Done & Moving On

I'm done! Finally! And I am so so, SO tired of the color white. 

But, I now have 12 chemises on the rack and ready for The Feast of the Hunters' Moon.  Here are the most recently finished ones.

This one is a size XL.

I love these elegant domed gold sleeve buttons.

 A size 2XL.

Flat and shiny gold sleeve buttons.

 Finally, a size S

with pretty pearl sleeve buttons.

I'd still like to make one more 2XL, but I ran out of fabric and had to order more. 

I buy white cotton by the bolt. There are 15 yds of fabric in a bolt and I can get around 5 chemises out of each bolt. I've gone through two bolts already just sewing for the Feast!

The new bolt of fabric has just arrived, but I haven't opened it. Right now, I am ready for some color. And trade shirts made from colorful block prints are on the docket.

Here are the two fabrics I am starting with:

A very unusual maroon and olive green block print,

and a pretty (and very popular) multicolored block print.

These are for what I call, "The Nebraska Contingent." More on them coming. They never fail to make me smile.

Stay 'tooned!

Lafayette: Love That Color!

There has been a lot of controversy over Lafayette's color. To be fair, the initial photos Breyer released had no text and he did look jet black in them. But, just as your teachers used to say, "Always read the directions!" 

Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

If you didn't read the text that came via email or was posted on Breyer's website when Lafayette was released, you did not realize that he was not actually jet black. Here's a cut and paste from the information from Breyer's website:

The first Collector Club special of 2021 is Lafayette! Dark and bold, this handsome American Saddlebred stallion has a shaded dapple black coat over a silver basecoat. Topped with a high gloss finish and decorated with silver & blue ribbons in his mane, Lafayette is striding confidently into the new year!

Full disclosure, this teacher didn't "read the directions," either. I was just as surprised as everyone else. But, I am thrilled with the color.

It reminds me very much of Rumbling Thunder who was  released in 1993. (My glossy charcoal Running Stallion is far more valuable than Rumbling Thunder, but Rumbling Thunder is my absolute favorite color in my Running Stallion conga.)

German Export Chinook, a 1994 special run on the beloved Indiana Pony, is also a similar color although she is very, very matte. (Mine is much darker than the one Identify Your Breyer shows. Love those variations!)

Glossy dapple grey Storm, a 2000 Sears special run, is lighter than my Lafayette, but I received one of the dark versions of Lafayette. 

The lighter colored Lafayette in this photo looks more like Storm, my Five Gaiter. (Photo by Breyer Trot and taken from Google Images.)

In 1997 Sears sold this Field Hunter in their holiday catalog. Like Rumbling Thunder, this piece is my favorite of all my Jumping Horses.

The final model I pulled from my collection to compare is the Clydesdale from the 1992 Sears holiday catalog. His color is very metallic and there are no dapples in his coat.

Lafayette lined up with the other similarly colored models. 

He's one gorgeous model, and I am so happy to have been able to get him. But you can bet that next time, this teacher will do what she always told her students to do and will READ THE DIRECTIONS before hitting that buy button!

NaMoPaiMo: I Have Begun!

This is year five for NaMoPaiMo and it has snowballed during that time period - this year there are 1,173 participants from 27 countries!

Using the grid approach again, I found myself (orange circle, top tight) and Pony Pal Mila (orange circle, top left) in the collage Jennifer Buxton made of those who'd sent in their selfie with a nudie photos. (Thanks for letting me post your grid, Jennifer!)

I had really wanted to begin painting my NaMoPaiMo horse with Pony Pal Mila but we haven't been able to get together. Since yesterday marked the end of week one for the event and with only three weeks to go, I decided I'd start without her.

I was using Melanie Miller's formula for brown based black but I didn't have two of the colors she recommended. It shouldn't matter much if I subbed Burnt Sienna for Burnt Umber and Pyrrole Red for Pyrrole Scarlet, right? (Oh, but it did as I soon found out.)

I selected the brushes that I wanted to begin with and some toothpicks for stirring.

Two parts and a smidge Burnt Sienna, two parts Ultramarine Blue, and one part Pyrrole Red.

The swapped out colors didn't seem to matter after I stirred the paints together with a toothpick. That looked pretty black to me.

Until I actually put it on my model, and that was NOT the black I thought I'd made.

It's a pretty color, but not the color I was trying for.

I did have some unopened Burnt Umber from a Breyer craft kit, so I tried again. I also subbed Magenta for the Pyrrole Red. This time, the color was closer to what I had in mind, but there was a definite purple feel to it. (Which doesn't show well in this photo.)

I was getting frustrated and decided to take a break. The white marker that I'd ordered for my mini barn had arrived, and so I rinsed out my paintbrushes and switched from NaMoPaiMo painting to barn raising.

That went really well, and I will post about that soon.

Stay 'tooned!

Color: No Spot, Few Spot, Loud, and Varnish

"She's got a lot of color" is a phrase horsemen and women use to describe a horse who is what is termed a "color" breed (Appaloosa, Paint, etc.) The amount of color can vary, hence the term.

For example, here's an Appaloosa with little color:

 See how his spots are mostly on his rump and maybe one or two on his face and shoulders?

Then compare him to this Appaloosa, which would be described as "loud" as in "loud color."

(He's also called a "leopard Appaloosa" which is a distinct coat pattern within the breed.)

There are even Appaloosas with very few spots, and they have their own descriptive terms, too.

 These two are "few spot" Appaloosas.

Still full bred Appaloosas, just without many spots.

And this is a "no spot" Appaloosa. He still has the characteristic mottled skin around his face and is a full bred Appaloosa, but there are no spots on his coat.

Personally, I like mine spotted, or "with lots of color."

Like this girl. My "varnish roan" Abby. 

Varnish roans have a base coat of intermingled dark and white hairs, with darker patches on the shoulders, bony points, and other areas. The roaning can change over time and with the season, or it may simply remain stable.

 The mare above is an "extreme" varnish roan - lots and lots of white.

 So is this filly.

My girl isn't an extreme but she is a varnish. Her color changes, mostly in that the white patches come and go. She's darker in the winter and lighter in the summer when she sheds out.

I think she's perfect.