Congratulations to Jackie Hasser and her colt Okie's Fantasy, a beautiful Red Okie Clay from the factory run. Great job Jackie!

This is one of the dark variation Okies.  I had trouble about halfway through the run, with the reds fading. The more horses in the kiln, the longer the kiln takes to get to full heat, the longer the total hours of firing, the more red burns out. So for the second half of the run, I deepened my red underglaze and really hit them hard with it. Production teaches you lots of handy things... but that is why there are essentially two colors of Okies. First half (ish) and second half.

Congratulations also to Maggie Schneider Barkovitz  and her gelding Nabu, a Stormwatch in medicine hat overo. Looking good Nabu!

Congratulations also to (I'm pretty sure) Lois Bennington and her Otto named Sidekick. He's a lovely example of the factory run Otto ponies. Snorty!

Congratulatins also to Keith Bean and his Royal Worcester stallion, Vin Diesel, for the win at Clinky Classic. Vin Diesel was an old factory bisque, used as a guide for the casters to assemble the horses in production. After decades as a white bisque, Keith and I glazed him and gave him his mojo. He always does well!

I have been offered a new sculpture, a very exciting one that would bring all of us great joy! So I need to raise some money for it, quickly! Because this is so important to me, I have pulled my VERY LAST Kheer off of my bisque shelf. All of these years, I have kept her for myself, for a 'someday project'. Well, someday is NOW... but she isn't going onto my shelf, she might end up on yours! Kristina Lucas Francis sculpted Kheer a very long time ago, as a birthday present to me, and we shared the very limited castings from one mold. Kristina may have some available... I don't know... but what I do know is that this is my very last one. So I am taking bids until Saturday, December 8th. Highest bid wins. Choose your color, any color that gives you goosebumps just from thinking about it. And you won't pay until the foal is finished and approved by you. Because I love this sculpture so much, it is so dear to me, you know that I will focus all of my skill on making it the best I possibly can. The very best. I will work with you on the color, and together we can choose what will bring out the charm and joy of this little horse. Because she looks exactly how I feel right now... happy and excited! Email bids to mold40 at roadrunner dot com. Good luck!

Here is a bay Lirico, I only glazed one in this color. It is more of a chocolate brown, rather than the red bay of the OF edition. He is marked with the limited edition, OF marking but he is actually a test in this color.

It's Monday, and it's a glazing day. Here are the horses that will be glazed today (except,of course, the bisque Little One) A chestnut Little One, an amber champagne tobiano Little One, a dapple bay tobiano Daffyd, and a dapple grey Daffyd. The others need another color firing. Full speed ahead!

Here's how they look right now, finished and covered in glaze. During firing, the dye will burn out of the glaze and it will become a hard, clear, glossy surface with the final horse color underneath. The second Dafydd, the dapple grey, isn't ready for this final step tonight.

Warm kiln and success! Everyone looks great!

Moab the red donkey Jack. Didn't he turn out great? As red as those Utah rocks:-)

His shoulder stripes and dorsal were painted four times.

Little One in chestnut.This gal has the sweet face that Kelly captured so well. She heads off to the UK in a day or two, along with her other friends.

A tiny Taboo for the Holidays!

Have you bought yourself a Christmas present yet? Maybe you want a new custom glaze piece? Warm from the kiln this morning, a delightful little Taboo in a tasty buckskin pinto! Taboo is a Stablemate sized grade stallion, intricately sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig. I haven't made a lot of Taboos, so here is your chance! His buckskin color is delicately tinted, and his face detail is lovely. His sale price is $345, including shipping. Priority will be given to a buyer who can pay in full by Paypal. Since MHSP seems to be down, please email me directly at mold40 (at) roadrunner (dot) com.

Wishing everyone a warm and joyful Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Here's one of the treats that came out of the kiln this morning. He's a rich, dark bay tobiano Callahan. Someone has dibs on him, but if she passes on him, he will be for sale later today on MH$P.

a "Reflective" plaque by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, glazed by me to a luscious bay (the photo REALLY doesn't do it justice, I tried several times but it doesn't capture how rich and shaded his color is!) He is sold.

Here is the reverse dapple black roan Valentin, he came out PERFECT! His mane and tail have red tones toward the hair tips, and his eyes are more detailed than it shows in the photos. He took multiple layers of fired underglazes to achieve this roany dappled effect. Off to his new home tomorrow! (not for sale, he was a commission)

I usually don't do porcelains, but this little Kaiser foal was given to me to try glazing. She is a very rich, pretty dark bay with high flashy 'chrome' and a big face marking. I found the porcelain hard to work with, so I couldn't do the scritchy body roaning that I had planned, but this color does accent the soft, graceful sculpture.

This amazing, large bone china 'Sharif' came to me for glazing, and I decided on a very ambitious rabicano roan, like the horse on the top of this article. Being such a big piece, it took me AGES to roan his coat, and he made my hands ache. His color is a bright, strong, shaded chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, and intense detailing. His hooves have subtle stripes and growth markings, his eyes have horse pupils and eyewhites (but they are brownish, as older horse's eyewhites are) and every detail that I could pack into him is there.

His back has the most work, where the rabicano markings come up and meet near his spine. I was seeing this ticking in my sleep!

His head is gorgeous, though on this bright day I had a hard time photographing it. (He's too big for my light box :-P) Being so big and glossy, he stands out in a crowd, and attracts a good bit of attention... as he should! He's incredibly beautiful, if I do say so myself.

Sadly, he is for sale, the original owner has expenses that must be met. So since I am always getting requests for custom glazing, I offered to sell him for her. He is here with me and will be shipped safely in a big foam box, fully insured. If you are interested, please go and check him out on MHSP.  I rarely do anything this big or ambitious, so he is quite a find!

This is Jeanene's Stormwatch, who was featured in an article in The Boat (the e-zine of Realistic Equine Sculpture Society) These process photos were shot in the workshop, where light is not ideal, but they do give an idea of what it looks like to underglaze a horse of this magnitude. The yellow is latex, the blue is painters tape. His light areas are masked off, then the body color is built up in underglazes. The dark areas are done first, to give the dappled effect. Then light colors are applied over the top, still raw. Let's take a peek...

A spray of French Brown all over, giving me something to dapple into.

Going between adding more underglaze color, and dappling off color with a typewriter eraser. Back and forth.

Dappling is finished, and any little debris is carefully brushed off.

Color is applied over the dappling, varying over the horse to give a shaded appearance.

The latex and painters tape are removed, and the edges are carefully gone over with an exacto and an eraser, to clean up and smudge the edge in some cases. Look carefully at the edges of the mane in the photo below. You can see that the mane tips are not cleaned up yet. There is still paint where it should be white. All of that is removed with an exacto blade... the mane alone took hours to do. The tail.... even worse.

He goes in the kiln at this point, to set these colors. Everything up until now has been worked on RAW, easily smudged, and difficult to see what has been applied underneath...

 The hooves are detailed.

Tail is re-latexed, to allow spraying color on the leg. Reapplying the latex is an iffy proposition sometimes... it can remove color, or it may not match up. 

Face is detailed, eyes painted, nostrils reddened, teeth yellowed...

Mane is now sprayed with color and shading.

Starting to spray the final glaze, which is going to be the clear glassy coating on top of the color. It is tinted green so that you can see it, and so that you can tell which glaze it is (satin or glossy, etc) The green is just food coloring and will burn off quickly. 

At this point, with the glaze over the front end, I could hold the front end and spray color on the tail, though there is no photo of that part. I sprayed the mane and tail with varying yellows, taupes, and greys. 
Bye bye color! When you reappear, it will be too late to fix anything... fingers crossed...

Success! His name is Enki, because like most Stormys, he is named after a weather god.

If you do this sort of work, you will know how sweaty under the armpits I was when I put him in the kiln, and what a sleepless night I spent waiting to see if it worked. :)And it did work. Enki was a record breaking price at auction.

Here are some random Taboos, just for kicks. The sculpture is by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, and he is a small guy... a bit over 2" tall. Taboo is part of a set, and I was fortunate enough to make the mold on him, so I have been able to produce a limited number in custom colors. His head and his tail are molded separately, and he is assembled in the 'wet cheese' stage of casting.

Taboo is a snotty, spirited stallion!

Rose grey with satin glaze, in the tradition of Hagen-Renaker.

Lightly dappled grey, satin glaze.

Brown dun overo, glossy glaze.

Grulla, glossy glaze.

Grulla from the other side.

Red dun, glossy glaze.

The red dun's face.

Mulberry with light dappling.

Leopard Appaloosa.

Fun, aren't they?

Dapple grey is hard to do in earthenware... especially working with such a big guy. Stormwatch, with his fly-away mane and tail, presents particular difficulties, but when this dapple grey was done I was very pleased! It took multiple erasing, spraying, and firing to achieve this dappled piece. 

Enjoy!