I need to put up a post on the process that these Medallions went through, at BOYCC, but for now I want to show the glazes and explain the choices I made, before I forget! I tried to choose each glaze because of some connection with the person, or some aspect that would play up an aspect of the medallion itself.

(they were sculpted in a workshop at the Convention, and the students varied from amateurs to currently working artists)

Here is the group that I ended up glazing yesterday. There were more medallions, but a couple of the molds went home with their artists right after BOYCC, and Sue Sifton and Deb McDermott will be coming here and glazing theirs separately. So, these six are what we are looking at today.

Cynthia Perry sculpted "Foalie", a sweet little foal head that reminded me of a bronze medal. So, I chose "Patina" as a glaze, which is a matte 'stoneware' finish that I felt would play up the sculptural aspects of "Foalie". Hope you like her, Cynthia!

Jackie Arns-Rossi sculpted this delightful "Kitty". I had a hard time figuring out what glaze to use, because I don't know Jackie that well and the kitty didn't tell me what to use. So I used the Elemental "Blue Ridge", which has breaks of pink, mauve, and tan brown. It has a lovely feel to it, and the way it breaks in the low areas highlights the gentle detail of "Kitty".

Katie Younger-Gehrt sculpted "Happy Happy Koi Koi", a koi fish in a pond with water lilys. It reminds me of an antique Japanese piece of artwork, so I used "China Sea" crackle. You may not be able see the crackling, but it is there and the glaze pools darker in the deep areas. I applied an extra layer to the water areas to enhance this effect slightly. 

Kim Bjorgo-Thorne sculpted this Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, "Dugu", and to play up the very loose and sculptural aspects of the medallion, I used a combination of "China Sea" and "Mocha Cream" crackles, which made an almost granite like color and a crackled finish. 

Kim Knight sculpted this foal head, and since Kim is a geologist, I chose "Smokey Agate" as a glaze. Agate, the mineral, gets "smokey" in the vicinity of radioactivity which makes the tips of the crystals darker than the base. It was one of my favorite minerals when I was collecting them, and I hope Kim likes the finished result!

Melanie Miller sculpted this horse head with a Celtic knot design around the rim, and I wanted to play up the delicate design with an art glaze. I chose "Peacock" because it was a favorite color when I used to do PH awards. "Peacock" lays darker in the deep spots and is also semi translucent, so it shows off the delicacy of the sculpture. 

These medallions, from start to finish, have been an interesting journey for both the artists and the workshop leaders, and finally for me, as I was able to cast and glaze them. Thanks also to Deb McDermott and Sue Sifton, who came and helped to cast and clean them for a very fun day!

His mold has a lot of itty bitty goofy hand formed pieces, which make it complicated to demold. Not only could I not have made this mold ten years ago, I doubt that I could have demolded this horse ten years ago and put him back together!

Following a discussion on Breakables about Maggie's Stormy, I thought I might put up some photos of other Stormys that I have finished. (They have all been spoken for, but they have not all been finished yet. They take me a long time and I can't do them back to back :)) 
First is one that I wish I had a better picture of, he is the Stormy that I did for Karen Grimm when she came and tiled my kitchen floor. She bought the supplies, we did the work together,and I made the horse for her in trade. Of course, Karen loved Appaloosas, so he is a few spot Appy. He is much prettier with a blue or colored background, but I didn't have time to take more pic before he went home with her. He is the only Stormy that I didn't give a name to before he left.

He is also in a satin finish, unusual for a Stormwatch. Karen passed away from cancer, in May.

Joanie

I always liked the head shot of this guy:

And then some in-progress shots of Elli's Stormy, the intensive scritchy roany one.

Note how the last photo shows the chest only half done. It tooks WEEKS of hand numbing work to scritch this guy. After scritching an area, I would go back in a day or two and do some more, to take away the 'pattern' that you tend to fall into when doing repetitive work. Finally, gave him a good all over look to blend any areas that needed more roaning. My hand still hurts just looking at the photos!

These photos were randomly in with the glazed Stormys, so here are just a few views of a Stormy being cast. His hind leg/tail, plus six fly away pieces from his forelock, mane and tail are all cast in separate molds. Once he is cast, and I start assembling him, it takes a full eight hours to finish putting one together and sitting him down to dry. 

When I run across more pictures of the casting process, I will post them.

He's sold, but I am testing the new background. My old background, solid blue, was too turquoise and too strong, and it made all of my photos look bluish. I'm no good at adjusting color in a program, I would rather have a background that doesn't fool the camera into thinking that everything should be blue. So I took the background out to the workshop and sprayed clouds on it... I like it better. It's like a summer sky.

What do you think, is it an improvement?
BEFORE:

AFTER:

So now I need finer grained 'ground' and it should be an improvement...

When I first saw Kelly Savage's Little One, I felt that it would be terrific in ceramic... and my instincts were right! Here are the first two, fresh out of the kiln this morning. The pictures don't do them justice, they are both wonderful...

This little chestnut one is how I pictured Little One in my head...

The bay tobiano is adorable, and in person you can see the shading better...

Two more are in the kiln right now, and then they will all be sold. There's a lighter chestnut, and a buckskin minimal tobiano. If you would like to ask for a specific color on Little One, send me an email with "Little One" in the subject line, and the color(s) you picture her in, in the email.(mold40 (at) roadrunner (dot) com) I will do my best to fill at least most of the orders. Little One is going to be in the $300 range, some a little more, some a little less, depending on color. She's hard to glaze because there isn't anything to hold onto! But ohhhh what a nice result!

EDIT: More pictures.... here's a comparison of the original resin and the finished piece:

I chose Miss Pepper to compare with, but actually LO is closer to the size of Roughneck or little Zilla:

Couple more shots of the chestnut, a little closer to the actual color (I'm not good at photo editing and my camera oversaturates a bit)

Awww so cute! Here's the very first ceramic "Little One", sculpted by Kelly Savage of the UK and issued in resin last year.

Left is the little ceramic foal, not even dry from being assembled yet. Right, is the original resin with the mold lines and flooding. Astute collectors will notice that the dotted line probably means that part is cut off in the mold, and they would be right! Little One's head (just behind the ears) and hind legs/tail are done in separate molds and assembled during cleaning. It works great, though it's a bit fiddly to get the legs just perfect... but I've had lots of practice lately with Stormy et al....

So I will be glazing and selling a few Little Ones soon, in amongst the other orders I have, and will make them available for sale publicly on MHSP. Join my yahoo announcement group for more information... pourhorsefactory.yahoogroups.com

I always announce there first, giving my loyal customers the early word on what is available.
So, welcome Little One!

Who is this?

If you know, put it in the comments. The first commenter who gets it right will be acknowledged as the Trivia Queen in an update!:-)

These little guys are awaiting approval from the customers who have so patiently waited for them. A few other horses came out of the kiln today but they aren't ready for photos yet, they need to go through again. I'm back in a working mood and ready to plow through more old orders... so hang in there, and yours may be next! If you want to get in line for a Dafydd (it will be months, however) send me an email with "Dafydd" in the subject line, and your color choice in the email, and I will do my best. I LOVE making Dafydds!