At long last, here is my (epic) show report for the show I went to just over a week ago! It was the Mid-Ark Model Horse Expo in Greenbrier, Arkansas.
I ended up paying for an extra table, so I had two tables to set up and look after. I was so happy to have the extra space, it was really nice to be able to spread out. Here was my horse table:
 |
| Some of my OF (original finish) Breyers |
 |
| The rest of my OF, and then my custom horses on the left. |
 |
| Custom horses and a few OFs that don't stand very well |
 |
| My little custom herd |
And here was the second table, which I set up to be a sales table; mostly all laser things:
 |
| All kinds of goodies for sale! |
The competition at the show was FIERCE. We were allowed to come in for a few hours the night before to do some setup and at that time I saw a bunch of the horses I'd be competing against. It was enough to make me seriously consider leaving my custom horses at the hotel...
Here are some of the performance entries that I saw:
 |
| I took a bunch of pictures of this one since I am now obsessed with horse drawn vehicles and harnesses - thanks to my "Project Stagecoach". |
 |
| I was in love with this set up |
 |
| Check out this tack!! This was one of my favorites. |
 |
| A Marwari costume! I was just recently wondering if anyone had made one of these... Yep! |
 |
| A cross-country entry. A crowd was gathered around this one, talking pictures and taking to the man who made it. |
 |
| Saddleseat, a very pretty horse and rider. |
I noticed several cross-stitch saddle pads on some of the western horses and I took pictures of some of them:
One of the really exciting things for me was that I finally put out some of my cross-stitch pads for sale and... I sold two of them!
The first went to a performance shower who was looking for a saddle pad to better match her rider doll. This was the saddle pad she ended up buying:
She was entered in a lot of performance classes and I took pictures of a couple of them:
 |
| It was so cool to see one of my saddle pads in action!! |
 |
| The pad actually matched the rider very well, I'm so glad it worked for her! |
Then, it turned out that she won Overall Champion in Original Finish Western Performance! How cool!
 |
| I'm honored that one of my saddle pads was able to be part of such a beautiful setup - Overall Champion! I was so happy for her! |
I had a few of my newer saddle pads there on display, even though they were unfinished. I had thought if someone wanted one I could just take it home and finish it, then mail it to them. Well, someone came along who fell in love with my "Lapis Lazuli" pad and had to have it. It turns out they have done some cross stitching before and they said they could finish it up. So I said goodbye to what was, so far, my favorite saddle pad:
 |
| Goodbye, "Lapis" pad... I hope it helps to win some awards! |
I loved that one so much that I think I'll end up making another one someday, though I'll probably change it a bit. I like the idea of my saddle pads being one of a kind. I wish I had gotten the buyer's name and/or contact information. It would be fun to see this one in "action" somewhere too.
Lastly, here are some pictures of just a few of the stunning Artist Resin and Custom horses that my lowly creations were competing against! They were all stunning, I felt a mix of awe and terror at having to face them on the show tables - ha!
The good news about facing so many amazing horses with my (primarily OLD) custom work is that I wasn't discouraged at the end of it all, I was actually fired up to get back home and get back to work on further developing my own skills. It was frustrating to be showing horses that I know aren't my best work. I know I have it in me to do much better and I'm ready to do it! I even got started at the show, I pulled out a couple of tiny Micro Minis and put a little bit of paint on them:
 |
| A future custom Appaloosa and Pintabian... |
The next show I'm eying is in March and I've already started developing a plan to have a BUNCH of NEW, finished custom horses ready by then.
Whew! So.. that was the show. It was a great day. I met a lot of great people, saw a ton of A-M-A-Z-I-N-G horses, and I ended up even more on fire to create custom horses - and even more interested in getting into... *gasp* performance showing. Duh, duh.. DUH!!
It was great meeting you at the show! Thanks again for selling the saddle pad to me, I think it really did help tie together my entries, and I'm glad you got to see some of your work in action right then and there. I'm glad the show didn't discourage you (I felt the same way the first time I went to it back in 2007.. it was very intimidating to see all the top notch resins and performance set ups) but instead inspired you to keep trying. There is a definite downside to showing customs against resins and minis against larger horses (I left most of my customs and minis at home for these reasons - I prefer to just bring them to shows that have separate custom/mini divisions), but hopefully you didn't do too poorly and still had fun. And I do hope you will give performance showing a try! :)
ReplyDeleteIt was great meeting you too and it was wonderful seeing my saddle pad in action! :-) I was a little bummed about the butt-kicking it seemed I received, haha, but it wasn't unexpected. I pretty much knew it was coming on Friday night when I saw some of the horses there. But at then end of the show I really wanted to get back to work, try to learn more, practice more skills, and make more horses! Yes, I think I'll be looking for shows that separate customs from resins (bonus for a mini division!) and even Breyers from Stones in the OF department. I'm a little (ok, a lot) out of touch with what's available out there OF-wise. I saw a few horses on Friday night that I KNEW had to be resins or customs.. only to see them on the OF table the next day. :-O Seems like my old Breyers don't have a chance against those. It was a learning experience for sure.
DeleteI think I'm going to plan on trying performance showing next year - for the very first time. Eeek! It is pretty intimidating, especially after seeing what's out there, but I've got to start somewhere, right?