly like a real horse would, and they look like a complete blast.

So why would anyone want one of these (very pricey!) machines instead of a real horse? Couple of reasons. Some able-bodied riders like how you can have your trainer on the ground physically help you improve your position. There's also the no-vet, no-poop, no-naughty-behavior-ever thing. It allows riders to train indoors, and some models come with a screen in front of the "horse" so you can virtually canter through a forest without actually, like, going outside. (The screen can also show a rider where they're carrying most of their weight and other shmancy things like that).

My favorite use I've heard of for these things is in therapeutic riding clinics. They're great for patients that are uncomfortable around real horses, or can't have the unpredictability of an animal, but would still benefit from the soothing motion of a horse's gait. (Spotters can also more easily physically support the rider). 

Anyway, I did my research and decided that the model horse hobby needed one of these things.

So I hacked up a Stock Horse Mare body I had at the time, and created Bot the riding simulator.

I remember choosing that image because it looked like a line of the Chips pony. And the tagline is a blatant ripoff of Breyer's (if there's ever a time for Breyer shmoozing, it's Breyerfest).

Fast forward to about a week before Sweet Onion- the urge hit me again. But Bot is dusty and retired and I'm pretty faithful to minis at the moment... so naturally I made a mini version.

Bot 2.0 is a G3 Standing TB with the lower half of his body chopped off; head removed, resculpted and replaced; shoulders sculpted over to be less detailed (how often do you have to do that?), and mohair mane and tail added. The mohair looks disgusting, but working with the stuff is something that I swore I'd never, ever do again after the original Bot, it was so gross and frustrating. Glue and hair is just never a recipe for a good time.

I was going to make a real saddle for him, but I really wanted that rider doll to fit it perfectly, and I knew that wouldn't happen with my current saddle pattern. Figuring I'd never show him without that rider, I just sculpted a saddle on. The lack of stirrups can be explained away as a training tool for this young rider... Whatever works!

What I find most entertaining about these fun little projects is that both Bots have NAN cards, and the original Bot has no less than two rosettes and a glossy pony from Breyerfest. Makes me wonder.. how many legless models are winning in the show rings these days?

Even more updates:

• My studio time is limited, and I'm sad. Don't expect any more sale sets in the immediate future... I think my plan for now is to continue working on orders, taking my time to get everything right and now overwhelming myself with tack work on top of classwork. I apologize to my wait list! I'll get to you! Eventually!
• The Western set is sold (woo!), but the racing set is just struggling to find a new home. I'll throw in an OF Breyer chestnut running TB! $40 includes postage to anywhere in the US.
• I've decided to try a MEPSA show (if I find the time to take some halter pics!). Wish me luck!

Throwback Wednesday

(Because my life has predictably exploded with work to prepare for the impending doom that is classes next week, thrusting me into the end-of-summer, "savor every beautiful moment" mode that just does not wait for Thursday to write a Throwback post. Apologies.)

Going back to school always makes me feel nostalgic for the years when the first day of school meant shiny new pencils and picking out the perfect outfit and groaning and rolling my eyes when my mom would park me by my brother on the front step and force us to smile while holding up our grade number on our fingers while she took a picture.

In retrospect, these pictures fall into one of two camps: adorable (elementary school days of missing teeth and a backpack bigger than I was), or cringe-worthy (seventh to tenth grade is a weird time for everyone, okay?).

Looking back at some of the tack I've made in the past, the same camps kind of apply.

This could possibly be the first real, honest, effort-was-required English (dressage) saddle I ever made. It's kind of falling apart now, and it looks like its paper clip stirrups have since been looted, but I've kept it because I find it slightly adorable. I mean, the thing is made of canvas painted black. The buckles on the girth are made of green floral wire because that's the only wire I could find in the garage. I'd read Anna Kirby's tutorial on some forum (Fallen Leaves, I wanna say?) about how to make an English saddle, and rolled with it. (Even then, though, I knew I didn't want to mess with sweat flaps- good call, Past Me.)

Another beauty from the Canvas Era, complete with paper clip stirrups.

Western saddles were hard and scary, but medieval side saddle chair saddles? I was all over it. (I actually kind of wish I could find this little weirdo again...) 

No buckle on the "bridle" but I took the time to add a keeper?

I pretty much put off buying leather for as long as I possibly could. I was (still am to some extent) a very thrifty person, and I knew that I wanted to try and get as much experience and skill with mini tack I could before I actually invested any cash money in it.

Such professional (iPhone) photography!

Skip forward to 2012: check out that sexy saddle. Sure, the paint dot that was supposed to be the nailhead is smeared all over, and we're still sticking with the paper clip stirrups, but it's leather! (Going through my Pictures Library, I had this under "Saddleseat" which at first glance is fine but now that it's big those chunky knee rolls are more obvious...)

2012 was really when I got hooked on this mini tack nonsense. I learned more about tack making, tack selling, live showing, and the hobby in general in that year than I probably collectively have since. Apart from that one Anna Kirby tutorial (which wasn't nearly as complete or awesome as her currently offered PDF one), I pretty much learned purely through trial and error. What worked, what didn't, how I could improve, etc.

And I finally experimented with cast stirrups.

(This is so therapeutic, I feel like I'm looking back through my yearbooks.)

Look at those fancy irons! All rolled up and everything!

I gained so much confidence, I even dabbled in Western and big scales. I remember thinking how incredibly cute and clever this picture was. Oh, Past Me.

I was really productive, having a lot of fun, learning loads, and completely hooked on mini tack. Which is why it's weird how my productivity in 2013 was nonexistent; it was a year when real life just kind of sucks up hobby life and spits it out. Injury, sickness, hospitalization, disease, death in the family... I think everyone has that one year that they can confidently look back on and say, "Yep, that sucked."

Which brings us more or less to now.

For my confidence's sake, I need a side-by-side comparison of my progress...

That's so satisfying. I wonder what the "after" picture will look like in another four years!

That's it for the Throwback- hope that was as adorable and/or cringeworthy as you'd hoped it would be. To all of you heading back to any level of school in the near future, good luck with the coming weeks and the coming year. Hope your pencils are shiny.

Bold text before the random updates:

• The Western Pleasure set is still available, and I am now open to reasonable offers.

• The racing set is also still available, yours for $40, which includes postage to anywhere in the US.
• I'm currently (slooooowly) working on a bridle for an order for J, and not much else. That GP English set I promised as a sale piece in August doesn't look like it's going to happen as soon as I thought it would. Right now, I'm getting studio work in when I can and not forcing it- I'm focusing on transitioning back to a school schedule and not stressing myself out too much. It's all chill. Lotsa deep breaths.
• I purposefully made this post with all these old pictures now, because as part of transitioning back into classes I could very possibly be transitioning to a new laptop in the very near future. This, on top of my school schedule, just means I might be a little slower in updating the blog as I work through getting everything switched over to the new machine, etc. During the year, I expect to be posting here more like once a week, instead of every two or three days. Darn education!
• And because of my full schedule, I doubt I'll be able to make it to as many live shows as I'd like, so I've been noodling on trying out photo showing... MEPSA has a Novice show that doesn't seem too scary? I've never done any photo showing before, so if any veteran showers have any tips or advice on getting started, that'd be much appreciated. :)
• I've just been informed that all the links under "Other Cool People" were broken- all fixed now! I highly recommend you go check those amazing people out, if you haven't already.