Wycked Wynd Coloring Contest

The flood of coloring contests during the pandemic finally reached critical mass for me.   I had tried half-heartedly with one before, but with Morgen Kilbourn's Wycked Wynd I pulled out all the stops!  Having watched Morgen sculpting Wycked from the beginning, I had latched onto the resin -- something about him, perhaps his purity, was irresistible -- and when he was done I decided I wanted one.  The drawing was by Christine Jordan, and very inspiring it was.   It is with inexplicable shyness that I publish here first;  pandemic behaviour may manifest in strange ways.

[Ed note I just realized I've misspelt Wynd from the start.  Sorry, & tried to fix on the 30th!]

From the beginning my artist's vision centered around three choices for this drawing, which would be done in colored pencil.  I knew I wanted a golden bay with minimal white.  I wanted the border to not distract.  And most daring of all, I wanted to put tack on the horse -- not just drawing it on, but actually pasting on leather and silver and sinew --!!

Here is the one shot taken midway through, before the background and the reins were done.

I had once commissioned one of our great painters, Jenn Danza, to do a golden bay "so light you couldn't tell him from a buckskin."  (She accomplished this with superb skill.)  I now found out how hard that was!
I also found out how hard it was to do black with colored pencils.  My black pencil was down to a nub from some previous adventure.  I tried layering various purples, browns and dark blues; this had worked for NaMoPaiMo.  But it didn't quite work here.  In the end I resorted to black Edge Cote, an acrylic leather paint, to finalize the points.

"Colored pencil, marker, nail polish, Gesso, Edge Cote.  Bridle:  leather, nylon sinew, silver tape [aluminum tape], ikandis [metal iron-ons], thread."  And Elmer's.  The nail polish was the shell hoof.

 I felt oppressed by Wycked's border.  No offense to Christine intended!  but I felt it was a lot to ask.  It was distracting when my focus would be entirely on the horse and his bridle.  I was encouraged by one early entry who made their border all one neutral color.  I chose the light blue not only to compliment a golden bay, but to match the interweaves on the rein buttons.  (!)  It's not all solid light blue; the butterfly bodies have interweaves.  :)

This is my one previous try to enter a coloring contest:

I guess you can tell what I'm interested in.  :)

I have been impressed that so many other entrants to Wycked Wynd's contest were bays of some sort,... and of them, many had an off hind sock.  He just seems to look right in that color, though I'm prejudiced here.  I swear I chose my markings entirely independently!

Early on, a friend responded positively to my approach.  Surprising what a difference that makes!  This shot is of my old drafting circles template framing his head.  It shows the originally-designed reins.

Long ago in the dim beginnings of the world, (before I was married, in other words:  about 1981), I made a quilt block for a quilt for my grandparents' 50th anniversary celebration.  (My Mom is a quilter.)  I had just purchased a Florentine Five-Gaiter.  I made my block out of leather and tooled the horse on, then made a two-dimensional harness for it from lace and wire.  I'm dreadfully sorry I can't find a photo of this feat (believe me, I've tried!).  This is my only precedent for what I've done with Wycked Wynd's drawing.  I don't know an official term for it, so I'm calling it bas-relief tack.  

 I designed the bridle for the horse while I was still finalizing the decision to purchase him.  The coloring contest gave me a chance to play with it.   The attraction for a 2D, bas-relief version lay in simplifying it and hitting the sweet spot of looking good without defeating itself and being too detailed or hard to do.  But it was hard!!  The brow concho came first:  a simple circle of silver tape pressed with a leather stamp.  Encouraged, I put on the crown strap bits and started on the cheek medallion.   It was around then I started jettisoning details!  This was going to be tougher than I thought.

The rules said only 'minor alterations' to the drawing would be allowed.  I had to change the width of the eye a little to avoid conflict with the cheekstrap.  The challenge was to get the cheekstrap as far back as possible, yet still be realistic for the head.  As a tackmaker I have fought this battle a thousand times; it is a matter of fractions of a millimeter.

All along I'd known I wanted this bridle elegantly simple.  The horse must not be eclipsed by the tack.  It must enhance him, not overpower; invite, not offput.  No browband, no throatlatch, closed reins; it's hard to get simpler than that one swooping line: ears to mouth to withers. The bit was relatively easy -- more silver tape -- but the medallion took so much work I decided a very plain cheekstrap was called for.  All the leather is stitchmarked by hand.

The reins were last.  By this time I'd given up on things like rein connectors or a curb strap for the bas-relief version, and settled for just one button group on the reins.  Those buttons really are braided on, 9Part 4Bights in white with 3 rings of lightblue interweave.   Of course, for the one-ninth model version, all the details will return.

Now for the background.  At first I thought I'd draw in a horizon, with ocean and cliffs.  (Black Stallion, anybody?!)  But another precedent established itself.  Can you guess?

That's right:  the cover of the Guide.  Rainbow-like rays fading to white in the center.  I really am predictable.

A thousand thanks to Morgen and Christine and Shauna.   It was heavenly pleasure to be braiding again.  It was fabulous fun to combine tack with coloring!!  

I'll try not to wait so long next time.

Ahkal Teke Set 4 Progress

 

 Finally finishing AT4's cape and both neckpieces, I held a shoot with no less than 7 horses.  This is clear evidence of pent-up-ness!  AT4 has not been the fastest piece I've ever built.   There were too many obstacles ranged against it for a swift completion, and they ran the gamut from a bad arm to bad weather,... from volcano-watching addiction to plain old quarantine blues, and many others.  But yesterday things turned around.  I had to try out this fascinatingly-colored set on quite the range:  Two Perlinos, a palomino, a pearl gray, a golden bay, a liver chestnut and a pearl-black!   Be warned:  this is a long, photo-heavy post.

In every shoot there is at least one surprise picture.  In this one there were several.  Here is my favorite, the pearl gray:  Celestine, known as Palustris in my herd (after pinus palustris, the longleaf pine of the south).  Who'd've guessed she'd turn out looking so good!

She shows the colors of the gemstones the best.  This whole post is about trying to depict the jewel colors. You've heard it from me before:  It's really hard to shoot these sets!!
Here's Palustris from another angle, which shows the forehead.  I'm sorry the cape doesn't fit right; this is another tale of woe you'll hear about later. 

This set, Akhal Teke presentation set No. 4, is being made to fit an Altynai, who will be in the color of Breyer's Perlino.  That makes Shazada the model of choice for shooting it, as we saw last time:  Starting Akhal Teke set no 4.   Here he is showing off his beautiful color with the light blue aquamarines.

Each of these shots is processed separately, and thus they don't always match each other.  (Honestly, my house is not really that color.)  Here's Shazada, in whole body for reference:

And a close up of his portrait.  The colors of the stones range from light to darker and from greenish to blue. 

Very close up on this horse.  The 2-ply neckband (the top one) is made with aquamarines, the very smallest ones I had.  The 3-ply is made with sapphires, as I didn't have any aquamarines the right size.  (Larger ones will go for the breastcollar.)  Note how some sapphires are less blue than the aquamarines.

Here's a Bird's-Eye shot.  The cape jewel was lighter than most, and thus very hard to photograph.

Here we see it all on Marimba, my own resincast Perlino.  She was my NaMo horse for 2020.  The slightly smaller size was a challenge.

A close up of Marimba.  Despite the poor fitting, I like the colors on her.  Her slight reddish cast seems to bring out the blue.

Moving on to the centerpiece horse, Altynai / Talisman simply steals the show.  I put him in just the neckpieces at first.

The above was another of those surprise shots that came out far more striking than I had anticipated.  It needed no PhotoShopping in its colors.  However I was unable to resist cleaning up the horse!  I smoothed the ridged moldline on his face.

More Talisman posing in all his wild-eyed glory.  With a bit of darkening overall (the overcast was a help here), the jewel colors came out well.

Here's a shot taken only on this horse.  I wanted to depict the color of the central throat jewels, which don't show up in any other pose, (except laid out, below).

 Here is Altynai/Talisman in the full bridle, cape and neckpieces.  It's a shot made possible by the zoom feature of the camera.  Still washed out on the face but the neck is realistic.

He is larger than Lonesome Glory, but there is overlap, fortunately.

Another view from the offside.

If it weren't for Brasenose, I'd quit here, with this super portrait.  What a photogenic horse!  As it is we're using it for the frontispiece:

I could always fall back on the tried and true Laid Out on the Rail approach:

THAT shows everything!

But it's fun struggling with the horses.  Who's next?  How about a wild card!  Of course the neckpieces don't fit at all on a Saddlebred.  The cape or crown piece, made to be strung on the poll strap, really doesn't fit this larger throatlatch (viz., Palustris).  The cape is trying to fit over the poll buckle and can't do so; I may try to correct this.  But the view of the jewel colors is a pleasant discovery, especially when you remember how many Akhal Tekes will be in golden yellow.

The brother of Laird is, in my herd, Rafael.  Here unfortunately is a disappointing pairing.  No matter how I darkened, his black coat washed out the camera every time.  Still there is potential; in person he is lovely.

To end this undoubtedly indulgent shooting session, I present my original and still beloved Russian resincast Teke, Brasenose my NaMoPaiMo horse from 2018. 

How do these aquamarines look against a bronze liver chestnut?  Pretty good, I think.

Nearside view.  Yet another pleasant surprise.  The cape needs to be trained; until then, sticky wax is indicated.

I will finish with a Bird'sEye view on this horse.  In an attempt to show the cape jewel, I've left this shot unlightened, so he appears somewhat darker than before.  Dig those jewel colors on the neck!

We still have the breastcollar to go, but the end is in sight.

Poplarville

 

 

What's new here is the recording, not the playing.  Clearly I've been playing for years, purely (just as clearly) as an amateur, solely for myself.  David Thomas Roberts is an American composer of ragtime (amoung other things), born in 1955 and operating out of California.  This rag is so perfectly him that I've fallen madly in love with it and have been playing it for weeks.  The scary thing is I've only just now discovered it, even though it was published in 1979 (!).  It's in his Ragtime Compositions Volume 2.  Maybe someday I'll share Volume 1, all of which are just as amazing and beautiful.

 

The piano is a Harmon & Wellington upright, built in 1909, purchased by my family in 1966 in Denver, where it was made.  Last tuned about 3 years ago.

Starting Akhal Teke set No. 4

One of the (many) reasons AT4 has taken so long is that I was wholly unprepared for how hard it would be to mount a light-colored stone.  This set intends to use aquamarines, while all my other Akhal Teke sets have used dark stones or the equivalent.  AT1 used emeralds (Brasenose's), AT2 carnelians (painted) and AT3 had sapphires and rubies (Sloan's).  Each gemstone was backed with silver tape.  Using silver tape gave sparkle and depth and actually enhanced the colors.  Why shouldn't the same trick have worked?!?  Imagine my total surprise when I first inserted the barely-blue aquamarines into their tiny bezels and got... no color at all.

Oooopsie.

This was a poser!  I'm sorry I don't have a picture of that first step -- you'll have to take my word.  With what can only be genius, my husband suggested backing the stones with blue prism tape.  (My customer also suggested blue paint, earlier.)  I gleefully jumped on these excellent ideas.  I made up a test mount, photo'd it (above) and sent it to the owner for approval.  I was sure I'd solved the problem.  

At the same time I made up tests with silver (pearl) prism tape.  I had no other colors of prism tape which were even close to light blue or silver/white/pearl.  The silver tests had a more interesting return.  The stones accented a flash of color in one facet and nothing elsewhere.

One tiny opalescent flash of color

Here's the second attempt with silver:

One flash of bluegreen

I didn't like the overall greyness of these silver experiments as compared with the turquoise blue, so voted them down.  I was sure the turquoise prism tape would work.  I went ahead and set the browband's three stones that way.  I used clear nail polish as my bonding agent.  Oooopsie again:  When dry, the polish completely consumed the facets and the whole stone turned vivid strong turquoise, exactly the color of the prism tape!!

Oh I didn't see that coming.

Now what!!??!!  I don't like to say how many failures came next.  (Again, no pix exist of the strong turquoise effect.)  The turquoise was beautiful but not what my customer had asked for; indeed, it wasn't what I had in mind at all.  For the artist must always have a vision to follow, and I could see that vision quite clearly...  I just couldn't quite reach it.  I tried and tried.  Eventually I tumbled to the fact that I was always viewing the aquamarines against a WHITE background.  They were so pale a color that that's the only way they showed up at all.

So I tried white. 

At first I used Gesso.  I had to reconstitute my much-dried-out old jar, what fun.  Then I painted the inside of the bezel as well as the back/bottom.  I set the stones and waited for everything to dry.  At last I was on track:  Finally this gave me the result I was looking for.  There was a slight chalkiness which I hadn't counted on, visible at close range.  It gave the stones the most indescribable smutty pearly glow.  Rather than upset, I was pleased:  I knew my customer's intended horse was Uffington  :)  and the White Horse of Uffington is a chalk horse if ever there was one!!  After all what is Gesso!!  But after that I put in tiny pieces of white paper - glossy.  Now I was satisfied.

Of course this bridle is unfinished, absolutely in progress!  The cheeks still need their silver bars, and there should be a chinstrap for the bit.  Then there's everything else:  the cape, the 2 neckpieces, the breastcollar.  I had to jump that first hardest jump, solve the color problem, before all else.  Tack rarely fights so hard and I've never had a Teke set fight like this.  Despite its taking so long, I felt the old thrill of justification.  The problem was worthy of my deepest skill, and I still had it in me to rise to the challenge.

Naturally, no one has an Uffington yet, so I photographed it on the only adult Breyer Perlino I had, Shazada my Lonesome Glory.  This turned out to matter, because Altynai/Talisman was a much more difficult color to shoot it on.  Somehow his buckskin coat just didn't bring out the subtleties of the light blue.  He kept overexposing things.  The Perlino had tones of white, pink and gold in the coat that wound up mattering very much.  I chose the ratio of gold to silver in the overall design of AT4 so as to set this off.

This picture shows my new bareback pad made by Anne Field of Field of Dolls.  Deep thanks to Ln for being my proxy buyer!  I know, I know, bridle and saddle don't go together, but this is playing.

Sized for Altynai, colored for Uffington:  This is a dream set, all right.

One cause of my rather slow progress is an injury.  Somewhere in mid-March I damaged my right elbow - I can't even remember how! - and it's been paining me to lift and hold, to squeeze and manipulate.  Using a spray can, for instance, hurts.  Is there such a thing as frozen elbow?  What a slow healer I am.  I see a dr. in May; I'm just tough enough to hold out til then.

Another cause of slowness has been my ridiculously late Christmas letters (!), no longer Christmas but quarantine-caused.  I'm through about a quarter of them.  I seem to have only a few hours a day (the rest is maintenance) and it seems to take an hour just to do 3 letters.  Yet another cause is plain ol' Quarantine Blues, something I'm sure every artist can understand!  We still have questions centering around naturally low white blood counts such as mine.  (Yes, I've asked one of my Drs, but she doesn't know.)  We can only wait, and waiting is....  hard.

On the happy distraction side, I've been totally entranced and had a great deal of time consumed by volcano-watching.  Below are a couple of the best videos on YouTube I've found in the past couple of weeks.  Each one will throw a bunch of side links and some of those will be the live feeds.  Enjoy!

Stefan Forster Icelandic Volcano Eruption

4K Drone footage No music 

In an attempt to darken Talisman wearing the unfinished AT4, I changed my camera's white balance.  But I think it got too dark.  These last pix are unprocessed.

For the first time on an Akhal Teke set, I am using two courses of silver bars for the browband and noseband.  The set just seems to need more heft and majesty for the larger horse.  It really is hard to photograph this!!

I am  deeply thankful for patience on the part of the owner.  I am well pleased with how it's turning out.

The Worst Puzzle

We interrupt our scheduled Ten Puzzles At A Time of 2020 to bring you my most recently finished, and most controversial, puzzle.  This little rat is guilty--!! of making me swear I'll sell it at the first opportunity!  Of course every collection of jigsaw puzzles has some hard ones; mine certainly does.  Hard does not necessarily mean 'bad.'   Twenty-twenty's hardest puzzle was also one of the most interesting, and I certainly plan on keeping that one (the Wolf's Head PhotoMosaic); more on it later.   But this round horse-head puzzle, from a reputable company (or so I thought), is most definitely... umm,...  not a keeper.

What makes a bad puzzle?

After completing this one, I can say that first and foremost, for me, even above the picture, the cut matters.  I use the term to refer to how the pieces fit together.  'Cut' covers not just piece shape and size but quality of interlocking and the feel of the fit.  Earlier puzzles I've reviewed have had loose cuts; the Copper Queen is Exhibit A.  Copper Queen puzzle   Although in her blog post I was quite free with criticisms of the cut, I hope it is clear that I love the puzzle regardless -- I would never sell her.  Copper Queen and her sibling puzzles have a historically important and now time-tested cut that has proven to be (as later posts will show) desirable for its own charms.  But Saddle Up has got the worst cut I've ever run across.

 First, there's the actual edge.  Rarely does a successful cut have straight lines on an edge piece.  I know they did this to accommodate the circle; but it seems cheap.  Think those little noses are good grippers?  Think again.

The slightest push with my hand, and things crumple up.  There's no holding capability.  This puzzle does not stick together whatsoever.  Part of the problem is how thin these pieces are.  Did I mention cheap?  When it's time for teardown, one swipe of the hand, one grabbing clutch will do the whole job!

Current Inc. is a stationery company.  I've used them for decades for address label stickers and for checks.  They're in Colorado Springs, which is wonderful for this native Coloradan.  I'm pretty sure we picked up this puzzle in a local restaurant in PA about 7 years back.  Circular puzzle, artist painted horse heads, thousand pieces:  Can't go wrong, right??

You can't pick up (or lay down) a piece without holding down all the other pieces around it with the rest of your fingers.  It's incredibly finicky and delicate, and it's almost impossible to shift around finished sections.  It needs to be put together in a place with absolutely no disturbance, which my living room floor just isn't.  For somebody who values the feel of piece placement, this is too much work for too little reward.  The scale of this puzzle was another challenge:  the box picture is so much smaller than the puzzle that it really is hard to work.  The scale was acceptable to me (the old pro) but might be off-putting to a novice.

And then there's the picture itself.

What at first glance looks like a lovely montage of horse heads turns out to be another cheat.  Saddle Up has 2 cases of twins, 3 cases of triplets and one set of quadruplets.  There's only one word for this.  I've been suckered.

First pair, reversed pinto drafters:

Second pair, dark bay or black ponies:

First trio, black heavy-hunter type with a blaze, one reversed:

Second trio, white-grey with a pink and grey nose, one reversed:

Third trio, calm bay or dun with blaze, one reversed:

Set of four, palomino Arab type, one reversed:

For all that, the Appaloosa is interesting, and I love the two chestnut foals.  The dark bay Dartmoor Pony (two o'clock position, just NE of the Appy) is charming.  The textures are different and so are the lovely warm colors, mostly.  The Pinto, above the Appaloosa, is a strange beast, looking for all the world as though the artist did not really understand tobianos or overos.  There is no artist name on the box, which is all to the good.

I'm all for supplying the horse-loving little girls of the world as many puzzles as possible.  But if this is their first one, be prepared for a young flourishing interest to be rudely disappointed.  The glory and reward of a well-made puzzle is not present here.  It got past my filters -- I grant that -- and I've worked it twice, the second time just to make sure I really didn't want it.

I don't.