Sharing is Caring

Although I think I am through the worst of the cold, I have to say that I am very sick of being sick. The past two months have been plagued by insomnia, gastrointestinal issues, back pain and (this week) a nasty cold. 

I am trying to accept it as a slow-motion system crash and hoping that once the cold has run its course, the rest of the year will be both painless and productive. (The heating pad I bought for my office chair gets to stay, though. Why didn’t I buy one of these before?)  

As it is right now I barely have the energy to open up my mail when I get home. So many tempting packages sitting at the foot of my bed; I may just end up saving them all for Christmas anyway.

The Collector’s Club Appreciation Sale sold out a little faster than I anticipated; my guess is that there were fewer pieces available than I suspected. I wasn’t tempted – too much stuff here people, way too much stuff – but looking at the Traditionals they now have in production, I fear I might bite the bullet next year: Mojave, Zorah Belle and Mooney? I’d be delighted with any one of those in gloss!

I am a little bummed that they’re returning to the mini-display boxes with the Stablemates Club releases next year; I much prefer the eminently reusable two-piece cardboard ones myself. It’s not going to affect the status of my membership. Which I need to renew sometime soon…

Since mobility is still a little bit of an issue for me, here are a few brightening up my very cluttered desk. First, the BreyerFest Horse of a Different Color Dada:

There’s nothing particularly special about this one: I just think he’s a neat little guy and he makes me smile. (As does the art movement that inspired him!) Second up is a NIP Buckskin Quarter Horse Mare with the MEXICO mold mark:

I already had loose examples, but I had been wanting a New in Package example for ages, and she just happened showed up on eBay at an extremely reasonable Buy It Now price earlier this year. Contrary to popular opinion, MEXICO-stamped Quarter Horse Mares are not all that rare, but Vintage NIP Stablemates are definitely a thing right now, especially in this fine of a condition. She was included in my Stablemates Collector’s Class Entry at BreyerFest that took Fifth Place.

And finally, one of the customs I had been working on, before I decided to go all-in on quilting for the rest of the year:

Yup, good ol’ Mesteno: The Messenger! I took him up as both a companion piece to the Mesteno’s Mother custom that is also still languishing on my work table, and as an even more extreme artistic challenge. 

He was the experimental piece that ended up in my BreyerFest Free Box, but I either came to my senses or lost them again, and fished him back out. He still has lots of problems that I probably won’t get around to fixing until Spring, but I am rather pleased at my progress, and wanted to share with the group. 

(His tail is just loosely taped on; it won’t be reattached until I’m finally happy with the resculpting.)

The Spark

It’s been how many weeks now and there’s still no official-official announcement of the Best Customs Contest winners on the BreyerFest Blog. Don’t they usually have it up by now? 

Part of the reason I keep putting off my discussion of it is because I wanted to a have an easily accessible set of photos to refer to, rather than talk about it in the abstract, but I guess I’ll just have to jump in and “do it live”, because I am tired of this topic living in my head.

So here we go.

My argument, which should not be controversial at this point, is this: the BreyerFest Best Customs Contest is broken. 

Let us begin with the elephant in the room: the Most Extreme Custom division. 

Customs that completely obliterate the original, rendering it either an armature, or (even worse) merely filler, contain a rather cynical and nihilistic subtext: the model that we used to build this thing has no worth other than as an armature or filler.

Needless to say, I am not a fan of this particular line of thinking. Not only is it antithetical to my conception of customs as a whole, it does not serve the ultimate goal of Breyer promoting it in the first place. 

I think of customizing as a collaborative art form, a conversation between the original sculptor and the customizing artist. The best Customs, in my mind, are the ones that take the base model in unexpected or innovative directions, but still have it retain the essence of the original sculpture. 

That’s what I had hoped this contest would evolve into: why else would Breyer sponsor it, but to ultimate promote their product? 

Imagine if a pie-filling company sponsored a pie baking contest, but the winner of said contest was a cake with a scoop of pie filling in it. Just because it’s a baked good that contains pie filling does not make it a pie. A giant lump of epoxy with a piece of a Breyer in it is not a custom.

The other sections of the contest are also problematic, albeit in slightly different ways. The Fantasy division has basically evolved into a different flavor of the Extreme Custom division; the Performance Excellence division is the Giant Freestyle Diorama Contest, where bigger is apparently always better... 

The Excellence in Finishwork division – the most popular division, in terms of the sheer number of entries – tends to reward certain styles, colors and techniques over others. My problem with this is that technical proficiency doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with artistic merit, and some of them (like the hair-by-hair technique) aren’t even particularly realistic at certain scales.

The Theme division is a mixed bag. I like the concept in theory – I think I was one of the early advocates of it – but the Theme class this year was not… a Customs class. It was a Tackmakers Class. Tackmakers deserve their own yearly contest rather than have one shoehorned into another.

I know there’s been some talk of creating a “Novice” division, or altering the rules to exclude hobbyists and artists who have done work for Breyer either directly, or indirectly. While well-intentioned, I think both ideas are a little off the mark.

For one, both are hard to define and (ultimately) police. 

Take me, for example.

I’ve been doing customs, on and off, since the early 1980s, but I’ve only just recently started taking it seriously again. I did do some customs for money back then, and sold a few others from my personal showstring, too. At least one of them ended up getting either a Best or Reserve Best Overall at a live show, and this little girl did extremely well for me, too, actually beating out pros like Liz Bouras at Model Horse Congress:

(Yes, she started life as a G1 Arabian Mare.)

I also do work for Reeves on occasion, though obviously it doesn’t involve sculpting.

My situation is far from unique. So how would you write the rules and exceptions for those of us that fall in those gray areas? Threading that needle would not only be difficult, but probably pointless: hobbyists would find the loopholes and technicalities pretty quickly.

My solution would be to revamp both the categories and criteria in a way that would be more inclusive of the greater world of customizing, rather than a narrow subset of it. There also needs to be a division – or divisions – outside of Fantasy where a greater emphasis should be on experimentation and creativity than on technical mastery. 

Craftsmanship is not artistry: it is only a component. I’ve seen lots of artwork – not just Customs, but other mediums and hobbies – that in spite of their masterful technique were dry, boring and tedious.

And on the flip side, I’ve also seen artwork that breaks every conventional rule – artistic, anatomical, technical – that spoke to me on a profound level. 

The perfect custom would be a blend of both, but (in my mind) I think way too much emphasis has been placed on the technical aspects in this contest. 

I am not saying that we eliminate craftsmanship as a criteria. What I am saying is that if you want to encourage more people to participate in this contest, focusing on experimentation and creativity is the way to do that. That’s how most people get started at any given artistic enterprise: they have a spark, and they need to express it.

So, how would we go about that?

It’s a math problem, really: it’s just a matter of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. 

Since it really has devolved into an original sculpture class, I’d either get rid of the Extreme Custom division, or change the judging criteria so that there’s slightly less incentive to sculpt ten pounds of epoxy around two legs and a head. 

If they want to have an original sculpture contest, either make it its own contest, or create a division just for that. 

For one, I’d love to see a “Vintage” class: not for Customs made 20 or 30 years ago, but for Customs made from Vintage molds, preferably Hess ones. The model would still have to recognizable as the foundation model; enhancements that were popular in the 1970s and 1980s – like hairing, flocking, glass eyes, horseshoes et al – could be encouraged. 

While there were artists selling their work and doing work for hire back then, a lot of hobbyists did their own customs out of necessity, and a class like this would hearken back to that pioneering, DYI spirit. 

In 2022, the Theme class was devoted to a single mold, the Geronimo: I want to see a class devoted to a specific mold every year. Something vintage, something new, scale doesn’t matter. I think this would be a great way to promote the Freedom/Classic molds, since there’s always a nice assortment available on the web site for people to buy if needed, and it would be a great way to encourage newbie customizers focusing on Stablemates to level up and push their boundaries.

Other division ideas could include Decorative Finishwork (like Excellence in Finishwork, but with unrealistic colors and designs), splitting the Fantasy division into Equids (Pegasi, Unicorns, Seahorses) and Artistic Interpretations (either based on literary, art historical or archaeological inspiration, or something entirely novel), and adding a Freestyle Diorama section (as a subset of Performance Excellence?)

I wouldn’t expand the divisions beyond ten – actually, ten would be a good number, because then the overall quantities of prize models would be at a relative parity with things like the Diorama Contest and even the Open Show. It would also bring the value of the prizes down a notch, and make the contest a little less appealing as a potential financial windfall for the professionals out there. 

Having more divisions, or divisions that focus more on the creative aspects than the technical ones, does not devalue the prizes won in other divisions, any more than it does in live shows. If anything, it may even enhance them: even though I know the prize is the same for every class at a live show, winning a class with a lot of entries means more to me than winning a less populous one. 

This is only a start; I could talk about this all day. As for those of you who think that things cannot change, let us be reminded of what eventually happened to the Child/Youth Show at BreyerFest: changes were eventually made that made the situation less toxic, and brought it more in line with the original intent of the show, which was to foster participation and a love of live showing. 

I know the stated purpose of the Best Customs Contest is “to honor the best in Breyer model horse customizing”, but with just a few tweaks – maybe some of mine, or yours, or someone else’s – we can also do to the Best Customs Contest what was done to the Child/Youth Show.

Instead of making it purely a cash grab for ultra-rare models – which, in turn, creates some rather ugly behaviors – it could also be used as a way to foster participation in and a love for customizing, diffuse some of the toxicity that has built up around the culture of customizing in recent years, and maybe even become the springboard for future Big Name Artists.

In the end, I think that’s really all what many potential (but intimidated) entrants are asking for when it comes to revamping the Best Customs Contest. Great artwork isn’t always about great technique: sometimes it has a spark that transcends it. And almost anybody, regardless of the where they are on the road to being an artist, can possess that spark. 

I’ve rambled enough, I suppose; I’ll be offline the rest of the weekend to watch kaiju films, pull weeds, and play with epoxy. 

Opinions on the Matter

The Spooky Stablemates are here:

Two different, yay! And the closest I’ll ever get to owning a real Cornelius. The box looked like an accordion, but as you can see, no harm, no foul…

I am not sure if I’m going to pursue the third member of the set, since I am not actively looking to buy anything right now, other than bodies and sales stock. 

And back to the topic of BreyerFest shopping, I prefer shopping for my common items and collection fillers at BreyerFest, because – I had assumed up until this year – that I’d have a large selection of models to choose from and have the luxury of handpicking. 

Silly me – lesson learned! 

I only vaguely understand the economic dynamics that creates that strange, strange market; it always fascinates me how different it is every time. Last year I sold a ton of Vintage items, but this year it was all higher-end stuff and Web Specials, with a fair smattering of Classics and Stablemates. And the only bodies that remained unsold at the end were the exact same half-dozen bodies that didn’t sell the year before.

(And are therefore probably mine forever, by default.)

In other news, my hunch about the book sale was correct: on my way to work on Monday I stopped at a Salvation Army Store and scored a nice bundle vintage horse and dog books from the 1960s and 1970s. 

I can’t really think of anything else to say today; I’m physically hurting all over (another story) and my mind is a little obsessed on my current custom project that I can’t believe I almost threw in my free bin. I wanted to wait until he was a little further along before I showed you what he looked like, but now is as good a time as ever, I suppose:

I wanted to do an Extreme Custom that still kept the essence of the original sculpture intact, but discard as little of the original as possible. Other than the grinding and carving down, all I’ve tossed so far are the front of the neck, part of the chest, and a bit of the tail; the tail will be reattached once I’ve finished recarving it. The neck’s been shortened slightly and his head’s been narrowed, too.    

The leg was cut off fairly early in the process and I just haven’t gotten around to reattaching it, partly because it was getting in the way of the tail resculpt but also because he stands up just find without it anyway. It can wait. 

I’m pretty pleased with him so far. Another goal of this project – other than the crash course in anatomy and conformation that only a Mesteno Series model can provide – is to put my money where my mouth is. Just because I am primarily an Original Finish collector and advocate doesn’t mean I don’t know what I am talking about when it comes to customizing.

Gibson and Stuff

This is (not) my week: I have maybe fifteen minutes to spare today to let y’all know I am not dead. 

Apparently there are like a bajillion Special Runs for Tractor Supply? Considering I don’t think I ever saw a single blind bag Stablemate last year, my hopes are not high on seeing any this year, especially if my schedule keeps doing what it’s been doing. 

I might try for the Traditional Belgian “Gibson”: aside from being a vintage mold that I already like, and something I presume will be in much less demand, maybe he won’t be as hard to acquire:

But what the heck do I know, I wasn’t even picked from the waitlists for Oriole. On the Forever Saige mold that all the cool kids love to hate. 

(FWIW, I’ve pretty much given up on the whole “Birds of a Feather” Series, anyway.)

The only complication here is that I could see the mold being popular here locally because of Kirk Gibson. And since getting celebrities to sign models for me has been a theme lately, it gives me notions…

Speaking of notions, I was also curious why I hadn’t seen anything about the Best Customs Contest this year yet – since I’ve been contemplating giving it a go next year, mostly for funsies and to motivate me finish a custom for once – but then I did track down some of the entrants this year, and oh good lord...

I have words, and as you might have guessed, they are not going to be entirely nice ones. 

But I won’t have time for that – to write it, and deal with the fallout – until next week.  

Before I Go

Everything is almost done, except the packing. It’s getting hot and muggy here in Michigan, so I had to wait until the last possible minute to pack the car. Everything is done, or as close to done as it’s going to get before I get to Kentucky; I still have to do a bit of work on the showstring and Collector’s Class setups, but none of that is particularly labor- or time-intensive. Like last year, I’ll have a room-sitter to take care of business while I’m preoccupied with gluing and painting things. 

Another head’s up: this will probably be the last major/significant post until I get back from Wyoming, other than a little something that will auto-post while I am in Kentucky. But aside from the fact that I’ll be away from home and a decent keyboard for a couple of weeks, I simply ran out of time, and another project came up that will also require my attention while I am gone.

(Yes, it’s a “working” vacation. But is it really work if you enjoy doing it?)

There may be a checking in post after I get back from Kentucky, and if I can figure out a few things there might be some photographic updates while I am on the road, but don’t count on it. Some of the places I’ll be going will have minimal cell phone coverage, so the decision to post might be out of my hands entirely.

Since I’m checking off stuff on the bucket list, here’s another announcement: aside from attempting to make my way to the Kentucky Derby, I’ll also want to enter the Customs Contest. I just put a quick coat of primer on the two ladies I’ve been working on, and they’re better than I expected them to be: 

I doubt that either one of these would be BCC material, since they’re neither fantasy-themed nor based on Touch of Class armatures. They were both “schooling” horses for me in a sense, anyway. They were very good teachers.

(I am really pleased with the Classic Quarter Horse Mare, though. I fixed most of the problems I had with her, now I just have to clean her up a bit and figure out a hairdo!)

I have other ideas and other bodies in a less finished state, but I’ll have to wait until I get back to evaluate them for worthiness.

And since I took a break from the Diorama Contests, maybe I’ll revisit that too. It’ll depend on how well all the other stuff I have in my life are coming along. 

The first month back from this trip will involve finishing the project mentioned above, possibly taking an online course, and dealing with the consequences of all those emotions I’ve had bottled up for the past several months. 

And catching up on my stories! I hope everything I want to watch is still on all the streaming services when I get back; you never know, these days...

Vacation Plans

Another cleanup day here. First, a couple of customs I’ve been fiddling with:

My problem when it comes to ambitious customs like the Mesteno’s Mother is that I never know when to stop. Will she fall to the same fate as many of my other experiments, like the Quarter Horse Gelding I tried to turn into a Suffolk Punch? I have no idea.

The Classic Quarter Horse Mare – who was that bad, but earnestly done custom I found at a Salvation Army years ago – required less work to get to this stage, but I’ve been doing an insane amount of tiny tweaks on her. Most of them to fix mistakes the original customizer made (like floppy ears, and divots in her butt!)

Second I couldn’t muster up a lot of enthusiasm for the latest Birds of a Feather Web Special Sparrow. I mean, she’s pretty, but there have been a lot of pricey and hard-to-obtain Croi Damsha releases lately, and a Chevaliere doesn’t look likely either. I will not be troubled much if I don’t get her.  

(Though it looks like prices on the Christmas Spice Drops have been dropping, and the Green and Red ones I prefer are the less desirable ones, hmm….)

Most of my free time has been spent getting caught up with my vacation prep – Kentucky and Wyoming will be back-to-back, incidentally, though I’m still working on some of the particulars. 

I decided to go ahead and do a couple of Collector’s Classes at BreyerFest Live. I will probably regret it – I am not a big spender, nor is my luck particularly keen – but since the opportunity is there, and judging at that show is notoriously quirky, it was worth the modest entry fees. 

(Believe it or not, even back in “The Good Old Days”, I never actually won a Collector’s Class. It was all about the Decorators and Glossies back then, and I did not have much of either.)

My BreyerFest sales list is being challenging because, in spite of the fact that I haven’t really bought all that much in the past year, I still have way too much to fit in the car again. I sold so much stuff last year, how is that even possible? 

While I am at it, I might as well tell you my vacation plans for next year, since it’s also horse-related and there’s a slim chance someone out there might be able to help with this one:

I want to go to the Kentucky Derby. 

I’ve never been (no, really!) and it being the 150th Anniversary, well, just makes me want to go even more. Ticket sales are going to be insane, I know, and my odds of winning a chance to buy tickets are about as likely as me winning a Test Color Web Raffles. (Which has been never, so far.)

But I owe it to myself to at least try. 

Model X

I thought I was having a pretty productive weekend, but then I attempted to do my taxes and hit a brick wall.

Ugh. Another appointment to schedule this week!

While putting my live show documentation away this past weekend, I found a very interesting photograph: someone who bears a striking similarity to the custom I’m rehabbing!

According to the information on the back of this photograph, this particular model (a Morgan Mare named CID Teresa Diamond) was done by Kathleen Maestas. Aside from the gender issues (my model is very much a stallion!) the painting style of my little rehab project isn’t anything like hers, so any similarities here are due to the fact that they were done in the same era (the mid- to late-1980s) using similar materials and models.

Some artists back then also had a habit of replicating customs, either their own or (sometimes) the work of others. Especially if the original did well at a live show, or had received multiple purchase offers back in the day of published sales/stock lists, monthly newsletters and SASEs. 

With some variations for personal preferences, of course: I want it just like Model X, but with two hind socks and a blaze!

And if you’re wondering, yeah, it wasn’t considered cool back then, either. But it did happen. I believe at one point Karen Grimm even attempted to formalize/monetize the process a bit and make standardized customs called “Hacksaw Originals” that were also slightly customizable to customer preferences.

I don’t believe that effort lasted long: this was shortly before drastic customs and (a few years after that) resins became de rigueur. And some of the “standard” bodies she came up with were a little odd. Like a Family Arabian Stallion with a Five-Gaiter’s head and neck kind of weird. 

I mean, points for creativity at least…

Nevertheless, I did do a little bit of a double take when I saw the photo: I’ve found photographs of models I’ve bought before (and sold after!) so it wouldn’t have been a complete shock if it was him. The hobby – and the number of active hobbyists, showers and customizers – was smaller than it is today, and to be honest there aren’t all that many of us even now.

That’s why “unique” models – like Customs and Test Colors – have an uncanny knack of reappearing after so many years. Most of them haven’t strayed that far to begin with! 

And before I go get my (several) appointments out of the way this week, let’s also remember that collectors and hobbyists are not interchangeable terms. There are a vast number of people who collect, but the actual number of people who go to live shows, customize, attend BreyerFest on a regular basis, or inhabit various Internet hangouts where model-horsery takes place is only a small fraction of that.

Collection Busters

The Stablemates are packed for the show, and now I’m getting down to the nitty-gritty of the Collectibility. I didn’t realize I had chosen so many larger models, and now I need to make some hard decisions. (I do know who I have to cut, it’s just a matter of accepting it, and moving on.) 

The Best Customs Contest Traditional Prize Kansas made me wince a little:

On one hand, that means it’s pretty unlikely the Forever Saige mold is the BreyerFest Stagecoach Surprise, which is a huge relief for me. On the other, it’s a lovely Chestnut Appaloosa version of Forever Saige I’ll likely never get to own, because even if the mold isn’t that popular in the hobby in general, anything that limited is going to command a price beyond my comfort zone anyway.

(Has anyone actually bought any of those Gris Grises in the vicinity of $800, or is it just another aspirational thing on the part of sellers? I don’t need another, just curious.) 

Winning one is out of the question: prepping an entry for the Customs Contest is too late at this point, and I’ve already committed myself to finishing several other projects this year anyway. Most of which are on hold until I get both the show and my taxes out of the way. And some of the gardening too, while I’m at it. (Almost time to transplant the pepper plants to bigger pots!)

The Runners-Up Prize Stablemate Willamette is a little less tempting to me, only because the Darley Arabian mold has already come in Chestnut twice before, and a very shiny Palomino. This wouldn’t be a problem normally, but he’s only had six releases prior to this. But no Gray or a more standard Bay yet: weird how Reeves gets in color ruts like that.

(As everyone let’s out a deep sigh and mutters Django.)

And it is always a bit of a downer when they release the first nearly-impossible-to-acquire “collection buster” release on a new-ish mold. But at least it took them about five years to get around to it with the Darley Arabian, so it does not sting as much, I think. 

But again, it’s a moot issue for me, since most of my custom projects this year fall into the “stress-relief” category. And I’m totally fine with that – in fact, that’s one of the things I’m looking forward to as the weather warms up: a lazy weekend afternoon or two with just me and the Dremel and some otherwise unloved body box inhabitant, making a noisy mess of things in the garage.

Old School

Oops, I bought something! That’s okay, it’s only a Stablemate:

When I went to drop off the sewing machine for service, there happened to be a Dollar General in the same shopping center, and as luck would have it, the one variation I needed to complete my set (for now) was there. So there’s one silver lining to the sewing machine drama!

After epically trying – and failing – to quilt a project on my backup sewing machine, I gave up and decided to focus on repairing that vintage Black Stallion custom that’s been sitting on my craft table for a year and a half. Here’s what I have so far:

I still need to finish the touchups – especially on his left side – and redo the ear I repaired: it’s too big and the style just doesn’t match the rest of the model. The base needs more work, too: I have to build up one side a little to stabilize the model better, fill in a few of the divots, and find a suitable piece of wood to mount it on.

And after all that, I’ll spray him with a matte varnish, regloss his eyes and hooves, and hair him up. I think I’ll give him a slightly fuller tail than he had before, to balance him out visually. The varnishing will have to wait until the weather warms up, though, so he might be on hold after the next round of touchups.

Restoring him has been an interesting challenge. It was tempting to modernize him, but I decided to keep him as original as possible. I stuck to the basic acrylic color palette we were all working with back in the 1980s, as well as the same painting techniques, which were a combination of wet and dry brushwork and “fingerpainting” for blending. 

I did add a little extra shading to his muzzle, though: it was a flat Raw Umber and looked a little odd compared to the rest of him. 

I know some people have attempted to go “old school” with their customs, in an offshoot of the NaMoPaiMo thing, but a lot of those efforts still look too modern for me. Not that the actual vintage product is better or worse, it just looks and feels different.

I think a lot of it is due to the fact that I was doing customs way back then, when all we had to work with was stuff like “Plastic Wood”, that funky green plumber’s epoxy, and whatever selection of acrylic paints and brushes the local department store happened to have in their “art” department. So I know how much struggle went into even the simplest of customs back then.

Even though it might look somewhat primitive in comparison to the work being done today, some of the artwork that was achieved under these circumstances was still pretty remarkable. I think modern customizers could learn a lot by going truly “old school”, with nothing much more than some basic acrylic paints, brushes, mohair and a pre-1985 mold (preferably a Hess!)

I’ll give you all a pass on the modern epoxies. As someone who actually had to work with Plastic Wood back in the day, that’s a step too far back even for me!

I still have no idea who created this fellow. I thought I was just going to fix him up to sell him, but I think he’ll be sticking around a while, especially since I seem to be acquiring quite the vintage custom showstring now.

Stumped

They’re already releasing the contest information for next year’s BreyerFest, and I have to admit that I am kind of stumped about what to do about any of it. 

The “Driving the World Forward” Diorama Contest wants us to create a diorama “that recreates a scene depicting an innovation or invention that drove the world forward”. That’s pretty… vague, though I’d be hesitant to venture very far from the transportation-related suggestions they throw at us in the first paragraph of the contest page. 

And since most of my ideas are not transportation-related, I’m not sure I should even give it much more thought. I’ve been down that road way too many times, with not a lot on my trophy shelf to show for it.

The Customs Contest is what it is, but I was a little bummed by the Theme Class: Dressed to Impress. It’s not about customizing, but tackmaking?! 

Tackmaking is not customizing; it’s not even remotely the same skill set. If they wanted to have a tackmaking contest, they should have just done that and not wedged it into another unrelated competition.

Man, I can’t believe I am this annoyed by a class I’d never enter anyway. Now if the class had been about customized models with sculpted-on tack or accessories, now that I could have gotten into...

Even though the earliest model horses for the Post-WWII consumers market had molded-on tack – hello, Breyer Western Horse and Hartland Champ! – sculpted or molded-on tack has generally been frowned upon in customizing circles. 

In recent years, some customizers have been making novelty customs with sculpted bits of tack, clothing and costumes, and customizing carousel horses has become popular enough that they now offer more than one class about it at BreyerFest. 

So a class that focused on customs with sculpted-on tack and accessories would have been trendy, challenging and also within the already established parameters of this contest, which is supposed to be about… pushing the boundaries of customizing Breyer horses. 

Anyway, that would have been my input into designing this contest class, but they didn’t ask me. And probably rightly so: I haven’t finished a custom in years! 

I might still think about entering the Fantasy Class, because I have a couple of ideas that might work, if I can find the time. And assuming that they’ll seriously consider an entry that’s more than 5 to 10 percent actual Breyer parts. 

I want to do them, regardless; it is just a matter of whether I want to give myself another deadline next year.

Sorry so cranky, my homies. This year’s version of Snowpocalypse is coming and I made the mistake of going into a grocery store last night to pick up a few things – more goodies to add to the charcuterie platter I’m making myself to kick off the extended holiday break – and I had a total derp moment wondering why the dairy section was so empty. 

Oh, and no Tahoe for me, either. That doesn’t make me angry, though, just mildly annoyed. Who are these people who think it’s totally reasonable to spend $400 to $500 on a 1000-piece Special Run? That’s Vintage Kinda-Rare Woodgrain money! 

Rest in Pieces

I was kind of hoping that I could get a custom or two done in time for a show coming up in September, but that doesn’t look likely. I always forget how difficult it is for me to visualize things in three dimensions! I fuss and fuss over the anatomy, and every time I think I’m done (or almost done) I find 16 other things I somehow missed.

At least I’m enjoying the process, and ultimately, that’s all that should matter. I wish more people would see it that way: being creative doesn’t necessarily mean you have to end with a finished product. Sometimes it’s just worthwhile to goof around with art supplies until the urge to goof around with them subsides.

It only becomes a problem when you decide it’s a problem. Or the art supplies start taking over your house. 

Speaking of questionable anatomy, here’s another unexpected BreyerFest acquisition!

Believe it or not, in spite of having at least a dozen #47 Man o’ Wars littering this place, I did not have a Shrinky one yet. Weird, I know! You’d think I would have come across at least one in my travels before now. 

Maybe it’s because part of me is unwilling to buy something that I know has such a short shelf life, compared to all the other models I own. (He was a gift from a friend, so problem solved, there!)

There’s going to come a time when I will have to do something with the remains of “The Toad” – a lumpy, desiccated, and now quite unappealing pile of plastic horse parts that was once a Pony of Americas “Rocky” in buckskin. And who was, for a while, the world’s most (in)famous Shrinky.

Whenever I finally get the time – and gumption – I just might make a video of Toad’s funeral, with “Slim Jim” here officiating.

The only problem with this plan being the fact that I will then have to steel myself for Slim Jim’s eventual demise. 

Another Mystery Custom

No Baruti for me. Since I don’t get picked from the waitlist and I am not made of money, that’s pretty much the end of that story.

I’ve been compensating for my lack of web special luck this year with the purchase of multiple box lots, and the latest one has been my favorites so far: a body quality Donkey, an early (and quite nice!) #401 Black Stallion, and a vintage custom Black Stallion in need of a hair transplant and some cosmetic surgery!

The Donkey will probably be made into a replica of an antique novelty pincushion, like this one: 

https://www.steppeshillfarmantiques.com/antique-silver/d/edwardian-novelty-silver-donkey-pin-cushion/220362

It’s an idea I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now; novelty Victorian pincushions are not uncommon around here – I even own a few! – and it struck me that some the older Breyer molds would make excellent custom pincushions. If this one is successful, I might end up making a whole slew of them for my fellow hobbyist-sewists, because I know you’re out there.

The other custom idea I have for the original Standing Donkey is a replica of the Bremen Town Musicians statue, something I’m sure we’ll see or hear a lot of for next year’s German-inspired BreyerFest:

https://www.bremen.eu/tourism/attractions/bremen-town-musicians

Come to think of it, that would… actually be a really neat Companion Animals Gift Set for the Pop-Up Store. And a pretty popular one, too, considering the prices the older Companions Animals are bringing on the secondary market. (I tried pricing a few for the bodies, but that’s clearly not happening anytime soon, unless I get lucky locally.)

The vintage Black Stallion custom is interesting. The hairing on what’s left of the tail is well-done, he has carved out hooves with frogs, decently modeled genitalia (take my word for it) and the customizing on the head and neck is sophisticated and competent: in other words, this is not the work of an amateur. 

But he’s not signed, and I have no idea who could have done him. If anybody has any clues or ideas, let me know. The markings seem specific enough to suggest he might have been a portrait model. 

In the meantime, I’ve already started doing some restoration work on him: his legs have been unbent/unwarped, and the mohair for his new mane and tail has already been purchased. If I’m recalling correctly, matching this shade of bay is not particularly hard, either, but finding the time (and natural light!) to do it is the bigger problem.

Entering the Homestretch

Taking another brief break here – one last piece of the Sampler is being difficult. Everything else about is essentially done, except for a little bit of proofreading and formatting.

Apparently everybody is up in arms about how the sales of optional, non-ticket items are being handled at BreyerFest this time around. Instead of the punctuated restocking that left us clinging to our computer screens all weekend last year, they’re going to dump everything on the web site the moment everything opens up on Friday.

Honestly, I doesn’t bother me that much. In some ways, I think this way might be better: instead of three days of anguish and despair, it’ll only be three hours. Then we can move on with our weekend and enjoy all of the other content on the site without having to worry if something restocked somewhere. 

Other than the swag and the Warehouse Finds, a lot of the optional purchases are backorder-able anyway. I’m not interested in the Crystal (I break things) or the plush (Vita eats them) and while the ceramic mug is pretty sweet, it’s not going to break my heart if I don’t get one. 

The only thing I’m slightly worried about is the Stablemate, but they’re making 6500 pieces, and that’s kind of a lot. And not everybody likes Stablemates or Decorators or Decorator Stablemates, so seriously everybody, just chill. They only made 2000 of Eire last year, and they’re still only selling for 25-30 bucks on eBay. 

If the prices do go a little nuts, wait a few months. They’re not going to turn into something else while you wait for the prices to go down. Heck, the Slyders are almost affordable now, and I actually saw a Crane for less than 300 dollars on eBay the other day, so all things are possible!

(FYI: I managed to resist the temptation for the five minutes or so it was up.)

I will try for a Warehouse Find lot; while my computer is definitely better, I am not expecting a better outcome than last year, which was zilch. I do need a new umbrella for reals (we’re in for another week of nearly constant rain here) so I might put that on my tab if I get a chance, too.

Other than that, I’m just going to try and enjoy my extended weekend. I’ll watch some of the customizing videos because that’s where my head is right now, but not much of the history or collecting stuff because I have opinions, and it would just involve me yelling at the computer screen, and I don’t have time for that. 

So I have a feeling my weekend is going to involve me not actually “being” at BreyerFest much anyway, which might be for the best. I’ve got quilts to finish and a Mesteno custom to fuss over. This is what she looks like right now, by the way:

Eh, not bad, considering how rusty my skills are and what I’ve got to work with. More supplies are already on order, and I plan on stopping at the local military miniatures store on Thursday as part of my Mini Simulated BreyerFest Shopping Trip, to see what other kinds of fun tools they have in stock.

Getting Artsy

Well, I had my first BreyerFest nightmare in ages last night. That was… unexpected. Can’t say that’s something I missed from the normal BreyerFest experience. 

I mean, other than the Sampler, everything else is a go: the computer has been updated, the VIP purchases have been paid, the time off has been approved. All I have to do is log on, pay for my other SR selections (whatever they are), and do five minutes of shopping (pick up the Stablemate and maybe a t-shirt or mug). After that, it’s just videos and live feeds, and maybe a couple of the VIP exclusive workshops.

I might participate in an NPOD component if it’s there, but I doubt it. That was not fun last year. At all. I thought about about doing a live feed or Zoom meeting, but my work/schedule is hella weird and the times that would be good for me would probably not be good for anybody else in the continental U.S.

I suppose I could clean the office up in case anyone wants to come over at any point during that weekend, but that has to wait until other projects are wrapped up and packed up, and there’s nothing I can do to speed up that timetable. 

Oh, I’ve also decided that instead of baking a cake, I’ll try to make hot pretzels that weekend instead. I planned on buying a box of frozen lemonades to simulate the BreyerFest experience anyway, might as well go all in and add pretzels to the mix, too.

Since I’m currently in picture taking mode for other projects, I decided to put this little piece in the queue since it’s somewhat on topic:

Several years ago I bought a big bag of body-quality Mini Whinnies to keep them on hand for various projects. This is something I did with one batch of them because I had some epoxy that was getting old and I wanted to use it up. I thought I’d make it into something “artsy” just using the materials I had on hand, and I was pretty pleased with the result.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think way too much emphasis is put on realism in the hobby, and it dissuades a lot of people from even trying at all. This was something I did purely as a creative challenge: not only did I enjoy doing it, I learned a lot from the experience.

Anyway, off the soapbox. My Tobias arrived, and he’s neat!

The shipping box he came in was kind of terrifying, but all of the contents inside were fine. And I have to admit, I like this fellow a lot more than I thought I would: all those tiny little spots, all so nicely masked!

The first semi-leopard Appaloosa, of course, was the #99 Appaloosa Performance Horse all the way back in 1974; it was a radical change from Breyer’s appaloosas of the past, and enough of a technical challenge that it would be several years more before they’d try it again. 

And now we’re at a point where they’re releasing Stablemates with a few hundred masked spots as not-outrageously priced club pieces. 

Peeking Out of the Cave

In the middle of a bunch of things here, so I’ll do a little cleanup and go back to my cave.

Following up on the Classics discussion in the post previous, the two bodies I pulled out of my body box to tinker with are a pair of Classics: the Mesteno’s Mother and Duchess. I’ve seen both of them get customized by others, but either as simple repaints or armatures, and neither of those approaches works for me.

I happen to think there’s something beautiful inside each of these molds, so my challenge is to reveal it without obliterating the original character of the molds themselves. 

But the bulk of that work won’t happen until after BreyerFest, because I’ve barely worked on my Sampler for this year. I am not too worried about it yet because I know what I want to write about, and I have already penciled in the three-day Fourth of July weekend to do it in. 

The next Bird of a Feather Series release Meadowlark is up, and I like her. But I’m not getting my hopes up because we all know how the market is right now:

Bluegrass Bandit is another model that gets way more negativity thrown at it than the average model, and I’m not sure why. I’m kind of up to my eyeballs in sales items right now, so I wouldn’t be as hurt was with the previous release in this series (Crane). Just… kind of bummed.

(The one I really want at the moment is Milky Way, and the prices are not encouraging.)

Some hobbyists are annoyed that they didn’t get enough forewarning about the Mercy for Animals Hope Gala charity auction lot, which included a Test Color Ayrshire Cow and a Hampshire Pig. I am also not sure why this was a big deal either – the knowing about it part, not the auction itself or the cause.

As you can tell, I haven’t been terribly on top of things in the hobby lately, but I knew about it when it was still live. And promptly ignored it, because it was already well above what was willing to pay. 

I wasn’t going to stick around to watch either, because I’ve never had much fascination with watching other people spending enormous amounts of money on things. Haggling, negotiating, wheeling and dealing can be artful and entertaining to watch, but I am not someone who takes particular joy in treating high-dollar auctions like a spectator sport. 

(And the clapping? Why the clapping?)

I already had a Hampshire Pig anyway:

I always wanted one of the Special Run Pigs from the 1980s, but they’re pretty elusive because they were primarily sold to pig farmers, not hobbyists. When they do show up, they tend to do so pretty randomly. 

And that’s how I got mine: I found him in a box lot of Breyer Animal molds on eBay years ago. I don’t have time to look up the price I paid, but it was neither a steal nor an extravagance, and I’m sure I made up most of the sale selling the excess out of the lot. (I do remember getting my #365 Black Angus Bull out of the same lot. I wanted one anyway, and since he came with...)

The Hampshire appears to be the most “common” of the Special Run Pigs, and I haven’t found any of the others yet at a price I can justify to myself.

All About Compensation

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement, but y’all aren’t likely to see the latest diorama fail until after BreyerFest; I have projects with hard deadlines coming up, so it’ll have to wait. I may even lump it in to a “Parade of Fail” post I’ve been thinking about doing here for a while, to purge myself of this particular daemon. 

A lot of this stems from art school trauma. My instructors would single me out for praise, my work would almost always be put in the student showcases, and one of my pieces was even given the honor of being hung in the dean’s office for a year. But when it came to the student competitions where actual cash money was involved? 

Second place. Always. 

The people who write articles online telling you that “second place is the best place” and that it’s indicative of you actually being more awesome than the people who win have obviously not spent their lives in this awkward position.

In the meantime, I’ve pulled out a couple of old customizing projects to fuss over as distractions to the deadlines. If there’s one positive outcome to all this, it’s the fact that it’s shown me that my customizing skills are better than I thought they were, and that I shouldn’t be afraid to hack things to pieces and reassemble them. 

Whether I enter them in any competitions or not is secondary to the act of creation. It has to be: doing it for the money will drive me mad. 

Anyway, as compensation for my whining, here’s a picture of one of my more obscure Test Colors:

Obviously it’s a Test for the Sham in the Classic #3345 King of the Wind Set. I bought it a few years after the set itself was discontinued, and from a well-known hobbyist to boot, so I know it’s authentic. 

They obviously decided to go with a redder shade to match the Traditional Sham, and distinguish it more from the Golden Bay Lath in the set. I just thought it was a neat thing to own; while everyone else was chasing those elusive Golden Bay Traditional Shams, I had the Classic version!

(I also have a Golden Bay Sham. Kinda. It’s a story.)

Because he was a Classic, he was relatively cheap, and even today I doubt I can sell him for much more over the price I paid 25 years ago. The indifference and sometimes outright antagonism some Breyer enthusiasts have over the Classic scale horses (even the Loves!) surprises and confuses me, especially in light of the prices some comparably rare Stablemates bring. 

I think it says (a lot of) something that random topic/challenge class for the Customs Contest this year was simply Classics. I mean, I am all for encouraging people to use different and less popular molds, but ouch...

Oh well, back to work. 

Close To Home

The diorama is… getting there. All of the components are (essentially) done except the body; all I need to do now is finish the horse itself, and then glue everything together. 

I am surprised at how well the customizing is going, especially since it involves a lot more sculpting than I am normally comfortable doing for a diorama project, especially in such a short period of time. Here’s the only clue you’ll get before the big reveal:

And also a bonus, this was the other project I have (temporarily) abandoned – a FAM that was going to be a Staffordshire Pottery Horse:

I have a bunch of Family Arabian Mare bodies that I will eventually turn into an assortment of art projects – this was a plan well before the announcement of this year’s BreyerFest theme – because those bodies are cheap and nobody does anything with them except as armatures, and I think that’s a darn shame. 

There is a lot of potential there that just needs a little imagination to realize it.

Regardless of the outcome (I haven’t consulted the Magic Eightball yet!) this diorama project has been a very therapeutic creative distraction. And there are only so many weeds to pull in the garden.

I know a lot of hobbyists are a bit bummed that there won’t be much to do during the second virtual BreyerFest except sit in front of a computer screen and watch videos. To be honest, I’m kind of looking forward to luxury of a couple of obligation-free days of doing mostly nothing. I might even bake a cake!

Then there is also this sad news to deal with:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/news/my-collector-story-janice-cox

When you consider just how large and complicated a topic as Breyer History is, it is both surprising and unsurprising that there aren’t actually that many of us doing the legwork of uncovering, analyzing and publishing Breyer History.

The loss of any hobbyist – whether we’re someone well-known, or unknown – is always a diminishment. But this one hits close to home. 

On the Hanoverians

I’m giving myself until the end of the weekend – in my case, that would be Tuesday at noon-ish – to “do” my BreyerFest diorama or forget about it completely. I’m limiting myself to bodies and supplies on hand, and the only purchases I’m allowing myself to make for it are paint, brushes, primer and glue, because those are just craft supply basics that are useful to have around anyway.

If something works out, great, if it doesn’t – no harm, no foul. June is going to be much too busy to bother with something that’s been – historically – a mostly futile enterprise for me.

I do really like this year’s prize “Stubbs”, though, a Dunalino on the Hanoverian mold:

I had just been thinking about the Hanoverian mold, and how I don’t actually have that many examples of him: just my original Bay, and the Horses International Chalky Dapple Gray. 

I did have the Your Horse Source Set in Bay, Alabaster, Black and Chestnut, but in addition to also being rather boring colors, they were also both tippy and Shrinkies. There were others, all of whom were deemed either too uninteresting, or too tippy to bother with.

There have been a few exotic colors put on him. Europa was an interesting idea, but one that (I think) ultimately doesn’t quite work, and neither one of the Appaloosa releases really did much for me either. The only one I plan on getting in the near future is the Spiegel Catalog Hanoverian, because if I want another Bay Hanoverian, he’s the prettiest of the bunch, by far.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck with acquiring Breyer Dunalinos – if they’ve been part of Gambler’s Choices I don’t get them, and if they’ve been Web Specials I don’t get drawn for them. And ultimately when I finally did get one – the Web Special Goddess Series Aphrodite – I was so soured on the experience that I eventually sold her anyway.

But I’m going into this contest with absolutely no illusions about it, other than the slim hope that (a) maybe the judges will finally “get” me this year, or (b) some hobbyists will be somewhat disinclined to enter because Stubbs doesn’t meet their expectations for what a Prize model should be. 

I’ve also been dealing with some – let’s call it interesting – drama around here, and the process of chopping and reassembling otherwise unsellable Breyer bodies has been rather liberating. So there’s that to it, too. 

Naked Truth

Also in the interest of completeness: no on the wait list for Crane, and no for the Test Color Mule. But I did manage to score a couple of fun finds at the local Salvation Army earlier this week: a Pacer body and a Percheron Plushie from Greenfield Village:

There were a number of other horse-shaped objects in the store, which leads me to suspect that there had been other high-value equine goodies there that I probably missed. Alas, my new schedule sort of precludes me from doing a lot of extracurricular shopping, and I could not have gone earlier.

(I still haven’t been back to the flea market this year either, but that’s not a scheduling issue, that’s entirely a personal safety issue.)

I’ve always wanted to do a custom with a Pacer, but I still haven’t quite come up with an idea good enough to compel me to do it. That, and having a few hundred other projects also in the way. 

Speaking of customizing and bodies and such, let’s briefly discuss the famous “Unpainted” offer Breyer made to subscribers of Just About Horses in 1980, which was targeted specifically to customizers of the time: 

We called ourselves repainters or repaint/remakers back then, in case you’re wondering what that’s all about. For those of you who want some easy cut and paste text for your files, here’s the list:

1. Lady Phase
2. Adios
3. Stud Spider
4. Proud Arabian Stallion
5. Proud Arabian Mare
6. Black Beauty
7. Indian Pony
8. Cantering Welsh Pony
9. Saddlebred Weanling
10. 5-Gaiter
11. Clydesdale Mare
12. Morganglanz
13. Hanoverian
14. Trakehner
15. Foundation Stallion

Contrary to what you may read elsewhere on the Internet – and especially, on eBay – these fifteen molds are the only ones that were a part of this offer, and the only ones that you could possibly or legitimately claim as being part of that offer. 

Any other unpainted models you may find in your travels may also be genuine factory Unpainteds, but they may have come via other offers (like those “Factory Whiteware” boxes that were offered up in the NPOD a few years ago), from craft kits, factory warehouse sales before they stopped them because some people couldn’t behave themselves, employee take-homes, Marney’s garage, etc. 

While I have a few unpainted models, most of them have either some historical significance, some personal significance, or just because I happen to like the mold. 

The only Unpainteds that I’d go out of my way to buy personally would be molds that have since been altered in some way and no longer “exist” in their original state. (I’m looking at you, Saddlebred Weanling! Okay, maybe you too, Trakehner.) 

All models start out naked, so in most cases, they could still make more. 

Wee Box

Apparently my Lafayette is coming next week? In spite of me ordering in several hours after it went to backorder status? And me being completely fine with it being on backorder?

Guys, honestly, I don’t know what’s going on either. All I do know is that Reeves knows there are problems. 

Whether this baffling situation – with live orders being put on backorder status, backorders moved up to live status, with no rhyme or reason – leads to a resolution, I also don’t know. 

I sure hope so: I had multiple issues with shipping from the warehouse last year, and I am usually one to let most things slide and work themselves out. Most of them were eventually resolved to my satisfaction (i.e. the Glossy Cheesecake) but not all (the sweatshirt that shall not be mentioned ever again). 

I am lucky – and grateful – that I can do most of my Breyer shopping locally, so I only have to deal with this nonsense with club- and web-exclusive merchandise. 

But let’s close on a happier note: here’s a picture of my Glossy Atticus with his wee box:

I like him more than I thought I would. I am so used to seeing the Traditional Clydesdale Stallion mold with his hair braided that any other hairstyle makes him look like an “old school” custom to me, back when we only had a handful of Draft molds to work with and we had to make do. 

(He does make a nice Jutland or Brabant, with a little work.)

I do love this style of box – it reminds me of those tiny Whitman’s Sampler boxes, the kind that come with 4 to 6 pieces of fancy chocolates. The graphic design is very bold and visually appealing, too, very much in the style I would have gone for if I had designed it. The only change I would have made to the design would be to make the corner silhouette reflect who’s in the box.

But also a big YAY for reusable boxes. We haven’t had that for Stablemates since… the 1975 Sears Wishbook Stablemates that will now set you back a car payment, and the silverplated 25th Anniversary Saddlebred, that will set you back a couple of house payments.