WHOO HOO!

You know how a color sticks in your mind, and you want to be able to get it right? I finally did! This Stormy was for an article that will be printed in The Boat (the RESS magazine) showing the stages and techniques of ceramic glazing. Hoping with all my might, every molecule in my brain sending positive messages to the kiln, (and a good dinner out, which brings good karma) I could hardly contain myself when I went out this morning to check the kiln....

He will be up at auction as soon as next week, when I can get some light box photos too which will show his subtle dapples even better! These photos were taken at the beach this morning, and on such a bright, sunny day it's hard not to get a lot of glare. Anyway, a sneak peek, and you will see an announcement soon for his auction...

Now to decide on a name!

(click on photos for larger images, use your back button to come back to the blog)

Fifteenth Day, Last Prize

This has been such a fun contest, and it gave us a chance to look back at some Pour Horse history. This prize is the only one that I will really miss... but I wanted to give a really nice item on the last day. It has hung in my living room for many years, along with the others that I still have.

You see, when Kristina still lived in the front bedroom/studio, we bought a plate mold... and cast some plates. Then, she drew on them by hand, with underglaze pencils, and glazed and fired them. They are very special, very unique and beautiful. This one depicts a young Thoroughbred, a portrait. Kristina also did me a cantering Draft horse, Saucy, and Dare. All four plates were hung with pride in the living room just before the BOYC show, and have been there ever since.

The winner today is... Susan Natschke!! Congrats, Susan!

Thank you again, everyone, for your support, your kindness, and your heart-felt friendship. When I started this journey years ago, I could never have foreseen the richness of experience and the fullness of achievement that Pour Horse would bring, nor the many friends that would become a part of my life.

Joanie

Fourteenth Prize Leaps into View

Lynn Fraley and her hubby Barry came to visit years ago, and as a present Lynn sculpted this gorgeous tile. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it... the detail is extraordinary, beautifully executed, and just my cuppa tea. I made some to hang in the shop, and I had a very ambitious plan to make a set of four matching tiles to affix to the bottom doors of my china cabinets. While I still hope to do that some day, I've changed my decor and colors in the living room and this test tile for the project no longer reflects the colors that I will use. The interesting thing about this tile is that it is thin and solid... when I made the mold for the tile, I made a two part mold that pours a hollow tile, because that is what I know how to do! I didn't know how to pour a solid, thin tile... but luckily, the mold can be used both ways. This tile is painted all in glazes, which gives a lovely, majolica feel to it.

And the winner today is... Cindi Nakagawa! YAY Cindy!

Thirteenth Day, Pins

Pins are fun. Pins are cheap. Pins are great for testing techniques. We made them for presents, for shows, to bring in a little extra cash, for contests, and just because we could.

The prize today is two pins, one sculpted by Kristina (the mule) and one by Adalee Velasquez (the pony foal) The pony foal was a special run for BOYC 2000. And the winner today is... Brona Hicks!! Congrats, Brona!

Twelfth Day, Glazes and Marker Pens

Ceramics is funny... you really do paint and glaze with a mixture of experience and hope. You might know that, in the past, a certain combination of colors will give you a certain result, but change one factor and the whole tone and color value of the combination might change too. Of course, that doesn't ever mean that brown plus tan plus black equals purple... but it might equal a warmer or cooler brown, it might equal a darker or lighter brown. The colors don't interact the way you expect, some are dominant and some fade away.

When you put glaze over the top of everything, you cover all of your hard work up with a coating of ground glass, flux, and food coloring. And you cross your fingers as you put the piece into the kiln, hoping that the result will be something like what you expect.

Kristina and I were still experimenting with the clear glazes during the grey Owynn phase of Pour Horse, and looking for the gloss or satin glazes that gave us the best (and most repeatable) look for our pieces. So we grabbed this grey Owynn and hit him with three different satin glazes, divided by a thin line of unglazed area. We then wrote on each area, to remind ourselves of what each glaze was. It's interesting to see the warmer or cooler tones underneath each glaze. He also has funky eyes, I don't remember what we were testing, but whatever it was, it didn't look so good.

This test Owynn, complete with dust, marker pen writing, and funky eyes, goes to today's winner... Elli Heritage!

(Craig and I are going out of town tomorrow, for the weekend, so the last three posts will be written tonight and automatically posted. The prizes that don't ship today or tomorrow will ship when I get home on Monday.)

Eleven Days, and the Prizes Keep Coming!

Kristina and I issued some of the early horses in both resin and ceramic, to maximize the sculpture's potential. After years of ceramic restoration, and then some time spent casting and cleaning resins at home, I was well on the way to developing the resin/epoxy allergies that are now a permanent part of my respiratory system and skin sensitivity. At the point where we began issuing horses in resin, we weren't casting them at home any more. Some copyrights were picked up by DaBar, or Resins by Randy, and some were issued through us. Maggie was one of the dual medium horses.

Maggie, though a darling horse, is proof of the hazards of assumption. She stood well when she was a sculpture in brown clay. But when cast in ceramic, her body is hollow and her head is almost solid, which changes her center of balance just enough so that she doesn't stand reliably in ceramic. She had to be issued with a base, and along with her tiny little fragile legs, that made her problematic enough so that she was never issued in large numbers in ceramic. I did a small run of rose grey pieces, and some customs, and that's all.

Kristina switched the forelegs for the resin run, so that the raised foreleg is on the same side as the forward hind leg. That stabilized her for the resin run.

Today's prize is a resin Maggie that the resin caster added bronze powder to. I think that it was Randy Buckler who cast her. The winner gets to *choose* between the darker colored Maggie, or the lighter bronze/green Maggie that was a "test" for being a Christmas ornament or key chain fob or whatever, because she has an eye screw in her back. You can see how dusty they are... I pulled them out of the bottom of the china cabinet!

And the winner today is..........Tracy Wells!! Congrats, Tracy!

Tenth Day is Awarded

Kristina and I began early, to reward our collectors when we could by sponsoring china classes with special awards. Making these awards available for shows was a very direct and efficient way to keep china showing enthusiasm up, and also to give something directly back to the model horse community. We did various designs over the years, and their finishes ranged from realistic to goofy.

Kristina sculpted Hoscar in 1998, and he is reminiscent of a Greek or Roman horse, stylized like the Oscar award. We gave away Hoscars for a few years, and then brought out a new design. Today's prize is the TEST Hoscar from 1998, in a crackled, slightly tinted beige glaze. He is marked TEST #2 7/98 on the bottom.

The winner of today's prize is.... drumroll... Pam Young! Congrats, Pam!