It’s Always Something

The Good: My Glossy Cheesecake is finally here!

The Bad: My seed order also arrived and they shipped the wrong seeds. The one variety I was most looking forward to getting started – the Superbissima Petunias – was listed on my receipt, but I got Purple Nasturtiums instead. 

Sigh. It’s always something. (Calls made, e-mails sent, yadda yadda, blah blah…)

The details of the BreyerFest contests are now up – for the Diorama, Customs, and also (surprisingly!) the Costume Contest. The Diorama and Costume Contests are what I expected them to be – doing something art-historically inspired – though oddly limiting your inspiration to just three online repositories of copyright-free images. 

This I assume is a way of getting around some potential legal issues, but I already had some ideas for both the Diorama and Costume Contest that are now off the table because they’re not in those specific repositories. 

Well, there’s the one, but that’s gonna be a hard one to pull off…

I do have a couple of customs languishing on my craft table that could be worked into a Customs Contest entry somehow. But it’s going to be a couple months before I can get started on anything like that, and I’ll be running short on time because I always do with my Samplers, no matter how much I plan. 

The Sampler takes priority over everything, and especially over my inevitably-doomed-to-failure contest entries. And at least one of the Contest page pictures is an unpleasant reminder of the failure part. 

(It was a rough week, okay? I got into an argument with someone about math, for heaven’s sake! Math!)

I might just skip out on all of these contests entirely again because, and I repeat myself, I don’t have time for any of this. (I should have been in bed an hour ago, but let us not get into that.) This is a danged shame, because I was an Art History major in college and this is unexpectedly and delightfully shaping up to be totally my jam. 

Something more substantial and actually history related next time, I promise.

The Waiting Game

A shorter one today: the weather turned frigid cold and all I want to do is hibernate until Spring arrives. 

(FYI: this is typically late April or early May in Michigan, and lasts all of two weeks until Summer arrives. Not even kidding.)

Just as I suspected, I got picked for Puffin, and she’s already been rehomed. As I mentioned before, I’m all in on the series concept, but it’s just a bad time for me and I am not in the best mood right now anyway. (See above.)

One of the many delights of our garden last year was the arrival of a family of Orioles that made little piggies of themselves at our feeding station (Turns out that they really do love grape jelly. Like, a lot!) so if an Oriole turns up in this series somewhere down the line, I call dibs.

A Hummingbird would be nice, too. (On either Newsworthy or Bristol, maybe?) Even if they can be little jerks sometimes. 

I’m assuming there is going to be at least one actual winged model (Silver?) and that’ll go for crazy bucks no matter what bird/color scheme it ends up being. The 2016 BreyerFest SR Estrela do Carnaval was widely derided initially, but good luck finding one at a decent price now! 

I finally decided to forego the Breyer Bootcamp thing entirely: the photo show was enticing, but then I realized that (a) I had no time for that nonsense in the first place, (b) the photography studio is out in the unheated garage and it’s insanely cold out there right now, and (c) while the class list was to my liking, the unlimited entries per class thing is not. 

Among other things.

I am undecided on the BreyerFest Photo Show, partly because I’d like to know how they’re going to handle previous winners. At the live version of the show, Overall Champs are disqualified from entering again, but they suspended that rule last year on the assumption that there’d be an actual Live show this year. And there isn’t. 

While it’s true that a different set of judges will judge things differently, I am still not entirely comfortable going up against the last year’s winners.

I have the opportunity to take new photos, and I have several new additions to the herd who I think could do well, so my showstring would be improved over last year’s. But still. I guess I will have to wait and see when the details are posted.

Same goes for the online Swap Meet. The fact that I wouldn’t have to pack, move, unpack, repack and move all my “stock” is definitely a plus, but it appears that I’d also have to build an online store from scratch, unless they are going to offer a basic platform/template for everyone and just have not told us yet.

Building a basic online store isn’t necessarily hard and it is something I have been meaning to do anyway but again, it does involve time to set up, something I haven’t had a lot of these days.

Letting It Go

The bodies I wanted to strip are proving to be more… intractable than I imagined, so I’ve decided to set them aside for now and occupy myself with other projects, like planning my garden – continuing with last year’s Victorian theme, but adding more scented flowers – and sorting out the craft supplies and paperwork hidden in my Jethro Closet.

(It’s a weird little storage closet tucked under the stairs in the basement where all my wayward things seem to end up, instead. The name is an old family joke, and I’ll just leave it at that.)

While I normally would be head over heels for anything coming in Glossy Dappled Black, the latest Web Special Puffin, the first in the new “Birds of a Feather” Series, is leaving me a little cold (no pun intended). 

I like the concept of the series in general, and I have nothing against the Wixom mold in particular. I’m just not in a buying mood right now, and if I’m buying anything this year that’s Glossy Dappled Black, it’s going to be the Collector’s Club Exclusive Lafayette, on the Hamilton mold. 

It also doesn’t help that my Glossy Cheesecake from last year’s BreyerFest is still not here yet and I am not looking forward to calling Reeves for the fourth time on Monday to figure out what his status is. The last time I called (two weeks ago) it was still at the fulfillment center, but at this point I think I’d rather have my money back and just forget I even ordered it in the first place. 

I don’t think I’ve ever had to call more than once to resolve a shipping issue before they switched to this new fulfillment house, so to say that I am displeased at the moment is... an understatement. Especially since I hate making phone calls in the first place.

I already have the Matte Cheesecake anyway, so I’m perfectly fine with letting the Glossy one go. 

I did enter for Puffin, so if by some stroke of luck I do get drawn, I’ll offer her up for sale at cost plus transaction fees.

Almost Pearly Clydesdale Foal

Speaking of yelling at inanimate objects...

Today was one of those days I had to walk away from the computer and let it deal with its own issues. All you will be getting out of me today is this picture of the Slightly Pearly Clydesdale Foal from the infamous Dirty Pony Lot:

She’s not obnoxiously pearly like the Classic Quarter Horse or Arabian Foals can be, but there’s definitely a sheen to the plastic that goes beyond the translucency inherent in her unpainted portions (the bald face and stockings). 

And while it is true that whoever painted her was crushing it with the airbrush that day, you can also (hopefully) see that there is a definite glow to the plastic that only enhances her excellent paint job. 

I already have two other pretty fabulous #84 Clydesdale Foals – a Chalky, and one with a Blue Ribbon Sticker – but this girl is my new favorite. She’s so pretty in person!

What I suspect is going on with her – and the Black Bucking Bronco in the same lot – is that there was some Pearly regrind mixed in with the standard Translucent White Cellulose Acetate, just enough to give her that hint of pearliness. 

But it also yellowed her a little bit: that’s the problem, alas, when you use regrind. It was an unavoidable problem in the early 1970s since Breyer was having such a hard time getting their usual stuff. They could not afford to let any good plastic go to waste, even if it was just a wee bit off-color.

While I’d love to get her showring ready as soon as possible, the windows are already full of potential sales list items that take priority. 

Anxieties

First, let me thank everyone again for the effort in identifying The Magician’s Nephew! I used to think that identifying individual models – OF, Custom, and Test – would largely be a fool’s errand, but I am happy that time is proving me otherwise. 

And as I mentioned in the comments in the post previous, I had definitely been thinking Liz Bouras was a possibility, but I got lost in the thickets and had to stop. Looking at all those pretty ponies was starting to inspire me, and one of my resolutions this year was to put a (temporary) halt to new projects and finally sort out my mess of craft supplies once and for all. 

To the point of renting out a storage unit just to contain said craft supplies. (I knew I had a lot of fabric, but yikes!) Having it all off-site is going quite a way towards relieving my anxiety levels, too; every time I turned around all I’d see is another unfinished project, and that’s not good for either my mental or physical health. 

(Yes, physical: I am clumsy, and I literally trip over everything.)

Speaking of anxieties, I am glad now that I managed to actually get drawn for a VIP ticket, because there was no way I would have been able to be online on an early Monday afternoon. Not all of us have 24/7 Internet access, or (also, in my case) to a cell phone for a significant part of the day. 

While I am optimistic that the remaining tickets won’t be an instantaneous sellout, it’d be well over by the time I could have gotten online, regardless (about two hours, in my case.)

I am still on the fence about getting a second, All-Access ticket. I’m getting all of my “most-wants” on the VIP ticket already, and I need to cut back on the horse purchases this year, my recent finds notwithstanding. 

I have no idea how quickly the 9,000 or so All-Access Tickets will sell out; I am assuming the estimates Reeves made on the ticket count were based on the statistics last year, which might have been skewed because of refreshes and/or people attempting to log in under multiple accounts simultaneously. 

I’m just glad that it’s one less anxiety I have to deal with. 

I am also not super-keen on the fact that they’re using a Facebook page with no public access to answer questions about BreyerFest. Information like that needs to be completely public and completely transparent. 

On the other hand, I don’t have to witness people asking questions that could be answered by simply reading the actual web site. All that does is lead to me yelling at inanimate objects.

(I get that research is not everybody’s thing, but the web site is not as convoluted and difficult to navigate as its reputation says it is. Really.)

Diving In

This is the kind of week I want to put in a box, throw the box in a dumpster, and set the dumpster on fire. Not a darn thing is coming easy, not even lunch. 

(Don’t get me started on lunch! Argh!)

Cosmic payback for my lucky last week? I dunno. 

Anyway, the only good thing to come out of this week so far is the body box lot has already arrived.

Everything is pretty much as I expected; they came relatively cheap because they were painted in a variety of paints – acrylic, enamel, house – by someone with abundance enthusiasm but not a lot of skill. 

Which is good for me, because while stripping off old goopy paint is something most customizers want to avoid, it’s totally my thing. I’m actually looking forward to it, after the drama I had to deal with today. (See lunch, above.)

There’s one model that won’t be stripped because, well, look at him:

He’s not signed, so I have no idea who to attribute this beauty to, but it was obviously someone professional, if only because this guy sports one of the nicest hairing jobs I’ve ever seen on any custom, modern or vintage. It’s just immaculate.

And he’s definitely vintage: he still has his mold marks and his seams are uncleaned. It seems hard to believe now, but prepping as we know it – sanding seams, carving out ears and hooves, fixing seam mismatches, and primer – took a while to become standard practice. 

(His ears are carved out and he does have tri-colored eyes. Go figure!)

As long as there weren’t any missing pieces or serious flaws (gouges, holes, giant plastic goobers) customizers just grabbed their paint and brushes and dived in.  

To be honest, I think that approach still has a lot of merit. Whenever I find myself stuck in a creative rut, it’s often because I’m stuck at the prep stage: maybe I haven’t completely planned every move out to the letter, or I’m finding nitpicky things as an excuse to procrastinate. 

At that point, I’ll often start a small and completely impulsive project instead. Sure, sometimes it ends up in the trash. But sometimes it turns out great. And more often than not, it gets the ball rolling, and the next thing you know, the projects I was dithering on get done, too. 

(Before you guys get any crazy ideas, NaMoPaiMo is not even on my radar, people. Remember the no Facebook thing?)

Incidentally, if anyone can help me identify who did this guy, it’d be much appreciated. The painting style seems very familiar, but researching vintage customs is not my strong suit.

Feeling Lucky

This also happened last week:

I had to make a quick pit stop at Walmart to pick up a few things, and I figured that as long as I was there, I’d swing by the toy department and see if they had anything. I found an almost-empty box of Series 4 Unicorn Surprise bags, and after about five seconds of groping, I just dumped the contents of the box in my cart and figured I’d sort the mess out later. 

I didn’t get a chance to even open them up until a couple of days afterwards and whoa nellie, was I surprised!

Alas, my luck didn’t hold out, as I completely missed the $35.00 Presentation Collection Indian Pony on eBay Saturday night. And while I have been to the Kroger where the Billion Dollar Lottery Ticket was sold, multiple times – most recently about a month ago – the lucky winner wasn’t me, either.

C’est la vie.

I did buy a body box of old customs that had one item in particular that might be worth something, but it’ll probably be a couple of weeks before I see it and know for sure. And even if it isn’t what I think it is, I got the entire lot cheap enough as bodies to justify the price I paid for it anyway. 

Incidentally, if you’re curious, if I do happen to get a second BreyerFest ticket, my third and fourth choices would be Seurat (because I do love the painter he’s named after) and either Pollock or the Surprise. I think Pollock is neat, but others love him way more than I do, and I wouldn’t want my like to stand in their way of their love.

The only molds I can think of that would persuade me to keep a Surprise would be Bluegrass Bandit, or something Vintage like the Stretched Morgan or Buckshot, and both scenarios seem unlikely (though not impossible) to me.

It feels like a Stock Horse kind of year, and other than the Smart Chic Olena, I have no pressing need for more. But Surprises can surprise you, so you never know…

In other news, I’m mulling over entering the BreyerFest Photo Show again this year, and maybe even participating in whatever this online version of the Swap Meet will look like. 

With the online Swap Meet, I’m assuming that means that instead of simply tagging and bagging, I’ll have to take detailed photos of everything, and you know that’s not my favorite thing in the world to do.

But I do have a lot to sell, so I dunno, I might give it a shot. The results might also surprise me.