2017 Review

Another year has come to an end and I can barely believe it. This last 6 months has been flying by at the speed of light! I have had a lot on my plate for quite some time now and I have had a bit of a slump as I just haven't had any inspiration or energy to do anything. I think that it's mostly because I haven't given myself enough time to rest and care for myself. But hopefully it'll be a bit better soon.

I have a lot to be thankful for and this year has been another good year for me. The Veterinary Hospital for horses were I work decided to hire me to be one of the regular staff instead of just being a temp for a few people who worked less to be home with their kids so now I have a more secure employment. My boyfriend and I have been living together for more than a year and in 2018 we will start looking for a house to buy and move in to. When you are reading this post, me, my boyfriend and four of our friends are actually in New Zealand traveling around, hiking and enjoying ourselves for a month. What an end to a good year!

Picture from our trip to London this May.

But enough about my personal life, I guess you're not here for my life story 😉

I did have a few goals for 2017 when it came to my models.

- Attend at least two liveshow.
I achieved this goal, by far, attending, not one, not two but 6 liveshows this year! To be honest I am pretty sure that that was every liveshow held in Sweden this year... I didn't intend for that to happen but they were in close enough proximity and greatly spaced so they didn't clash with anything else we had planned so it happened 😊. I had a blast at every show and it's so much fun meeting people who share the plastic pony obsession 😊.

- Paint at least 10 of my bodybox models.
I did quite well this year when it came to painting models. I manged to finish no less than 15 models this year. And I also finished a few that had been in the works for longer and therefore was not counted towards the goal. They were all fun to paint and I think I see an improvement in pretty much every model I make and I'm really pleased with the fact that I now dare to paint "nicer" models as well without being scared of ruining them.

- Try my hands at some more extensive resculpting.
I haven't done any extensive resculpting this year, actually, I've made very little resculpting at all this year. Hopefully I'll make up for that next year! 

- Get at least 1 of my unpainted resins painted.
I managed to get not one, but three of my unpainted resins painted. Although not as exciting as I've painted all of them myself. But at least they got some colour 😊.

- Try to get a hold of one of my holy grails.
In 2017 I didn't only manage to get a hold of a grail but I managed to get a hold of my grail of grails! I am extremely happy to have this gorgeous guy in my collection!

- Take photos for my website.
I have taken quite a few new pictures for photoshows but I have also published them on the website so even though I have quite some way to go before all of my models are pictured on the website I am happy to have gotten started.

- Keep blogging
I've almost managed to reach my goal of writing atleast 100 posts. I ended up with about 95 posts which I think is good enough. I did however reach my goal of getting to 35000 views! I am almost at 50 000 now! The giveaway will be slightly delayed due to the trip 

- Enter at least 10 photoshows
I didn't manage to achieve this goal as I only entered 5 photoshows this year (and unfortunately one of them was canceled) but 4 (technically 5) is definitely better than none so I'm quite happy anyway. It's been so much fun reading the results!

- Register my models/pedigrees
I didn't manage to register all my models/pedigrees (they are well over 500) but I did manage to register my Akhal-Tekes, American Saddlebreds and all of my Arabians so I'm working on it. 

I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2018 be a happy and healthy year for all of you! 😊

Blogging Hiatus

I just wanted to give you a heads up that I am having a blogging hiatus for a month to a month and a half as me, my boyfriend and some of our friends are going to New Zealand to travel and experience the country.

I will have wi-fi for most of the trip but don't expect me to post anything here as we will be quite busy. I will be back in mid-January and I might share some pictures from the trip then 😊.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! See you in 2018!

Shy Immortal

I recently came across another gorgeous medallion, sculpted by Kylee of Studio Thornrose and decided to buy one. It came beautifully packaged with some extras.

Love the sticker!

The medallion was wrapped in bubble wrap then this pretty green coloured paper and then some more bubble wrap.

Beautiful packaging!

Here she is, unpacked. The medallion is called Shy Immortal and is quite a large and detailed medallion.

I think it's absolutely lovely and I can't wait until I can get he painted! I haven't figured out a colour for her yet but I imagine a galaxy background (at least for now 😊)

Ornaments

Christmas is getting closer and just as last year I found some beautiful ornaments sculpted and sold by Jennifer Read-Burton of Unicorn Farms. I admired these ornaments last year but was unable to buy any then. This year I was able to buy some so I did.

The fjord has an absolutely beautiful face and reminds me so much of our own fjord so of course I had to get that one.

Since the fjord looked so much like our Fjord, I wanted to have one similar to our Swedish Warmblood as well. The ornament above is actually sculpted as a Morgan but his face reminded me of our Warmblood so I bought that one too. 

I actually bought 2 of each as I wanted to paint a pair for my mother as well as she's the one caring for both of the horses. They are absolutely lovely sculpts and I can't wait to paint them. They won't be done for Christmas but I'm thinking of trying to have the pair for my mother finished for her birthday in June.

Itsy Bitsy...

...Teeny Weeny 

That's probably the most suitable way to describe my newest additions to the collection/showstring. I happened to stumble upon an ad for a Maggie Bennet Micro Sierra for sale with her foal Flicker as a "buyer chooses colour" commission. 

Sierra was painted an absolutely gorgeous bay roan with a lot of details and the sweetest face. I just had to put a bid in for the pair.

I was lucky enough to win the auction and after talking to seller (and painter) Lauren of Kingyo Stables I decided on a baby blue roan overo for Flicker.

Lauren sent over pictures and I was over the moon! They both arrived a few days ago and they are even more amazing in person! I can't get over how detailed and beautiful the paint job is on these tiny sculptures.

I'm so glad that I got the chance to add them to my collection and I can't wait to bring them out into the showring!

Baking Soda + Super glue = ?

My poor Akhal Teke resin was missing an ear and I was looking into the baking soda + super glue method to fix that issue. I have never used this method before but as he is my project/experiment model I thought why not try it out.

Baking soda + super glue = rock candy? Well not really but it kind of looks like it!

I used this tutorial as help, mostly used the method dipping the ear with glue into the baking soda.

It was a quick method to build up the bulk. My results did not look as good as the result in the tutorial. But for a first try I think I at least got what I need to file this blob into an ear!

A few helpful tips:
Wear gloves! (I learnt this the hard way...) This method might be a tiny bit messy if your glue is very runny (like mine is) or if you are like me a bit impatient and total newbie to this method (also like me) and it is VERY easy to get some glue on your skin.

There will be a "reaction" between the baking soda and super glue so that your newly made "blob" (or ear or whatever it is you are going to fix) will be a bit warm to the touch, but no worries it will cool down shortly.

Try to be patient and thorough. I totally failed at this which will end in me having to do A LOT of sanding in order to get and ear shape out of my blob. But if you try to be patient and take care where you get the baking soda and super glue I am sure your first attempt will be far better than mine.

New Show Photos

Last week I had a day of and as there is an upcoming photo show I'd like to enter I took some time to snap some new show photos. I still have some way to go until I have the perfect shots but this pictures are at least better than what they had before.

Ancient Gold, Akhal Teke Stallion

Anything But Mine, Swedish Warmblood Mare

Destiny, Swedish Warmblood Mare

Gemini, Swedish Warmblood Stallion

Imperia, KWPN Mare

Kiss of An Angel, TWH Mare

Lost All Hope, Thoroughbred Mare

Nahele, Mustang Stallion

Sahale J, Mustang Stallion

Vivaldi, Hanoverian Stallion

When I Hear Your Voice, Swedish Warmblood Mare

Whiskey Lullaby, Quarter Horse Stallion

Hard work, work

My, maybe NaMoPaiMo 2018 project, has had some work.

This is what he looks like at the moment:

In these pictures he's just had a bath (hence the wet look).

So far he's had one small round of sanding with regular sandpaper and then 2 sessions with the electrical file.

He's body is mostly ready for the finer sandpaper but his face, legs and chest still needs some more sanding with the electrical file before he's ready for the finer sandpaper.

After all the sanding is done I'll spray him with primer just to see if I've missed any spots then I'll fix his tail and ears.

Hopefully I'll have him done in time but we'll see 😊

Portrait to be

For next year I really hope to be able to send one of my to-be-portrait models to a painter but in order to do so I need to have her fixed and prepped.

The model in question is my Eberl Primula resin. She arrived with broken ears and some prepping to do so I started with the ears. Her left ear is mostly original (broken piece glued on) with some reinforcing with apoxie as they where extremely thin! 

Her right ear is mostly just blocked in. This ear was also broken at arrival, into two piece. One of which crumbled when I picked it up. Atleast I was able to glue on the other part so she was only missing about 1/3 of her ear. I blocked it in with apoxie and I will file it done to match the other ear better. 

I also gave her some more forelock as it was practically missing on her left side. She also got new private parts as they hadn't survived the molding process well. There is still some work to do on her but I hope I'll be able to finish her before we leave for New Zealand!

New Face for the Showstring

Earlier this year I bought myself a mini Khemosabi. Back then I didn't know what colour I'd like him to be, I only knew I wanted a mini Khemo as I absolutely adore the big Khemosabi.

A few months ago I got to see an absolutely lovely painted mini Khemo at a show and fell in love with the color. 

A little over a week ago that same model was put up for sale. I emailed her as soon as I could and after agreeing about shipping and such he was sent of to me.

Yesterday he arrived, just as beautiful as I remember 😊

I'm extremely happy with him as he is absolutely lovely! I just need to figure out a name for him and get him some good photos as I'd love to show him soon.

With the arrival of this beautiful model I've actually sold my unpainted copy as I wasn't going to get it painted in the nearest future and to be honest after seeing this model I couldn't really see another colour for the mini Khemo that I'd like more than this one!

I can't stop looking at this guy! He's probably my new favourite mini Arabian at the moment!

Photoshow result

A few weeks ago I entered a Thoroughbred only photoshow. I only entered two models as I don't have may good pictures of my thoroughbreds.

The first one I entered was Fallen Hero, RC Valor rep. N. Söhn:

And the second one I entered was Lost All Hope, RC Kitty Didit rep. L. Lawrynovicz

Lost All Hope got a third place in her big class of 45.

Fallen Hero did great winning his class of 31, becoming champion stallion and then went o to become Best in Show Reserve! I think I say this pretty much every time but I really need to take better pictures of my models so that I can photoshow more as it's so much fun to read the results!

Adib

My newest acquisition is a beautiful little Arabian resin. And just as with my Gabriel resin from Josine the Swedish Postal system decided to act up and I had to call and actually arrange to have them send the model to my normal pick-up place as they apparently must've forgotten how to do their job when a package sent from the Netherlands ends up in their hands...

Anyway, this is Adib, sculpted by the very talented Josine Vingerling. He is sculpted as a stallion but I think I might turn mine into a mare as he is just not doing it for me as a stallion.

He is a lovely, detailed resin with an amazing face!

I imagine him as a Chesnut arabian mare with lots of chrome but we'll see what color he ends up having as I probably won't get to him in quite some time.

He is a beauty just as he is but he'll be even more beautiful once painted!

NaMoPaiMo 2018?

The last couple of weeks, I have seen a lot of people preparing for NaMoPaiMo 2018 and showing of their prepping and sculpting work of their project horses. I haven't even thought so far ahead yet as I have been very busy but today it hit me. In a few weeks I will leave for a month in New Zealand and I will be back in the middle of January. That means limited time to prep and prime my project horse.

Unfortunately I haven't quite decided what model I will use as my NaMoPaiMo horse. But one evening when I was home alone it just hit me. It would be fun to get my newly acquired project Akhal-Teke painted.

If I manage to prep him and resculpt him in time I will use him for NaMoPaiMo.

As you can see there is quite a bit of work left to do on him but I'll try my best to finish in time.

Atleast his offside is a tad better than his showside at the moment.

I'll have to look through my bodyshelf to see what model I can use as a back-up plan if I won't manage to finish my akhal-teke but I'll try my best to get him finished in time.