Well, Well, Well....

As per my previous self i'm a neglector of blogs, but when i come back i always have something great to blog about, dispute not doing a very good job i give it my best shot so here we go! :D 

My last post was May 30th were i declared my leaving of the hobby. 

I have since sold off a lot of my show string, however there are a lot of horses I just couldn't quite let go of, and since then have changed my initial decision and will be sticking around for just a little while longer. 

In June nothing significant really happened, I worked for a guy in a stables near my tafe for while, but he was full of himself and I got very sick of that very quick. My boyfriend and i celebrated our year and a half anniversary and that was as exciting as it got really. 

July, I had a huge achievement in my life, I got my first horse;

This is Patrick, or Pat Pat as I like to call him, He's a 15hh ASH X  and he's such a sweetheart, I adore everything about him. However despite the much mass amounts of love i have for him, he's being sold to a friend because I'm looking for something young, off the tack and over 16th

August, the month of my birthday… This year I turned the big 18! 

it's actually not exciting at all.. I had like 7 birthday dinners in total that took like the entire month to get out of the way… I need to shorten my friends list. 

For my birthday i rewarded myself with some lovely models which is what changed my mind about my hobby decision. Some horses that i never thought i would actually purchase, and a grail off my list to make room for a new one :) 

The first horse I purchased was My ultimate grail, Willoughby. 

But my god is he a beautiful horse, this one i purchased with the intent of getting him some new clothes which he is in great needs of but he is still so beautiful dispute his ancient paint job. 

The second horse to arrive is a UP/UP Darcy

I absolutely love buying nekkid horses, you get to decide their colour fate and i think that is just the best feeling ever, to find reference pictures and get ideas of what you want them to become and you watch an artist bring that dream to life. 

These naked guys I bought all at once and the three of them still didn't match the amount i payed for Willoughby :S

A sweet little, Little Man Mango, I have so many ideas for him i just can't decide so i will probably buy a second one to fulfil my wants and needs for this model. 

The mean and mighty, Nitro. I have a vague idea of what i want for him and it'll be loud, very, very loud. 

And last but not least birthday horse, Baccus, considering I already have 3 drafters picking a colour for this guy will be difficult because i don't want double colours of horses that will be competing against each other and i have a grey a roan and a bay so this'll be an interesting venture to decide what i want for him. 

So they're all of my birthday horses that i surprisingly i purchased with just birthday money with some to spare to go towards my new horse venture. 

Finding artists for all of these guys is going to be very difficult because I will only get the best artists for them, i will decide on the artist once I decide on their coats and specifically find artists that specialise in that colour.

So august was a pretty big month for me, glad it's over it was rather exhausting. 

September again brought some pretty big things. 

I sat my HSC Trials at school and it was nothing like i expected so i was glad about that, it wasn't half as hard as i expected so that was kind of good.

I have a band shiny new studio Kitty, Rastos is his name.

He's great fun and he loves curling up besides me while i work away at tack. 

Speaking of tack I came up with a new tack creation! Magnetic closure boots, they're great i absolutely love them!

By Mid september I realised there was something i was missing in my life. 

I missed working with the real deal. There is nothing more i love than hot blooded, sweaty, muscly thoroughbreds that have just come off the track after a big gallop, so back to the racetrack I went, i sent out my resume to a few different trainers and within days they were all calling me wanting me to work for them as i have a great previous record with working on the track. 

Oh the beautiful mornings

I made the decision to work for the one and only Bart Cummings. 

I couldn't of made a better choice, they're wonderful people to work with. However 2 weeks into it I managed to be strapping a gelding that was having a mare day

The Lovely Faced Culprit

 and when i went to get him out of the sand roll he kicked out at me and broke my hand. 

Oh they joys of that, I've never broken anything before and it's strange you know. to break something especially like your hand, i'm such a cripple, i literally can't do anything for myself but i'm fighting through. 

(and buying lots of tack equipment to make pretty shiny, multicoloured things!)

Oh Shiny!

So October has come and gone quicker than I could have have imagined, I've had all of it off because of my hand, I'm still on the hunt for a new pony, but nothing seems to be right at the moment so I think i have a long road ahead of me and have been getting my fix of plastic ponies instead, I don't think I'll be collecting OF's anymore just customs and resins, Breyer just doesn't seem to excite me like they used to... 

I've just made 5 inquires on MH$P (someone really needs to stop me) So two more nakked racing thoroughbreds to my collection, along with a appy mustang, a sabino drafter and a pinto Quarter horse! 

I've also found a colour and a painter for my darcy! I can't wait to send her off for her January slot!

Sorry for the essay but i've had a lot come about in the last  months, as always I hope to blog more often but i don't really see that happening :P 

Dubbo Live

I unfortunately will not be attending Dubbo Live in June/July ( I don't know when it is). 

To be honest I'm thinking of leaving the hobby… 

I have a lot of real horse things I'm doing at the moment and they're much more important to me than plastic ponies, especially when real horse things clash with model show dates. 

I just don't have the time to show anymore, especially not when I like making all my own tack and props for performance. 

I may or may not be selling my show string i will have to see how i feel about it, i'm sitting on the fence at the moment as they're worth quite a small fortune which would help me fund things but i think i'm still just a little attached to them for the moment. 

Working at a small barn again 3-4  times a week in return for lessons has sparked this all of a sudden change of heart, I've come to realise how much more the real kind mean to me than the plastic kind, especially when i see and care for peoples horses more than they do and they own them. 

It's quite sad really, to own a horse a just go and see them once or twice a week. 

I'm in the mids of doing my HSC meaning i really don't have the time but i still manage to make time and go, put more effort in then they do, and it's their horse. 

sigh, some people don't even know what they've got, so ungrateful.  

Anyways, I will still be making very few tack, props, i will also still have a limited amount of spots for prepping sculpting and painting. They will only be sale or commission items as it's quite a nice small income every now and then. So I will still be blogging occasionally about the few bits a pieces i get to make when i have time(Probably in the holidays).

So keep watching this space :) 

Central Coast Live

So about a week ago I attended the Central Coast Live Show up in Tuggerah. 

I did well in performance, as expected because i put a lot of love and effort into my entrys. 

That's the best part about performance, making the props beforehand. 

I HATE the stress on the day, and I HATE the stress of tacking up on the day and i just HATE it all together when it comes to being at the show, but i'm in complete and utter LOVE with prop and making.

Oh and i love coming up with new and interesting ideas for performance entries that aren't usually seen in the australian performance scene. 

One thing i liked about this show was that the CM's and AR's were separated so customs didn't have to compete against resins, i think that worked out quite nicely. 

I didn't buy anything and i didn't really bother to enter the raffle because there wasn't anything i wanted or needed, it was just an average raffle and well I'd rather spend my money on prop making things. 

The next show is in June? July? In dubbo, which is a 5 hour drive and is a 2 day show meaning i would have to take time off work to go, but the performance division :O It's just filled with so many opportunities! I can't wait to see what i'll come up with!

Here are my winnings from the day. 

One Last kiss: 

1st English Jumping 

Champion English Performance

3rd Thoroughbred AR

 Two Shoes

2nd Heavy Breed AR

1st Scene 

Reserve Champion Other English

 

Silver Bullet 

3rd Pony Games

Show Me Your Burlesque 

3rd English Jumping

Hollywood

3rd Other Performance (along with HollyHill)

Hershey's Kiss

5th Other English 

Hot to Trot

2nd Pony Club Games (sit a buck)

Ebony Rose

1st Feral AR

Victory Dance

2nd Warmblood/Spothorse CM

Tinseltown

2nd Other Purebred OF 

Snap Dragon 

2nd Feral OF 

Paper Crane

1st Other Youngstock CM 

Optimus Prime 

1st Warmblood/Sporthorse CM

Russian Navy

2nd Heavy Breed CM

Shadowfax

1st Heavy breed AR

Kameo

1st Part Arabian CM

Copy Cat

4th Youngstock OF

Alpine Snow

2nd Appaloosa CM

Makers Mark

2nd Warmblood AR

Thinking Of You

3rd Thoroughbred CM 

Nanooska

3rd Pony Bred OF 

Voss

3rd Part Arabian CM

Curtain Calls On Walkabouts

5th Spanish OF 

New Years Resolution

5th Arabian OF 

Victoria's Secret 

4th Gaited OF

Cherry Ripe

4th Arabian CM

     

                                                 

Live Show Progress

Next week I'll be attending Central Coast Live and i have to admit it'll be my first show in months and i'm rather excited.
I have 11 Entries in performance this time so that'll mean being rather stressed out for the first half of the day. But it's totally worth it, i'm slowly turning into a performance freak! It's just so.. exhilarating!
Which is why I've turned to making my own tack and props to save my paying big money for something i can make myself just as good.
So today since it is cold and rainy, i ditched my plans to go and see friends to stay at home and work on these guys

They mostly all need repainting, because it was quickly done before my last show, so i could show them.  Although the white one which is actually a palomino paint (sorry for the computer picture, i couldn't be bothered to find my camera and take pictures) which just needs a few touch ups because his last paint job is like ancient years old and is a little dodgy in some places.

The poor apply lost his ear the other day so i'll be re-sculpting him a new one, along with another horse who's tail i'm fixing for a friend. (not pictured)

I've also made a few pieces of tack the other day while mucking around with some new ideas. 

I made, 

 a fleece lined girth for my Egg and Spoon set up

And a new seeing eye guide pony harness also with a fleece lined girth.
Next week (which is the last week of holidays D:) i will be very busy Preparing a LOT of props and i still have a bunch of tack to make!
Not to mention i have assignments to finish for school and have to study for exams the first week i go back.
Busy maddie is busy.  and stressed :S

I'll be sure to post pictures of how everything goes at the show next week!
Now i'm off to put on my all time favourite movie and make some ponies!

Peeved

So my planned trip to go and see Finn has been cancelled. :(

His current family decided they would go on holidays instead, meaning I now have to wait till after the school holidays to go and visit. That's so far away!

Today couldn't get any worse.
I needed to vent sorry. I feel much better now.

Long Time No Post

Sorry again for my lack of posting, between lack of internet access, TONS of school work to be doing and my horse hunting I've been finding it hard not only to blog but do anything model related but I'm trying.

School at the moment has kept me very busy, I just completed all my Prelim (Year11) tests which i got over 80% in all my classes so I'm stoked about that, but that's not the end, I have a bunch of assessment tasks coming up just before and just after the school holidays so no rest for the wicked.

Horse Hunting.. well It's defiantly been an adventure. I was meant to do a 4 hour drive up to a place in NSW called 'Gullagon' (i think that might be how it's spelt.) Over there holidays to go and see my potential horse in the holidays but it turns out the family is going away *GRR* which means i'll be taking a couple of days off school this week to go up there instead. Which is good, i miss out on school but it's kinda bad because i fall behind on the class work, but i guess it's for a horse so i don't care.

Tack making, well that is something that i have progressed with in a short time so i'm super pleased with that.
The first thing i made was the 'V' Shaped brow band in my last post which i think was pretty awesome.
Next i thought i would try my hand at making a leather halter which..

Didn't go too bad surprisingly, i made it with a roller buckle and all :3
Next i made my first ever saddle!

Which at the time i was super pleased with, but now that i look over it i'm not overly pleased but i guess you have to make mistakes to learn.
I found that i had trouble with assembly, the pattern was a piece of cake but i wanted to know how to make everything fit together perfectly so i did some research and found Keri Okie tack books to which i ordered almost one of each immediately. Within a few weeks they arrived.

  

And my god are they good, somethings i will be adjusting in my versions but they are seriously the best place to start when making tack, he books tell you EVERYTHING, they are the god of tack books. It didn't take me long before i whipped out my tools, leather and dyes and put together my first ever dressage saddle.

This saddle I'm currently very pleased with, besides the billet strap holes being too big and too close together i can't fault on it too much being it is my second ever saddle. I would really love to work on a new technique for doing my panels as they're not very realistic when it comes to looking at real saddles so i'm going to have a look at how i can stitch and stuff them. 

Last but not least, I went to a local art store near me and found that they stock Aves Appoxy Putty and well it is the coolest stuff ever. Not long after i took pictures of sheik in that saddle i took a hacksaw to his head and cut it off :3 oops. I then cut open his mouth and started to to some inner sculpting. for a complete and utter noob i'm pleased enough.  

Cheese ! :D 

Well that is all for today, i do hope to try and post more often which is unlikely to happen but i'll try. 

I'll defiantly be keeping you all updated on how my trip goes up to the new new horse in the next few days so watch this space. :D

PS: please forgive any spelling/punctuation i have failed with, it is late and i need to go to bed but i wanted to post something which i had a chance, i'll come back and amend it later. :)  

First piece of tack

So today was one of those just unproductive days, it rained pretty much all day so i wasn't feeling particularly motivated.

but after about an hour of skiving, dying and drying this lovely piece of work was finished

I know it's not the greatest piece of work out there but i'm rather please with todays work. 

I'm still waiting on more leather, hardware and other bits and pieces before i get to start on the real interesting stuff. it's taking too long! :( 

Oh well at least i get to admire this pretty browband.

New Work Space

I Have once again managed to neglect my poor blog.. :(
But you guys have missed out on so much stuff! This will defiantly be a long post, so brace yourself.

I do sort of have a good reason for being so slack with posting. We are (my mum and i) in the current process of moving all of my horsey bits and pieces into my new studio :D
Which has meant putting up sets of shelves,

And setting up my new work table!

I'm so happy to finally have a work space that's in a permanent spot, nothing was worse than having to pack and clean up completely when we needed the kitchen table.


I also went on a "haul" to a local leather store.
I bought glues, dyes, spools of lace both round and flat, tools, and other small various products for my tack making adventures.

(I also must add i have fallen in love with a new glue, Fiebing's Leathercraft cement. Oh sweet baby jesus it is so beautiful to work with, but i will talk about that in another post sometime in the near future.)


Oh and i bought my first hide!!
isn't it beautiful :')

I can't wait to really get stuck into it to start creating some miniature wonders!

I'm still waiting for a whole shipment of hardware from rio rondo which last time took 1 month to arrive... So now i play the waiting game.

Oh i also just created a facebook page, So please go and like it :)