My Horse is nearly Finished

I'm finally near the completion of my horse. There are a couple of areas I'd like to retouch. It was really difficult keeping the brown away from the white and vice versa.  She stands at 4 3/4 inches at the shoulder which makes her equivalent in scale to a horse or large pony of 14.1 hands high. She fits right in the size of an "Indian pony or horse" ( 13.2 hh to 15 hh) or Nokota horse and a bit too small for a Paint(starting at 14.2 hh).

I'm fairly happy with this one overall. But there are a few things I learned that worked and few I'd do differently. One thing I found is that once I added the flocking a lot of the fine detailing became lost. Next time I think I'll carve the detail a bit more severely than I normally would. Secondly, I'd only do the legs in one layer of clay as they bulked out quite a bit after flocking.  Next, I'd  mask off areas with masking tape. Hopefully that'll keep them from mixing. I used a bit of scotch tape to remove some of the fibers that were in the wrong places. I hope you like her. I'll post the final pics soon.

Some Mini Pine Needle Baskets, a Salmon and more of the Horse

Here are my latest creations and some pics of my work on the horse. Hopefully, I should have the sculpt finished tomorrow and ready for painting and flocking.

An Arabian Mare and a Little Christmas Piggy

Here are my latest two, an Arabian mare and a little sleepy piglet. They're both on eBay now. I'm having one of those days that I don't have a lot to say. It's been a bit chilly here. But not as cold as elsewhere in the U.S. I got out for a hike a couple of days ago and was surprised to see that the Mojave green rattlesnakes are still out and about even in this cold. I finally got to watch the movie, "There will be Blood"'. It reminded me of what this area must have been like back in its hay day. We have a bit of local drama going on concerning something very similar to the movie. A new mining firm bought out the area and it looks as if half of Red Mountain will have to move. Red Mountain is a neighboring community of about 100 people. Silver was mined there predominately. I'm not too sure what they are after now as the mine has been played out. One thing about buying property in this area is that you may own the land but not the mineral rights or you may own your home but not the land. The folks in Red Mountain fall in the latter category.

A Little Hula Pig and a New Charity

Anuenue ~ Little Rainbow

Starting bid $9.95

Reserve Price $125.00

Buy It Now $195.00

Please click here to bid or Buy It Now

(auction starts tonight @ 6:45 PM PST & will not be viewable until then)

Last week, I read about a little orphaned foal who is in desperate need of help. The post directed me to this sight, http://www.dreamchaserpmu.org/index.htm. After reading reading about this poor little guy and the fate that awaited him and his mother, I couldn't stop from crying and knew I must do something to help. Dreamchaser PMU Rescue and Rehabilitation is now one of my regular charities.

I was also reminded of something that I had heard of in passing, but it never registered until I could put face to it. PMU (pregnant mare urine) horses and their foals are regularly sent to slaughter. They are often sold and shipped off to Europe & Japan where horses are slaughtered for meat. The poor mares are kept pregnant and in stalls where they are tied both front and back for 6 months. Their resulting foals are very often sold off to feedlots as are the mares who do not impregnate readily. Fortunately, this practice is waning because of a 2004 study linking estrogen hormone replacement with cancer and heart disease. But this also means that these horses are now being dumped into a market where there are already hundreds of horses looking for caring homes. The people of Dreamchaser and other rescues like them have the very difficult task of finding these poor animals homes where they will at last know kindness from the hands of humans.

So now you're probably asking "Why a pig and why is it in a hula skirt?". Years ago insulin was derived from pig hormones. Now it is synthetically produced and pigs need not be slaughtered so that people may live. If we can replace pig insulin with a synthetic, why not do the same with horse estrogen? So the little piggy is in a hula skirt because she's been invited to a luau where pork isn't on the menu. 20% from her sale will be donated to help "Orphan" at Dreamchaser PMU Rescue and Rehabilitation.

Good luck bidding!