Kotinga Layers 8 - 10

 

Progress on this horse has been a constantly shifting series of skirmishes.  Overall the progress has been towards a darker, denser animal than what I first had in mind.  On the positive side, I have learned so much about repairing various errors!  My confidence has been built up amazingly!  But I also wonder if I could ever paint a horse without messing him up!  It's only after NaMoPaiMo that I feel I'm "up" with the skills;  if I started over now, I'd hit closer to my original intent.

But then, my original intent wasn't very focused.  It did not know what it was doing.  Ten layers later, this horse is strongly himself, born of haptic exploration and with delighted triumph.  He could be no other than what he is:  Totally for me, no customers or competition involved.  That is such a great relief.

Kotinga Layer 7 

Let's briefly return to Layer 7.  As told, the speckling was causing me to doubt my sealant.  It turned out I was right.  Layer 6 was the last with my old can of Krylon matte.  Farewell old friend:  You've done wonders on 4 previous horses all the way back to 2018 (!), but that graininess is just not cutting it.  The temperatures were bitter too and I called a halt.  When the temps rose again, on Tuesday the 10th, I was outside testing my new can.  First a little Stablemate and then Kotinga enjoyed the fruits of Rustoleum.  (Below, you can just see the test SM's legs.)  The SM told me this spray was likely to be more glossy, a claim which turned out to be untrue.  But since I wanted a more glossy horse, he made my choice easier.

Layer 8 before sealing

Despite being covered earlier, there is more to Layer 7:  It was also the place where I made my gravest error.  This was alcohol-painting for some gray shadings.  Palominos have gray skin, and I wanted to show this on his lower legs, muzzle, undercarriage and other shadings.  Alas, alas.  I chose too dark a pastel mix and would spend the rest of NaMoPaiMo trying to undo this.  This photo is actually Layer 8 but shows the situation.

Layer 8  Chest shadings

What was acceptable for the inguinal and muzzle turned out horrible on the chest.  I learned, also (oh I wish I didn't have to KEEP learning this!) that combining alcohol-painting with regular pastel painting just isn't a good idea on a horse as large as this.  Ambolena's triumph has been a difficult act to follow.  Gilding the Lily

It was during the spraying of Layer 8 that Kotinga had a bad accident.  These goofs are always where you don't remember exactly how it happened!  He fell over, I grabbed him, he twisted somehow and when he rose up straight again he had a scratch on his butt.  

Layer 8 after

To my flustered, astonished and pained eye, it looked just like the Amazon logo.

Layer 8 hip scratch

 How is this possible?! cries the agonized heart.  I have put so much work into this horse!!  And in one drop he's ruined everything.  It'll take me a long time to fix this one.  As it turned out, this scratch was greatly reduced (I had the skill) but not entirely disappeared.  My horse was going to live with it, a minor flaw to go with his other flaws.  All along he's been tippy, but I'd been careful.  Maybe now, on the 10th day, with victory within smelling distance, I was getting sloppy.  Impatience is real.

With pasteling there's always two stages to the layers, the before and the after sealing (spraying).  The before stage is when you try out your ideas.  The after is when you find out whether you succeeded.  The after is sometimes a case of reducing your expectations, or shall we say, more kindly, adjusting them.

Layer 9 was full of lessons for me.  It was during this layer I tried out my ideas about sanding.  Take a piece of very fine sandpaper (320 grit) and, holding it folded, very very gently touch it to the horse. Oh the delicacy of that touch!  I was glad to discover I could be that light of hand;  it felt like a heritage from tackmaking.  The trick turned out to be considering it not so much sanding as being a change of color at that minutely tiny area.  Over several layers, this worked well for me.

Layer 9 before

 Kotinga had accumulated a trio of notable errors.  There was the hip, the near shoulder and the chest.  After spraying, they looked like this:

Layer 9 after, Hip scratch

 The hip wasn't too bad.  The shoulder was still a mess, and I was calling it a pit. 

Layer 9 after, near shoulder 

And the chest was dreadful, despite my sanding skill.

Layer 9 after, chest

As with the hip scratch, this area would not fully recover, but be coated over and reach a point where I finally decided it was okay.

All along Kotinga was getting darker,... and flatter.  I think my biggest lesson with this horse was failing to consider that the sealant made him darker.  The success of Layer 4's copper had blinded me.  (H'hmm, Ambolena, anyone?!)  Somewhere around Layer 5 I'd lost the muscle shadings and I could not recover them.  What was possible with a light horse going dark was not possible, for me, with a dark horse going light.  It could be that more layers might've solved it;  but I was out of time. 

Layer 10, after

Layer 10's most notable aspect, besides a gathering acceptance of his being completed, was the decision to test out his last step, pastel gilding with PearlEx.   Testing:  Had I not learned, the hard way, to test?!?  Not with alcohol, but the regular way, I dusted his off foreleg with Brilliant Or, using the dedicated PearlEx brush first discovered with Brasenose back in 2018, my first NaMoPaiMo.  Brasenose Finished.  Yes, Kotinga is my fifth NaMo model to be finished.  All five of them used PearlEx.  I was pleased to see the leg come out with a golden glow.  Thus his last step would be an all-over gilding.  Not like Ambolena's, but with more of a softer effect, my dream of a metallic palomino was coming true.

 

Kotinga Layers 5 - 7

 

 For a horse whose first 4 layers went so fast and well, you sure are fighting now!  Not like a tiger:  More like a spitting housecat.  The problems all started after Layer 4's sealant returned with so much graininess and speckling.  This photo may make him look good, but up close things are going wrong.

Kotinga Layer 5

The whole critter is sprinkled with the finest spatters, as though a universe of minute air-bubbles had formed and popped.  Not the first time I've seen this, but this is the worst case in memory.  Look closely at the poll behind the ears.

Layer 5 Offside Head

Look at the shoulder front and the foreleg.

Layer 5 Near Shoulder

Look at the hind quarter, and along the top of the hock. 

Layer 5 Hind

Here's an indelicate view but it shows the early stages of the hindquarter crack problems.  (I can't call it a quarter crack, can I?!  But butt-crack is too crude. Vent maybe.)  I really am having problems making the brush reach this area.  That odd patch of color has been there for 3 layers with no explanation.

Layer 5 Undertail

My first act for Layer 5 was to clean-paper-towel-rub the whole horse.  This was repeated for Layer 6.  My instinct tells me this flaw is temperature-based.  It is after all in the 20s out there.  I will try and bring him in after 15 minutes, not half an hour.  

Layer 5 did not deepen the color that much;  I keep forgetting how thin pastel layers are.  Nonetheless this is the stage I described on FB as "skating on the thin ice of Too Much of a Good Thing."  He had gotten deeply copper-red, a tan beyond my safety limit.  Also, this day (Feb 5) went to so many other things it became a rest day for art.  Got my BFest tickets!  Kim came over and admired him!  I gave her a horse,... (but still, how is it that with no less than a rare 3 social inputs, a visit and 2 calls, all successful, I should still feel so down, as though by a betrayal --?  This is not Kotinga's fault, but something larger, well beyond him.) 

Kotinga Layer 5

 My in-house scientist and weather guru denied any knowledge of what would make a model speckle like that.  He unkindly remarked, "whoever put this in February was a chemistry putz!"  I had to laugh.  Layer 6 should go back to yellow gold and Brilliant-Or PearlEx or even Sparkle-Or if we need to go that light.

Layer 6 started by repeating the buffing with a clean(er) paper towel.  All I can think of at the moment is to try more layers.   I also tried a little gray in appropriate places, but this disappeared under the sealant.

Layer 6 Near Shoulder

Another problem, the crack between the quarters, has grown so exasperating that I stripped it with alcohol down to the plastic.  Gesso to the rescue!  This is when I wrote the embarrassing phrase "the Diapering of Kotinga."  No privacy for this poor pony;  his owner did not primer the area and is now paying for that error.

Layer 6 diaper stage

Before anyone asks, Yes, the Stone ASB mold has somewhat recessed testicles, but Kotinga has been customized here (filed & carved) to have them stand out a little more.  They're not perfect, just better than they were.

Layer 6 vent view

 When the Gesso was dry the area was treated with Kotinga Layer 6, a mixture of pastels (Richeson nos.106, 141, 84, 104, 120 and white) plus PearlEx Brilliant Or.  I'm surprised by the power of the white in this mix.  This color, a beautiful gold, was originally Ambolena Layer 5.

Layer 6 First layer on vent

I did not really mean to focus so much on this view of this horse.  Let's get back to broadsides.

Kotinga Layer 6 Offside

After spraying [sealing] Layer 6, my heart has sunk.  I appear to've hit the limits of the system.  The graininess and speckling is just as bad, no better than Layer 5 and in different places.  The 15-minute wait made no diff.  I've got to try something radically else.  

Layer 6 Near

Layer 7 was a disaster.  I admit, I was impatient.  I tried the alcohol painting, that which had worked so well with Ambolena in 2019 and successfully with Marimba in 2021.  No dice.  Without a pic, you won't believe it, but I nearly ruined him.  What was controllable with a small foal and had somehow worked with a mare did not work with the real estate of this Trad stallion.  I chose the wrong PearlEx (Sparkle instead of Brilliant) which was too light and grainy;  I hadn't practiced and had little skill;  I went at him in patches,...  There is a reason there's no photos of this stage.  Ugly stage?  Let's say impatiently thoughtless. 

When the dust settled, I re-pastelled him all over.  The speckles are gone! but so are the muscle shadings and the lighter palomino gold.  This photo shows him before spraying.  Likely to stay that way for a while,...

Kotinga Layer 7 

He may have gained another underlayer of PearlEx, but he's back in deep tan mode, and I'm nearly out of time.  The rest of NaMo hobbydom has all the remaining February;  I do not.  Me and mine are leaving for Florida on the 15th.  Still a week left?  Yes and the extreme cold weather is doing a number on my ability to spray-seal.  If the speckles are caused by it, I cannot go forward until it warms up,... sometime in the middle of next week.

 It was only now that it occurred to me this speckling might be caused by something besides the weather.  The can of Krylon is 8 years old, and has seen all my previous four (4) NaMo horses through their births.  Could it be running out?  It is seriously lighter in weight than the new Rustoleum I purchased last year,... for just this contingency,...

I find myself in the charming predicament of needing warmer weather to test the new spray can -- which is the original problem!  My husband's suggestion, that I peel Kotinga's tapes and turn him in as finished and just complete him when we get back in March (warmer weather!), reflects more care for myself than for the horse.  If I did that I'm sure I would ruin whatever pastelling Kotinga is wearing right now.   

Off to find a test horse...  

May everyone who is painting find their way through their ugly stages with swift efficiency and bright spirits!

 

 

Kotinga Layer 4

 

Thanks to Braymere's blog covering Jenn Constantine's advising to use reds and pinks as foundations for palominos, -- plus my own eyes telling me Kotinga was not equal to my references, too green! -- everything changed with Layer 4.  There was time after all on Monday, even if very late.

I knew he needed some infusion of browns and reds.  What I hadn't thought of was that my previous NaMo horses had left packets of mixed red-brown pastel powders with heavy doses of copper PearlEx.  At a bound my imagination soared:  Not an undercoat but merely another coat would stave off the green.  It seemed daring, but if we muffed it I'd just put more goldy-orange on,...     This next photo shows my methods:  the pastels themselves with the X-Acto knife to carve off powder, then the bowl for the finished mix.  Yes, it's labor-intensive, but it allows a high degree of control over color and amount.

Starting Layer 4

(The photos just don't do him justice!)  My gar have you ever been afraid of your own success?!!  I did not know I could do this --!!  At a bound everything changes -- the copper is just as metallic as the gold, and the reddish-pink of it does the job perfectly.  Use Q tips to 'erase' and bring back the gold-yellow highlights of the muscles...

Kotinga Layer 4, near side

 These photos are before spraying.  Honestly I was NOT expecting this glorious gold!!  NOW he matches the reference--!  Palomino as I dreampt it!  It becomes obvious my next goals are to deepen and smoothe this color -- minimize streaks -- while enhancing the lighter areas of the muscles.  Also, gray:  knees, hocks, muzzle, under the tail.  Alas for that pink between his cheeks, y'should've known palominos have gray skin there.  Shall we do that area with alcohol,  plus my big color brush doesn't fit under his tail,...  Note the brush shown sitting on the bowl (below) is the dusting brush and not the color-applying one.

Kotinga Layer 4  off side

 I wanted to see how the edges of the masked areas were doing.  Unable to resist I peeled the tapes from one eye.  The tape is there to protect the original finish Stone eye, far better than anything I could come up with.  Another happy surprise:  things seem to be okay.

Kotinga Layer 4 off face

 Oh yes, short posts are possible after all.

Nex morning:  A post-spraying inspection of Layer 4 reveals the same glorious color but changes in texture, a widespread minute speckling and graininess.  We shall see what I can do.

After all this, we still have a surprise up our sleeve:  Ambolena's clear glass gold.  Ambolena Gilded Lily. 

 

Kotinga Layers 1 - 3

 

 

Every one of my 5 previous NaMoPaiMo horses has had its special glories and challenges, but they've all been in the middle stages or late in the game.  Kotinga's have both been very nearly right off the bat.  I've been so heavily warned and expecting of the 'ugly stage,' somewhere around Layers 4 or 5, that I couldn't quite believe it when he manifested a nasty sealant wrinkling on Layer 2.  (After all, it was 24 degrees in the spraying shed.)  "What, boy," I said plaintively, "so early in the game?"  But it is impossible to overstate how blase I felt.  I can barely explain it, but his wrinkle challenges did not worry me in the slightest.

 Three places with nasty wrinkles, never before seen!  (Offside neck, near shoulder and under the off elbow.)  I was pretty sure I'd oversprayed.  Using an aerosol can is something I only do rarely.  (To be honest, only during NaMo.  As I'm sure I've said many times, it's been three years.)  But some things return.  Perhaps it's muscle memory.  Or perhaps I choose pastels because they were so similar to leather dyeing, and I do my dyeing with many sweepy little strokings and it's the same motion.

 Layer 1 went fantastic.  Everything was prepared:  fresh waxed paper to stand on (because if he fell over on the old stuff he'd pick up white paint);  backup sealant can waiting in case my current can, the same one I've used all along (that's at least 8 years) conked out;  and memories of 30 minutes drying in the shed followed by an hour in the house warming up.  It all worked.  I felt the swell of success.

Kotinga Layer 1

Kotinga Layer 2

Layer 2 threw me wrenches, it is true, despite its overall success.  But I buckled down and tackled the wrinkles once he was dry.  Step 1:  buff with a piece of fleece.  Step 2:  find the 320 sandpaper and have a go. 

Sanding revealed the most amazing tiny network of what looked like capillaries.  They were blue-ish.  I had got down to the plastic!  Step 3:  find the Gesso and fix those tiny networks.  Step 4:  Realize all that's needed is many thin coats of Gesso over the now-smooth patch, because you can pastel over all of it later.  And that's what happened. 

 I won't tell you how dismayed I am that my hand sometimes trembles something awful,... fortunately I can still paint something like this,...

Layer 3 was completed on Day 1, a record for me.  Not only did his white Gesso patches disappear, this layer was the first of the darker muscle-line enhancements.  Each layer is also giving him a dose of PearlEx Brilliant Or.  I know from experience it takes time for that metallicism to show up, so I'm not worried about that either.  Layer 3 really gave me a thrill.  This horse is so slab-sided, rich in real estate without muscling, that I'd known all along his special challenge was going to be emphasizing 3-D shapes with 2-D.  Without having been taught Trompe-L'oeil I still think I can get away with it.  

Kotinga Layer 3

 Day 2 will surely not have any painting time.  Mondays usually don't and this one is unusually booked.  But I am so confident now.  I will be happy with 5 layers this week.  Oh Kotinga, when my friend Bobbie said, "I look forward to seeing your golden Saddlebred," you came to life.

May everyone's confidence and hopes be rewarded. 

Starting to go Wild

 

 While we were driving back from an errand last week, my husband achieved immortality in Punner's Galaxy.  He's always been a punster but this was a new high.  I felt the hit all through my tackshop and beyond, touching my life, my nation and my very soul.  And we were just talking about a pair of reins!

 "Ferrules," he said, "Aren't those the little beads that are starting to go wild?"

 I literally laughed all the way home!

Sassy being played with

 The more I look at this most unusual pair of romal reins, the more I think they have, indeed, gone wild.  They appear to be the result of trying to blend two traditions in tackmaking that ought not, perhaps, have been blended.  One tradition is making ferruled leather reins in black leather, which the majority of full scale parade sets have.  The other tradition, I see now, was my own strong bent towards making braided (rawhide) reins.  (Now how could that have happened?!!  :)  Sometimes hybrids work, but this one, alas, is giving me some powerful vibes that perhaps, just perhaps, the third time will be the charm.  These were the second try.  The first try left no pictures and its parts were disassembled and remade into what you see here.

The quirt has "TSII" on one side and curlicues on the other.

 Making these reins has been like pulling teeth.  I published my book at the end of August 2025 and said I wanted to return to making tack.  Yet here it is nearly 5 months later and all I've made has been a couple of braided bridles (and a breastcollar).  With over 500 saddles under my belt, what the heck is the hangup?  I'm really struggling,... and NaMoPaiMo is about to wallop me.

 These reins are the first concrete evidence of my next saddle, TSII #458.  It is to be my own silver parade set.  It is to be for Kotinga, my hopefully soon-to-be-palomino NaMoPaiMo victim;  but it's also supposed to fit Sassy*, my Stone Half-Arab Mare, Kotinga's wife.  I haven't made a parade set for myself since 1997 (#400), and I haven't made a saddle at all, period, since 2020 (#457, Eleanor's Goehring).  As it happens, the last 4 saddles I completed have all been silver Parade sets.  (TSII #456 Star Wars, #455 Miller's Hexagon and #454 Silver Tipped.)  Number 454 was finished in 2015, eleven years ago -- more than a decade! -- so you can see how truly rusty I am.

I'm thinking that rustiness is partly to blame that I would take so long to spin up making just a pair of romal reins.  The first try was braided thread, black and brown;  but parts were too slender and the riendas (hand parts) were too stiff.  The second try you see here, also stiff (!), a strange combination of braided covers over hot-oiled dark leather, with black sinew connectors.  I wanted a darkest-brown-but-not-black color, and I think also that this requirement is to blame.  Sinew doesn't come in that color, hence the attempts at thread blending.

A quick thank you to Heather Moreton, who told me about the existence of black dental floss and saw to it that I had some.  That material, so silky-smooth it is hard to braid with! is used in these rein coverings.  Look at the second pic below for a better glimpse of this floss.

Saddles are my bread-and-butter, the main source of TSII work and fame.  I have always wanted to come back to them.  The trigger for Kotinga's is the story of the so-called Russian parade set, a blog subject if ever there was one!  You have seen glimpses of it, in my Christmas letter and in the Spiro Arrives post.  As with Kotinga, there are many strands to its story, and it is a very personal tale.  Be patient with me.  The best stories take time.

Above:  Note how the liquid silver ferrule seam edges don't quite meet.  This tiny imperfection was done on purpose.  The leather width necessary for strength is just a scoosh too large for the ferrules.  (I think I trimmed it a little too thin in a few places.)  When polished, the silver glints are so eye-catching that the brain does not notice the gap.

These reins really fought me and there were mistakes along the way.  Below, the foldover at the end broke and popped out when I pulled on its loop.  Now I had to fix it.  Five of its 7 ferrules await re-installation while I figured out how to make the leather longer.  The answer was to splice on a whole new piece of lace, at the braid start slit.  

So much for shorter blog posts.  Ain't gonna happen, I guess.  But this one has made me remember the reins for #456 used black sinew, with silver ferrules.  

TSII #456, Star Wars.  Handmade medallions

Either I will accept black reins instead of darkest-brown ones (the so-called Russian has black);  or I will figure out how to dye plain rawhide ones.  I guess sometimes it takes three times to find the right answer. 

*At least for now, 'Sassy' has taken over as this mare's name, and "Tawny" is on hold. 

I asked my husband how long it had taken him to think up that pun about ferrules (ferals).  In a Tom Brier moment, he said "Just Now!"  Tom Brier is the ragtime pianist I have included links to in my Christmas letters and whose performances I am so madly in love with.  Here's the appropriate one:  Super Mario Land Birabuto.   Only 2:55 long, it's one of ragtime's greatest impromptu performances.  On the paper he was given the simple theme -- the first time through the tune - - nothing else.  He'd never seen it before.  Everything that follows he made up on the spot, 'ragging' it in the best possible fashion.

I'll leave this post on his note of happy perfection.

 

A Chicki Charm Halter

 

I saw this halter go by on Model Horse Tack Space a week ago, and inexplicably fell in love.  I've never learned how to tie this particular kind of rope halter (!), although I've always wanted to.  I have only one other in that same style (but minus the muzzle braiding).  I had never heard of this particular tackmaker (!) but I'm always on the lookout for up and coming braiders.  I want to support them as well as collect cool pieces.  I've also found I tend to collect more tack when I feel more frustrated or denied in the making of my own;  and that has been the case lately.

Also, I'm experimenting with shorter blog posts.  We'll just have to see how that turns out! 

 The seller had announced a sale date and time on Etsy.  This fixed-date-&-time sale is the same approach used by Anna Helt and Mink Studios.  I'm familiar with it.  A good computer hookup and fast fingers is what's required.  You have to know ahead of time which piece(s) you want.  I went through 10 halters and had 3 choices picked out and ranked.  As it turned out I snagged my 2nd choice.  I like hot colors these days!  😁

 The sale was January 10th.  A mere 5 days later my halter showed up.  I'm derned envious of these people's ability to drop ship or whatever you call those preprinted official mailing labels.  I still don't have that for my own tack shop -- not after 47 years in business.  This is probably because my tack output is so low.  But I'm still jealous.

The only aspect of the transaction that could possibly be construed as 'went wrong' was that Etsy drew my funds out of the bank that stands behind my PayPal and not from my PayPal account itself, as I would've preferred.  But that is not the fault of the seller.  I need to change my settings, or rather, pay more attention.

The halter arrived arrayed upon the paper cut-out of a horse head.  I was astounded at its beauty;  it was elegantly simple in stiffness and utility.  As it happened I had a much larger new horse standing by, and in the way of eager new models, he asked to try it on: "to test its adjustability."  And it fit.

His is the largest head in my herd, outside of drafters and a 1:6 scale horse.  Tying on the halter, I was delighted to discover the ends of the crown strap were fused together.  This was immensely helpful.  The halter's rope material was slightly stretchy, just enough to fit my enormous horse (he is the Stone Irish Draft).  Of course the colors looked fantastic!

The cheek buttons appeared to be half hitches, tied and fused, or perhaps fused and tied, I can't quite tell.  Later, with more intense use, the crown ends parted, but I promptly glued them together again -- that feature is much too useful to lose.

Another extremely minor issue was that the jaw strap wasn't quite symmetrically centered on the throatlatch.   This was really only detectable on a huge horse, and could be rectified with some careful tying.  I am so tickled with this new halter!  Whether I can get my new horse, named Cookie Dough Fever, to let go of it is another matter!

 Madison McComas of Chicki Charm, thank you so much for this fun piece.  My new halter was sold as fitting Trads similar to Idocus / Snowman.

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What's next at the TSII?  I'm trying to buckle down to nothing less than TSII #458, my own silver Parade saddle, based on the so-called Russian.  I've got a few blog posts standing in line, and more tack orders after #458.  Given the family trips, there won't be much tack left over before BreyerFest.  If you want something from me, ask me then.