A Morning In The Studio

I keep thinking it would be fun to do a video where I do a "day in the life" type of thing, or even jst share my morning routine.  Video is still something I struggle with - though it's on my (crowded) short list of things to work on.  So how about a bit of a photo essay, instead?

After coffee, first things first, it's down the hallway to the studio.  This hallway has an "overflow" shelf of fabric, floss, projects, and some of my tatting things. 

Cracking open the door to the cave of wonders!

My routine for a little while has been this: after entering the studio, I turn on the light, and change the daily horse calendar.  

It's neat to see what the day's horse will be and it's usually inspiring (some of the pictures aren't great, but most are interesting).  Today's horse is fun!  

After checking out the horse(s) of the day, I generally reacquaint myself with how I left things the day before.

Right, this guy got a bath yesterday, in preparation to prime him.  

He is the Wycked Wynd resin, by Morgen Kilbourn.  I chose him to be my horse for this years NaMoPaiMo.  I'll be painting him chestnut.  Yesterday, after making the final selection, taking my entry selfie, he got a bath.  I also bathed another horse and planned to primer both of them last night.  Unfortunately, it seemed I got a bit of water in "Wynd", through the airhole, so he had to dry overnight.  

So, this morning's status was that he needed that coat of primer.

Over on the tack desk, I was working on two brown leather halters, sized on the Duende mold.
 

They are very close to being done.  I just have to attach the throatlatches on the other side, and put on the chin/under jaw pieces.  

I'm experimenting with a way of "speed building" halters and it seems to be working.  It's still not super fast, but I'm finding I can do multiples at once fairly easily.  I have a set of pieces to use as a guide when attaching hardware.  So I don't have to measure every single piece as I go, just do precise fitting toward the end - if that makes any sense.  

Last night, I also skived and prepped some lime green colored leather lace.  I plan to make a halter or two with this and also a lime green endurance set (halter bridle combo and breastplate or breast collar).

Another thing on today's plan is to start rearranging the chaos on the painting desk.  

I'd like to move my latop over there and make space for the workshop that starts Thursday evening. 

That is the Introduction to Oil Painting class held by Equine Art by Heather Bullach.  The color for the class is black, a favorite color of mine.  Some of yo may know that I took this class last year, too...  Yep, I got all of the supplies, tuned in for, I think, two of the Zoom sessions, but missed the rest.  I didn't ever actually start, because oils scare me, they still scared me and so...  yeah.  Take two!

This morning I took a quick glance at the painting chaos to see if those supplies are still handy.  Yep, there they are.  

The only thing not there are the brushes, which are in a drawer nearby.

I'm *still* scared of oils, but I'm going to go for it anyway.  

Okay, plan for the morning made, time to prime that horse!

This is my favorite primer.  I get it at O'Reilly Auto Parts.  It comes in several colors and I have all of them (black, dark grey, light grey, white, and this red).  Since Wynd will be a chestnut, I'm going with red primer.  

Out to the garage I went, after shaking the can for a few minutes....  And back in I came, because this can won't spray.    

I had a fuzzy memory of this happening before - probably with this can!  So I noted the problem on the can lid this time.  The nozzle might be fixable, or I might just take the can in for disposal, but at least I'll know now which can is the problem child.  

Moving on!  Brand new can of red primer deployed, shaken for a few minutes, back out into the garage with us.

After spraying, he spent a few minutes in the garage, then I moved him down to the basement to finish drying.  It's warmer than outside in the garage, but still cold.  

In the basement was the Dani model that I bathed and primed last night.  She will be my black oils horse.  She needs a tiny bit more prep, which I plan to do today.  

She most likely won't be perfectly prepped in time for the class, but that's fine.  I'm really trying to work on the idea of "progress, not perfection".  

After parking Wynd in the basement and bringing Dani up to the studio, I had breakfast, and did a couple of social media posts (I'm trying to get better about remembering to do that).

Instagram:

Facebook:

(And I'm also writing this blog post!)

I took a late morning break to go do my farm chores: feed Bo, let the chickens out, and check on everyone out there.  A friend stopped by briefly on her way to town.  She brought back a couple of egg cartons, a piece of blueberry bar she baked, and we had brief chat about the ups and downs of being a self employed maker.  She does incredible wood working and we have talked about doing some laser collaborations.

After I hit "publish" here, I need to box up an order from my Etsy shop and head to the post office.  I sold a classic scale western bridle!  

That's what went on this morning in the studio!