Serendipity

This past weekend my sister and I went to the Kane County Flea Market in St. Charles, IL. Despite being cold, crummy weather, and the absence of many of the outside vendors due to the weather, it actually turned out to be my best visit ever!  

 Me on Sunday with my finds, they'll be showing up in the shop this week.

My favorite seller wasn't open due to the bizarre snow/rain mix that was coming down, so I told him I would come back tomorrow when he was set up. He always gives me great deals and is a riot to talk to. 

My friend Stephanie of Calamity Layne Vintage had a booth in one of the buildings, so I stopped by to say Hi.  She has great vintage clothing in her Etsy shop, and you can find out more about her and her partners in crime on the Betties N Brimstone blog.

The best part of this flea market trip was a find for one of my personal collections. I collect horse figurines, and usually look for ones by Hagen-Renaker, a pottery in California. As my sister and I were walking around one of the buildings, she pointed to a table and said "horses." I glanced over and noticed a horse that didn't look like the usual plastic Breyers that are commonly found.  I made my way over and found this lovely lady:

She is a large "Zara" Arabian mare figurine, originally produced in the 1950's, and they're pretty hard to come by. When they do come up for sale, they fetch several hundreds of dollars, and it's not unheard of for one to reach $1000 on eBay. My cost? Under $100. She is in perfect condition and has her original name sticker.

There are several of my fellow collectors looking for the same things I do at this flea market, so I generally never expect to find anything. But the crummy weather, my favorite seller not being set up, one fellow collector not arriving when the flea opened, and so many other happy coincidences resulted in my adding this gem to my collection. Serendipity. :)

GLC Fun Day

I'm *finally* getting around to uploading all of the pics from my camera, so I'm a little behind with posts. I have definitely NOT made my blogging goal this past month!

Anyway, here are some pics of the Breyer Youth Fun Day that the Great Lakes Congress model horse club hosted on October 24th:

Fun mechanical carousel made from Breyer Stablemates that Bentley Sales Co. had in their booth.

GLC members Kerri Johnson and Liz Cory

GLC members Jamie Rott and Cindy Chrisos picking out Stone "Chips" at the P.S. Cord booth

Youth showers listening to the critique of the sport breeds class

My favorite picture of the day: a "Snow Horse" entry in the Youth display class

Back from Breyerfest...

Well, I'm finally settled back in after my trip to Lexington, KY for Breyerfest, and thought I'd share some pictures. (Isn't the costume above adorable? There's a miniature horse in there somewhere!)

This is me on Friday morning at the Hobby Information Booth demonstrating how to hair model horses.  I was amazed how many people were interested in this aspect of customizing, since (to me, at least) it's a little old-school.  I answered all sorts of questions on customizing as well, from what I use to paint (pastels & acrylics) to how to remove the manes & tails for hairing (Dremel--to be used by adults only, please!).  I worked in the HIB all three days, promoting the model horse hobby and taking subscriptions for Just About Horses on Saturday and Sunday.

This was the volunteer horse for this year, the Breyer Proud Arabian Stallion in a chestnut pinto... isn't he awesome?  This particular one went in the Saturday night auction for $600. 

This is the 2009 Breyerfest celebration horse, Whizard's Baby Doll (Roxy) and her rider Stacy Westfall.  They're waiting to enter the arena for a bridleless reining demonstration. And yes, she is wearing a wedding dress, it's part of their routine.

This is my best friend, Melanie, who won the Just About Horses raffle for a Silver Screen model.  She had just left the park, so I had to call her and tell her to come back because she had won! 

On Vacation...

Well, I was going to post pictures during my trip to Breyerfest, but dummy me forgot the cord that attaches my camera to my laptop. So, the pics will have to wait until Monday when I get back, unless I can figure out something else.

Queen of Procrastination...

Remember the Breyer Lady Phase I was torturing in my last post? Well, she finally got to the painting stage, which is a good and a bad thing.  

Good, because I'm making some progress and getting her ready for my demo at Breyerfest. 

Bad, because I leave town tomorrow to drop kitty off at my parents' house and drive to Kentucky on Wednesday morning, so I don't have any time to paint after today.

Here is my drying space, as you can see I'm trying to multitask and get several models done.  If I get the others finished, they will be for sale at Breyerfest.  So far, only one of them is even close to being ready by Friday.

And, as if I weren't stressed out and overwhelmed by my painting procrastination, I've been restoring some Hagen-Renakers to possibly show at the Breakables live show on Thursday. The two on the left are probably not going t get done, they have quite a bit of work left on them.

Well, back to the trenches....

Adventures in Customizing...

I've been chosen to demonstrate the somewhat lost art of rehairing customized model horses at Breyerfest again this year, and decided that I needed a new model to work on, since the one from last year was a little boring (and, to be honest, I was really using the wrong kind of hair last year... using up old materials).  I also decided to share the fun experience of customizing with all of you.  So, I pulled out this gal:

To those of you who are not in the hobby, this is the Breyer Lady Phase.  This one has obviously seen better days, but that really doesn't matter since I'll be painting her later.  My first step was to remove her mane and tail.  So, I pulled out my trusty Dremel and went to work cutting and grinding.

Here she is without her mane and tail.  Unfortunately, she is also without a nice chunk of neck (you can sort of see it--where it looks like a dent on her neck) and has a big hole in her rump.  Oops... got a little over-zealous.  No worries, though, because I will be filling this in and sculpting a new neck and tailbone with Apoxie Sculpt.

These two photos show the holes in the body, filled with tin foil.  Breyers are hollow inside, so I needed to build a base for the Apoxie Sculpt to sit on, otherwise I'd have to use way more of it than was necessary.  I'd never be able to get this thing through airport security, though!  :)

I need to let the model sit for 24 hours for the Apoxie Sculpt to cure completely, and then I will be able to apply primer to the model and get her ready for painting.  More pics to come!

Only Two Weeks Left!

In two weeks, I will be heading to Lexington, KY for Breyerfest, a three-day event for model horse collectors.  It is held at the Kentucky Horse Park, and is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year.  (Shown above is Fluffy the inflatable horse, he greets visitors as they enter the park.)

Lexington is also a treasure trove of *all* things horse related.  This sculpture is outside of one of Lexington's parks (there are many more inside the park as well!), I found it by simply driving around town one day.  This is one of my favorites.  

I've been lucky to have been able to work at Breyerfest a couple of times... this is me after my workshop assistant gig a few years ago... I have to say, it is a blast being able to help out and introduce new collectors to the hobby!

Two weeks left!