NaMoPaiMo dreams: Kotinga

 

This is one of those share-the-vision posts that may or may not go any further.  So many projects only make it to this stage, the Dream stage (before primer!).  It takes time, effort and discipline to become real.  But hey, every step counts, right?

I never thought I'd have a NaMoPaiMo vision I was slightly afraid to share.  Such a small thing;  but I can hear the voices:  How dare you do that?!  This is not like 2017, when I was merely shy of the whole NaMo idea, and came up an alternate personal vision of making tack instead.  This dream has already manifested in reality:  I've already depainted the horse.  It is that very depainting I'm hesitating to admit.  Still, the desire to share is so powerful that I'm plunging ahead.

My dream vision started in a glorious blaze of certainty.  I knew exactly what I wanted:  a palomino Stone ASB [American Saddlebred, Ringo mold].  (It happens that next year's NaMo has a premium on using a Stone horse.  I found that out after I'd already chosen my victim, so it is a sweet little reinforcement.)  I wanted him a bright metallic orangeish, with low socks and brown eyes, a glowing, gleaming, glimmering palomino.  He's to be the life partner of my Stone palomino Sassy/Tawny, she who has already been featured so largely on this blog.  Sassy is fractionally too dark for my taste (photos don't show this well) and she is not metallic.  He already has found his name, -- sure sign of besottedness -- originally spelt with a C [Cotinga] and referring to the colorful tropical bird.

Sassy / Tawny

Haunting the online markets and pinching pictures is a sure sign of my future buying intentions.  In this fashion I learned there was a 2011 Stone issue out there called "Spirit Mountain," a Stone palomino ASB run of 30 head.  Even now, with all I have done to prepare to paint my own, I think I would drop $$ to get this gentleman:  One can never have too many palominos!

Spirit Mountain.  img src unkn; will credit when known

 I had discussed such a horse with Linda of Design-A-Horse in person, in July this year at BFest.  She said metallicism had not ever been offered, yet told me there might well be future chances with individual pieces by individual artists.  Unfortunately, my overall experience with acquiring Stones has been a strong reinforcement of the old saw "never buy a Stone but in the hand."  Interior and secret long-simmering angst at both the waits and the prices, combined with NaMoPaiMo experience, set me on the path of attempting my own.  If I failed, the fault would be entirely mine.

Photo by Ryan Morrisey

I knew unpainted Stones were out there.  But finding one I wanted at a price I could afford depends on timing (as it does for every model purchase).  I wanted one NOW, to start the primering process.  In September I found an ASB for $120.  In a sudden stroke of daring I saw that his color included a palomino's mane and tail and hooves and eyes.  These parts, so essential to an O.F. and the toughness-of-coat I wanted, were already in place.  I had only to etch away his grey.

If you think I didn't hestitate, you'd be wrong.  But I have a long track record of pushing through with experimental projects.  What price learning?  I've never liked greys, I prefer a warm-colored horse.  

I started with the back spot. 

What I hadn't counted on was how fun it was!  Etching is relaxing.  There were tack pieces I was supposed to be working on, a trip to prepare for, long-neglected housecleaning and mending, blog posts promised but not done, oh, everything!  Yet what my Muse really, really wanted to do was sit down there and scratch away.  I started with the X-Acto and ended up adding a file and rubbing alcohol.

These few photos show my methods:  The jewellers file, the alcohol (bottle on right), the Qtips and the X-Acto (lower right).  Not shown is my half-round X-Acto which did the lion's share of the work.  The photo below, an oddity!, was taken to show some of my real, full scale horse tack.  Based on the grey on the shoulder, he was earlier than the above shot.

  Dang if he don't look good at this stage...

Note surface texture, hoof spots, and grey on chest

 

I didn't keep track of how long this depainting took, but it was more than 2 weeks.  I refined as I went until the last places were very smooth.  The eyes and sheath were the most challenging;  I wanted to retain the dark skin around these parts but had to allow for future blending of edges.  There's going to be a godawful amount of taping:  Even the crack between his quarters is a lovely pink which I don't want to primer over... !

I had previously painted a metallic buckskin:

 

 

so I'm not a complete greenhorn.   But I am wondering.  I never had to worry about the definition of unpainted before!  What if this form of depainting is illegal for NaMo?  Not the act itself, but in choosing a horse already partly painted?  Honestly, I hadn't thought this through until now!

 

 I learned so much.  I learned rubbing alcohol was not up to the job, but would serve well enough if fine scratching or filing had been done beforehand.  One had to be patient,...  and persistent,... and eventually the coat would come white.  There was primer under that grey, I had not known that.  He was, of course, a glossy, and my etching left a surface that has been very hard to smooth down to match that gloss.  (I will not quibble about ermine hoof spots on palominos, though I mourn the inevitable loss of the pink shading at the elbows.)  I look forward to the chance to test both his surfaces with primer, sealant, PearlEx and color.

The rules for National Model Painting Month are clear:  Take an unfinished model equine and paint it within the month of February.  Here I thought my shame was only in the depainting of a rare O.F.*  Maybe I can stand that.  This feeling of pride in my accomplishment mixed with tentative worry at others' understanding is so much a part of this hobby's history that I am almost comforted...

Da-ned if it's gonna stop me.  As things are turning out I'll only have the first half of Februay to work with.  My husband is ever-more insistent on taking trips "while we still can."  We shall be gone from February 15 to March 9.   We're trying to evade winter weather down in Florida.  I know it sounds unbelieveable, but the last January we were down there it was much colder than in Pennsylvania.  It was so cold (in Florida!) that our car keys thought their batteries were dead!  -- while they were in our pockets!!  Eh well, he's been experimenting with alternate seasons of the year for our usual birding haunts.  This is a longwinded way of saying I only have half of February.  Maybe that's an excuse to try to paint half a horse.

*Research is ongoing as to how many of this model were made.  As of this writing I have 2 answers, 6 and 30 (thank you K!).  Will update when more is known. 

Remember I'm the one who painted a Silver Dapple Fighting Stallion back in the 80s.  Silver Dapple Fighter.  Apparently I've always been stepping out onto strange lands and unknown places in the context of my beloved hobby.  This is just one more.

These photos are by Kelly Weimar.  Thank you Kelly!  Not just for these, but for giving him a good home. 

Killington (left),  SEB Silver Dapple Fighter (rt)

An impromptu view taken in her collection.  The warmer silver color is fascinating.

Next step for Kotinga:  Taping.
 

A Finger Lakes trip

In a five day and four night trip, exactly 5 photos and 2 movies were taken by me -- all at this one spot.  What you see here is so typical of one of our birding trips:  My beloved, supreme birdwatcher George Young, bent over the scope.  Not just any scope mind you!  That lunker is a family heirloom from his mother, purchased before either one of us was born.  (It was a once-in-a-lifetime splurge for her.)  It's not even a birding scope:  It's a Questar, born for the heavens, made for the stars.

Which means that what you see through it is backwards.  We had to get used to that.  In the scope the birds are traveling left to right?  In real life, they're traveling right to left.  However, we quickly found this was not a big handicap.  More problematic was the Questar's tripod, a horrible heavy thing, diffcult to adjust.  (We lived with it for years, and then one of the screws fell off and could not be replaced.)  All praise to Manfrotti, fantastic maker of modern tripods.  Geo purchased a beautiful light easy-to-use Manfrotti tripod, and our birding has been so much more fun ever since. 

Note the white seagull dots on the right horizon

 "This one spot" is the point off Fair Haven passage at the top of Little Sodus Bay, western Cayuga county, New York.  This is the southern shore of Lake Ontario just east of Rochester.  From there you get an excellent view of the two bluffs, Sitts (right) and McIntyres.  

 These remarkable bluffs look man made (or at least caused), but they're not.  They're naturally occurring erosion cliffs.  The steam rising from behind McIntyres is one of those kooky coincidences of location:  It has absolutely nothing to do with the bluff.  It's a Canadian power plant over the horizon.

 While we were here, on our fourth and last day, I tried to video the Long Tailed Ducks.  These used to be called Oldsquaws, a name I still think of them by.  They're one of my favorite ducks with their natty black and white pattern.  I got 2 movies but completely forgot about the wind noise and the dreadful grinding of my camera's zoom feature.  I tried so hard to get their unforgettable calls!  Disappointing!  I've uploaded my second and best video (30 sec) here.  You'll just have to click on the (second) link below if you want to hear the extraordinary song of this beautiful sea duck.

 

image from iNaturalist

Long-Tailed Duck

   Thirty-two seconds (:32) of a flock's calls, mixed with other bird sounds and a lot of wave washing.  If this doesn't work, do a search on Cornell Lab Macaulay Library, or just go to eBird.

  

Tawny Round One

 

The original title for this post was Palomino Relief, intended to go with my earlier post Palomino Insatiety.  The more time that goes by, the more I feel the need to share all those pix taken on June 5 -- the day she arrived -- and the less I need to gripe about how late that arrival was.  While she reinforced all my reasons to buy a Stone "only when in the hand,"  I spent her first day here blazing away.  The result was a huge trove of shots with many splendid pieces of headgear, accumulated over decades, to show off.  What better place to start catching up on blogging?!  above:  Maximilian's Bridle, headstall by Heather Moreton and reins by S. B. Young/TSII.

The amazing thing about this horse is she's better on camera than in person.  Spielberg sums it up with his realization that he didn't believe something was true until he saw it on film.

TSII Dry's Orange Hackamore

The name on my folder of pix is Sassy Round One.  It is a thing of Stone's to name every horse.  Tawny can never be rid of this association.  But in my herd and in my heart, each individual has their own name, built up out of multiple adventures and journeys and experiences unique unto themselves.  From now on, the more I call her by that name, the more she is my own and not Stone's, a true member of King's Herd, looking forward to her own tack, her own stallion and foal and other model-y rewards.  My original name for her was Tawny Gold.  At least for now, given my gripes, she's just Tawny... and that is a good name.

We'll start with two pieces profiled in my new book.  (The book covers how to make them.)  The first is Fancy's Hackamore.  The rider is one of Anne Field's dolls;  I named her Chalif.  The turquoises just set each other off gloriously. 

Fancy's Hackamore goes well with the Elk.

TSII #432, the Elk

 Another thoroughly-covered bridle is the TSII's Peach Rose.  There really is something about pink on palominos!  This might be a chance to get a glimpse of the Peach Rose saddle too.

TSII Peach Rose

 Of course, Sassy was designed in honor of Tiffany Purdy, one of the founders of Volo Artem.  Pink is a natural for her.  

 If the background is grayish or olive-y, it's because the shot was too dark and had to be lightened. 

This next bridle is by Danielle Hart.  I'm restraining myself to just one pic here,... and just one pun.  That Arab head really is small.

Purple Hart

This particular saddle and bridle set is by Erin Corbett.  I thought the brown, cream and gold tones would look fantastic with Tawny.  I made the blanket.  Turn the horse around and the head isn't small anymore;  instead, that near fore lengthens quite a bit.

 Erin used translucent beads for the earpiece and tinted glass jewels on the saddle.   There is a natural coordination with Tawny's colors.  I'm finding out that delicacy is called for with this head.

Erin Corbett saddle, bridle

With delicacy as my guiding light, I reached for one of the more interesting bridle/breastcollar sets in my collection.  This is a piece by Australian Rebecca Dunne of Griffyndoon.  She had a blaze of popularity around 2007 - 2010, and then vanished, as tackmakers often do.  

Griffyndoon 2007

 Finally a piece that really suits this gracile-headed horse!  You can forgive the heavy saddle.

For contrast, here is a most delightful but almost too heavy bridle for her.  This piece was designed by me and built by Jacquee Gillespie of NM, who also did the silver.  I'm showing the whole horse so you can see the tassel ends of the reins.

 This is a fantastic braided bridle.  It's important enough to be my cell phone wallpaper.

Jacquee Gillespie braidwork & silver

Note how the two cheeks have different fastening and adjusting methods.  One is a foldover ring and the other is buckled, a unique design.

She's so pretty!  but this head really does need a light touch.

Here's an old, old piece, dating back to 1997.  I made this out of dental floss.  To this day it's our only white fully braided rawhide bridle created.  White is not really a good color for braided tack because it picks up dirt so well.  Again I'm showing the whole body shot so you can see the end tassels on the reins.

It's not as heavy as it could be on her, both because of color and from the material size.  She looks rather noble here!

TSII (Susan Bensema Young) 1997

 There's just something about the touches of red that really pop on a palomino.

 This next one I am also granting 3 pictures to, showing as much detail as possible.  It's a bridle I seldom display at all.  It was made by Kim Smith of Florida circa 2009.  The reins are by Vicky Norris.

Kim Smith 2009, Norris reins

In this view the face drop is clearly visible.  Clever design!

Here I've turned her even further, and gotten an angle rarely seen on this mold -- rarely even in this post.  Can't get bored here!

Kim Smith headstall

 In finishing this first round of photos of Tawny, we drift towards what was originally planned after all the headgear:  saddles and harness.  This final bridle is not technically braidwork.  The jewels in the silver plates simply sold me on the set;  I could not resist them.  There is a blog post from 2017 on this saddle:  Gilfoyle (Not!) on Copperfox. 

Kelda Goerte saddle & bridle, TSII blanket

 Alas, the jewels on the saddle don't really show in these photos.  The colors of the blanket suggest them;  that's the best I can do here.  I thought the set's overall smoothness and level of detail would be good on this horse, and I was right.

 Having seen every possible combo of this model, let's end on an intimate moment between man and mount.  These two trust each other, and that's what counts.

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What's next?  It will be a while before I sit down to Round Two of tack on this horse.  I'm much more likely to blog about real tack I own, the flat braid set I just finished, the fabulous prince of a silver saddle I was given in TX, or my plans for my next 2 parade sets.  Or any other random subject, if I know me,...  NaMo is coming, and even though I won't be here for its entire month, I still entertain visions of painting a palomino Stone ASB then.  We have the body.  His name is Cotinga and he will be husband to Tawny here,...

 

Dawes Arboretum

 

A month and a week ago, on October 1st, I and my husband were visiting Dawes Arboretum.  This fascinating place is just north of I-70, about thirty miles east of Columbus, OH.  This was our third time at a site that has quickly become a family favorite.  I don't know when we made it policy that vast public gardens were the perfect spots to spin down from long family trips with;  but that policy has given us some very happy endings.  This time it gave us a very happy beginning.

 Of course, being me, I had a horse along.  Five, actually, but only one got into the pictures.  This is my new mare Sabina, herself named along the way -- a town in Ohio I believe.   I'd better mention that the saddle is by Kathleen Bond and the hackamore is by the most prolific and famous tackmaker of us all (no it's not me).  Anonymous has made more tack than anyone...  The real story here is that the tack pieces taken on trips must be play-worthy and can stand both the gaff of hard use and the risk of loss.

And what better place to carry a workin' horse than the beautiful trails of Dawes. 

Dawes Arboretum will charge you about ten bucks to enter a place where you could easily spend several days just doing the trails.  There's a visitor center, specialty gardens, auto tours and many many acres of the most amazing trees ever created.  I suppose being out in the wild for so long breeds great respect and need for a controlled wild:  for a place that blends gracefully with the hand of man, and benefits from it, yielding peace.  Being a birdwatcher for 35+ years has given me an increasing interest in the trees themselves.  Yet here I only know how wonderful it feels to wander around in a truly lovely landscape laid out to foster tree species.

 Here the oaks, there the holly, over there some birches, yonder the evergreens, cypresses and Oriental maples.  There's a Japanese garden and lake.  Strange trees everywhere.  Dawes is nearly 2,000 acres.  The weather was perfect.  

Did I mention the cypresses?  One of our favorite activities, canoeing, has taken us deep into Southern cypress and tupelo swamps for years.  Image how delighted we were to find that Dawes has not one, not two, but three cypress groves.  One is a swamp (as you would expect), and one is a formal Dawn Redwood collection, in rows.  There is a third one that, given the scale of Dawes, is so small it doesn't figure on the map!  It's north of the Japanese garden and stands at the foot of the trail marked in red.  (I've included a map further down.)  That third one is where we were going next.

 But first:  a very Halloween-y tree, a weeping Arbor Vitae type.  Dawes is full of little surprises like this.  You just want to stop and be reminded of [the book's description of] Treebeard in the Lord of the Rings.  Not that this is Treebeard,.. it looks rather wizard-y to me...

Turning ever more to the left, the third grove comes into sight.  It's not that small, being about 8 trees deep and twenty or so trees wide.  There is something about a regular grove that moves my heart.  Having lived and moved in the wild open plains as a horse-lover for so long, the presence of orchards and groves makes me pause, and feel how sacred a cathedral-like outdoor space can be.  Wood Between the Worlds, from Narnia,...

Photos can't do them justice.  The trail through these younger trees leads to the greatest grove in the place,.. at least in my estimation.  This section is more like a warm-up, a preparation for the later, larger, older one. 

 

 

Below is my husband George in the third grove.  Dawes does not pass up the opportunity to teach the public, but it is not overbearing, distracting or pedantic, like some parks.

 

 

Before I get to the last picture of the last grove, I want to give a better idea of this place.  You can't see it all in one visit.  Take in just a few sections each time.  On the map, the grey is pavement for cars, the colors are trails.  On this visit we were following the red trail seen at the upper left.  A better version of this map can be found at their website:  Dawes Arboretum.

  

The map shows its name at the bottom.  What you can't tell from there is that these letters are actually formed from giant hedges planted in shapes.  The name can be seen from the air.  I know this Google Maps capture doesn't show them clearly, but look carefully just below the lake:

It really is a mass of hedge, higher than my head and nearly half a mile long.  I have been there.  I don't envy the trimmers!

This last shot, once more, doesn't really do the place justice.  What's more rows of trees, after so many?  But Geo and I love cypresses, and these are all mature old Dawn Redwoods planted when we were infants.  The view is crosswise, with the length of the grove extending down to the left.  It's the largest and best grove in the place, the most remote, and yes, my favorite.

 Other large public gardens we have found on our travels include Washington Oaks in Florida and Palmer Gardens in Kansas.  There's also Luce Rose Garden in Kansas City and Longview Gardens right here in central Pennsylvania.  I have Geo to thank for being the flower person in the family, and his mother before him.  These places grow on you... yes, that was on purpose.

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 Other news:  Having completed the portrait bridle and breastcollar, I want to start on a pair of silver Parade saddles;  yet the lure of braidwork is strong.  I may try to squeeze out a single bridle and sell it online.