To the Swamp in the Sky

When I was a kid - about 12 or 13, I think - I had a pet beetle.  It wasn't a "cool" beetle, like I later found out were popular pets in Japan (those being stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles).  No, he was just an ordinary little black beetle.  He was actually a stink bug, but he never "stunk" me.  I found him in the yard and thought he was cool.  I had named him Bub.  Bub the Beetle.  Random trivia: Bub's favorite snack was a peeled grape.  

Bub and I had some adventures.  The most memorable was when I took him to visit my grandparents.  My Granddad thought he was really neat.  Granddad and I ended up going on a camping trip and I took Bub with us.  When we got to the campsite, I discovered Bub had escaped in the truck.  Granddad and I searched the whole truck and we did find him.  Whew!  

I had Bub as a random little pet for 6 months and then he died.  I was upset, I cried.  He was "just" a random beetle, but he was my little buddy.  I remember some other kids being confused why I was crying over "a bug".  

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In late 2009, I rescued a salamander. 

Longer story short, he was in a situation he wouldn't have survived and so I took him home.  I knew nothing about having an amphibian - having only had VERY limited experience with anything cold blooded in my lifetime of caring for a wide variety of pets.  A friend, who had a salamander as a pet, told me they were low maintenance and encouraged me to keep him.  I had no idea how long salamanders lived and at the time, I thought he would be a fun little oddity for a few years. 

It turned out I was overfeeding him at first and he ended up quite chubby.  The same friend set me straight about that, ha.  But it was during that time that he was given his name.  Due to his dark green, and black, coloring and his rather... rotund state at the time, I named him Jabba.  As in Jabba the Hut, from Star Wars.

Our journey together started in South Dakota, then later moved to North Dakota, and finally, Minnesota. 

It ended on December 20th, 2025.

I often referred to him as "the world's oldest salamander" and joked that he was immortal.  I think part of me almost thought he was.  That strange little creature I thought would be in my life for only a few years stayed and stayed.  

At my best guess, based on the 16 years we were together and the fact that he was already full grown when that time started (which apparently takes 2-4 years), I estimate he was a minimum of 18-20 years old.  Perhaps even older.  And still it somehow feels like it wasn't enough time.

Am I grieving a salamander?

Yes, yes I am.

He was a weird and wonderful little dude.  He was loved and he will be missed.  

Horses of the Day, Week, Month = Restocked!

A while back - I checked, it was just shy of two years ago (!!) - I had shared a post here titled, "A Morning In The Studio".  In that post, I had talked about how part of my daily routine is to reveal the horse of the day, on a calendar that sits just inside the door to my studio room. 

I also talked about the "horse of the day" in this post.  

For the last two years now, I have purchased that daily calendar, plus a weekly planner (mentioned as an inspiration in this post), and also a monthly wall calendar - all from the same company.

I have a bit of an annual routine, in a couple of different parts.  

In December, I buy the set of three for the next year.

Then, generally in the spring, but also throughout the year, I sort through the pictures from the previous year and file them away as part of my massive reference library.  Interestingly, I've found multiple pictures of the same horses - including one Paint horse stallion that the photographer seems to be quite obsessed with, ha!

Over the last week, I've already started sorting through the pictures from this year and some from last year.

I've also made my annual purchase of next years collection:  

That dark grey on the cover of the weekly planner already has my attention, as does the exuberant black horse on the box of the daily calendar.  A black horse with a star, reminds me of my boy, Bo.  

I don't usually make New Years Resolutions or even necessarily make big plans.  The last several years have been so turbulent that it makes me hesitant.  (I do laugh when I see posts and memes online from people asking if someone is going to lunge the next year before we all get on.  Haha!)

2026 *is* the Year of the Horse and that has my attention.  Despite my attempts to be guarded, I am hopeful it will be good and...  I *do* have some plans...

Yuletide Photo Challenge - Week Two

In my last post, I shared the first week, or so, of my photos for the Yuletide Photo Challenge.  Here, I'll continue, picking up on Day 10.


Day 10: Biggest Bargain

This one is different from what I’ve done so far and maybe different from everyone else’s answer - ha!

This GIANT box has the Breyer Deluxe Wood Barn in it, as the box says. I have had it for a little while now. But, in a rare case of setting boundaries for myself, I’m not going to open it until I have room to work on it. I’m crawling toward that point, maybe it will be a good project for this winter.

Why is this picture of a big slab of cardboard my “best bargain”?  Because, longer story short, I got it for only $30. This was due to the wonderful generosity of a friend, of Breyer, and of good timing.

My long(er) term plan is to offer accessories and upgrades for many of the Breyer barns and so I’ve been sort of collecting them for a little while now. This is the BIG one.  I hope I can unbox it and get to work on it soon-ish. 😉

Day 11: Best glow up.

I wasn't sure what to do with this one, hence falling behind on the challenge. I decided to go with Popular Monster, my Juggernaut resin, by Khrysalis Studios - Art by Rayvin Maddock.  He was an unpainted resin (and scared the heck out of me, ha) until this past February when I finally brought him to life.

He's named after a Falling In Reverse song/album.  His barn name is Ronald - another, *heavy* FiR song.

Day 12: Model you didn't like at first.

I also wasn't sure what to do with this prompt.. two days in a row where I was undecided and here we are!

I decided to go with Backflip.  He is a custom I did back in 2000 and... I never liked him. Not sure why, I just thought he was boring...?

However, in true typical pony fashion (?) he doesn't give a crap what I think.

He's gone on to be a repeat live show and photo show winner, and even a photo show champion. He placed 2nd and got another NAN card at a tough live show just three months ago.

I don't understand it, I just shake my head and laugh every time he wins in spite of what I think of him.

Day 13: Wildlife!

Well, well, this guy showed up just in time!

Arriving here just yesterday was Roddick or as I keep calling him "The Moose". No official name for him yet.  He's my first Breyer moose, first of any Breyer animals other than horses.

I did an unboxing video of him yesterday and I'm already in love!

Day 14: Stocking stuffer: a little treat.

This is a micro mini resin "Nasir", sculpted by North West Studios, and painted by me.

Day 15: Holiday Lights: Lamp or Nightlight

I don't have any of those, but I do have THIS and look how much she glows! 

This is the "Heather" medallion, by Mel Miller Equine Art. She was a random purchase, meaning I didn't know what color I was getting and... I didn't even know she glowed, until I saw a creepy glow one night in my studio, years ago.   She was in a tote of unpainted things and she was subtly glowing away in there.

Recently-ish, I had considering selling her, but when I showed her to Brent and explained she glows in the dark, he said, "That's cool!  You should keep her!"  Now she usually lives in a sunny window in the studio, charging up for times like this! 

Day 16: Chestnuts NOT roasting on an open fire.

Since the prompt was plural, I went for two, TWO chestnuts, ah ah ah.  One is red chestnut, one is liver chestnut, both are Arabians. These are two medallions that I painted. I'd started both of them... years ago, but put the finishing details on - or repainted entirely in the case of Sherlock - this past July.

On the left is "Sherlock", sculpted by Khrysalis Studios - Art by Rayvin Maddock.  I named him "Raised by Wolves", from a Falling in Reverse song.

On the right is "Kaysha", sculpted by Studio Thornrose.  I named her "Conflicted", because that's how I was feeling about the hobby at the time...

Day 17: Ceramic Saturnalia Steeds

This is one of many ceramic horses I brought back from my time in Japan.  I have several of them, in all different sizes and colors.  I tend to shy away from ceramics (fragile!) but these are an important part of my herd. ❤

That's a wrap on the second round of photos for this challenge.  Stay tuned for Week Three.. or Three and a half...  Something like that!  

Yuletide Photo Challenge - Week One

I've always loved participating in photo challenges and have shared many of them here over the years.  There's a new one going on, called the Yuletide Photo Challenge, started by Kristen and Sarah Wellman. 

I knew keeping with it would be, well, a challenge - for me.  I'm not sure I've managed to fully finish one of the month long daily challenges, but I'm giving it a go!  I did figure that doing daily blog posts for it would be extra tough, so I've been posting them on Facebook, both my personal page and my Studio FB page.  I decided that maybe I'd try and do a weekly recap post here and so this is the first one!  

First up, here's the prompt list:

And, away we go!


Day 1: First model in my collection.

My first ever model horse was the original Smoky.

My grandparents bought him for me for my 3rd birthday.  He was extremely well-loved, even after his tail and one leg were missing.  Sadly, I don't have him anymore. I do have his... I don't want to say replacement, but I do have have another well-loved (and unbroken!) original Smoky - from my dear friend, Sue.  He came with the name "Indy" and that's what I call him.  He's been quite the star here, having appeared in many "bad performance" set ups.

His biggest adventure was probably when he took to the skies, hanging under a drone, in a rescue sling that I made. 

I still have a love (obsession) for the Smoky mold. More on that, tomorrow!

Day 2: A model from a friend

Yesterday, I talked about how the original Smoky was my first model.  I have a few others on the Smoky mold in my collection, and several more for custom projects, but there was one that I really wanted to add someday. Sandman, from the Vintage Club, because: Smoky and also because I have always LOVED a loud overo (as in Katie from Young Riders, or Hidalgo).

While visiting with a good friend this past spring, and talking model horses, I had mentioned how he was on my wish list.  A short time later a mystery box from that friend showed up and... !! (I cried happy tears)

He is absolutely MAGICAL and he immediately became a top favorite in my herd.

Day 3: A purchase made on a whim.

This one was actually hard.  Most all of my models, I had a reason for buying them.  It seems rare that I buy "on a whim".  Then I realized this guy fits. 

In 2021 BreyerFest was virtual and I bought several models.  Rhev here WAS an impulse buy.  I hadn't planned to get him, but decided to "add to cart" anyway.  I didn't have one on this mold and did think I might want to make tack on him at some point, though even then I knew I'd rather have a purebred Arabian color for that.

Anyhow, I did indeed buy him "on a whim".  Now I do have one on this mold in grey/white now, but this guy is still hanging around. Remember, yesterday I said I've always loved a loud overo.

Day 4: A model I would never let go.

It would have to be Reckless.

He's one of the first horses I ever painted, when I was 14-15 or so.  He's a Hartland that I'd bought at a flea market and painted to a wild pinto pattern.  I named him after a Bryan Adams album.  He was a champion photo show horse back in the day and has even won some live show awards (in vintage classes).

He lives in his custom leather nameplate halter, which was a gift from my friend, Jennifer.

Day 5: Krampus is coming!  Who's been naughty?

When this guy first arrived, I was happy to have another Akhal-Teke, to join Uffington (this same mold, in cremello).  I immediately parked him on the chaotic tack desk, to start "earning his keep" as a tack model. 

Very shortly after that, he tipped over and wiped out all sorts of horses and projects.  As I recall, I took a picture of him and send it to a hobby friend, calling him an, um, unflattering name.

It's not his fault, he's just a longboi.

Day 6: A model lying down and taking a break.

I think this might be the only lying down model I have.  This is Enya, the Premier Club Stablemate from 2024, sculpted by Mindy Berg.  I decided to take her picture lying down in one of my favorite footings for the mini horses - I love this grass mat!

Day 7: Pearl

The model that immediately came to mind was this guy.  He is TB Trueno, a Winterfest model from 2023.

I named him Starlight.

Day 8: Longears

I don't have a whole lot of longears in my herd, but this one is the most recent.  He's a mule from Schleich.  I bought him this past summer and in September he won a class at a live show and is now NAN qualified.  I named him Jake.

Day 9: Evergreen

For today, I immediately thought of this guy.  He is Greenman, a Store Special from BreyerFest 2020. He's one of a few horses I've kept NIB, because his box is cool and I thought he looked neat in it.  For a bit he was the only one I had on this mold and I had considered extracting him for tack making, but then I did end up getting the TSC SR (grey with a blanket, also in 2020).  So this guy has stayed snug in his forest scene box.

And that's it for the first batch of pictures! 

I plan to be back here with Week Two... or the last part of Week Two anyhow, since I went a couple of days into it here already!

Tiny Tack Marathon - The Start

A few months ago, a friend asked me if I'd like to go to The Little Horse Show - put on by Stone Horses, in Indiana, in early September.  I said, "sure!".

After paying for entry, I began studying the class list and then an idea crept in.  What if I did Performance?  What if I did only Performance?  What if... I picked ONE horse and tried to enter every single class with that horse?

I was quite intrigued by the idea and thought it would be a great "excuse" to push my tack making and my (largely untested) Performance showing skills.  

Then came the selection process. 

First I thought, which breed can do everything?  Which could I probably find lots of references for?  Arabian was what I came up with - it doesn't hurt that they are a favorite breed of mine. 

Okay, which Arabian?  I briefly considered the idea of making a CM Stablemate Arabian in a walking or trotting pose, but I decided trying to do that AND make ALL of the tack and entries might be a bit much, even for me...

My pick, as you may already know by now, was a mini Khemosabi resin that I had painted during NaMoPaiMo in 2020.  I had named him Sound The Bugle.  I really liked the idea of doing this adventure with him.  

He had recently returned from his own big adventure, where he and everyone else in this herd had just returned from Kentucky.  The same friend who brought up the idea of going to The Little Horse Show had proxy showed for me at Equilocity during BreyerFest!

A certain little bay Arabian was drafted from that chaos there and chosen to prep for another big show.

As a bit of a bonus, for the marathon of tack making to come, he has his own "stunt double".  I have another copy of this resin, still unpainted.   

Okay, little guy(s), let's get to work!

I did a TON of brain storming, research, and note taking. 

First up for studio work was sculpting some saddle trees.  As much as I had planned to use the stunt double for most things, I had to draft the "hero horse" for making saddle trees, because I figured I would need several saddles.  

I used Apoxy Sculpt and started with a variety of saddles in mind (english, western, endurance, costume).  In the days to come, as the saddle trees were cured, I popped them off the horses and sculpted more.

(Those little plastic bins I had found at the dollar store proved to be absolutely necessary for this whole project)

More saddle stuff!

The bin for saddles started having a good number to experiment with.

In addition to saddles, I would need a lot of leather lace.  I skivved, prepped, and split lace in a few colors.  

For sizes, I had prepped everything from 1/4", 1/8", 3/32", and 1/16"... but even 1/16" was too wide.  I knew I would have split it.  Oddly, that was something I put off for a little while.  I hadn't done it before and I was overthinking it (big surprise).  

An interesting development - once I had a pile of prepped lace and was avoiding splitting some of it - was that I ended up dog sitting for a friend of ours for a few days.  Last time I had done this, I had taken some projects over and hung out.  Most notably, I started an Arabian costume that I think of as "The Lucy".

This is Lucy.  She is a very sweet pupper.

I've long known of the power of being "somewhere else" for the creative process, particularly when stuck on a project.  

It was while hanging out with Lucy again that I started splitting leather lace and..  I found it easy to do!  

The prep work, fabrication, and assembly continued at tack desk in the studio,

and at the kitchen bar that Brent built.

You can see how much those little bins helped.  Also, a lot of post it notes were used to try and stay organized - while trying to work on a project that was actually several smaller ones at the same time.

This was, more or less, the start of the whole thing!  

Back On The Saddle - A Decade Later

Remember that time 10+ years ago when I started working on my first leather saddle?

I had done a few posts about it here, like this one where I had cut all of the pieces out.  Also, this one where I did, probably, the biggest upgrade that will be done on it, stepping up the stirrups.

Well, I've been working on it again.  I was guessing it had been 10 years (possibly more) since I had worked on it and apparently, according to this blog, I was right.

Here's how it looked when I set up to work on it again last night:

Those clothespins have been on there all this time.  To Japan and back, and through several other moves.

I think these parts are thoroughly glued together now.

So... why go back to it now?

I have been both excited and intimated by the idea of making saddles.  Over the years I've sort of danced around them, making many saddle stands and saddle pads... but no saddles.  I've continued to study saddles, collect references and dream, but that was it.

Interestingly, I've now done a LOT of work with leather - mostly strap goods (bridles, halters, harness work, and so on).  When I started this saddle, it was my very first big, "real" (leather) project.  It was... as I said, exciting and scary. 

Last month, in early September, I made my first "serious" go at showing performance, which is something I could easily write a few posts about - and I hope to!  I went with the goal of showing one horse in every performance class and I just about pulled it off (choosing to skip a few classes toward the end, to put more time into my biggest entry).

As you might guess, to pull that off, I needed saddles.  And so, harnessing the power of last minute, I did show with 5 saddles that I made.  Or, almost made.  I'm not sure I consider them finished, but anyhow, I did it!  

I ran the gauntlet of English saddles,

a Western saddle (which was the most unfinished of them, but I went for it anyway),

and an "other saddle", for Endurance. 

After all of that, saddles felt less scary.  Surely if I made several mini scale saddles in short time, I could handle that old Traditional scale western saddle I'd started?

Another motivator is that I have been working hard on my Etsy shop over the last month, clearing some of the logjam of things I've made that need to be photographed and listed to sell.  Last week the batch of photos and listings that I worked on was a bunch of saddle pads.  Again I thought, it'd be nice to have a saddle to show them off with.  

So, I dug out ye olde started saddle and here we are.

I picked up right where I left off, on the cinches.  I fished gluing on the liners and attached the connector strap between them.  I also pinched the holes in the billets, grabbed a horse, and cinched up what I had for the first time!  (that was pretty dang cool)

I do remember that I hit a snag in the kit instructions that derailed me and, well... 10 years have gone by.  I DID find, what I felt were, much better instructions for that part at some point and so I did get a piece of it done, with no record of when or where that happened.  That piece was the front half of the tree.

I did go a bit farther with assembly last night; I attached that front piece to the lower skirt and I also attached the stirrup fenders.  Oh, and I glued the cantle support  piece onto the back of the cantle.  Next up is putting the back half of the tree on, then the upper skirt, seat..  and so on.  

As usual, for me, I'm already thinking about future possibilities.  In the last 10 years I've learned a lot about working with leather, including a bit about stamping, carving, and tooling.  When I started it, I had really wanted to make this saddle fancy in some way, but had decided to leave it plain.  I'm already pondering what I might do on the next one... I've also acquired some exciting tool in the last 10 years, like the elusive Rio Rondo basket weave stamp.  

It feels good to be working on an OLD project again. 

Maybe I'll get out the stagecoach again sometime soon - ha!

Guardian of the Cards

Every time there is a big gap in between posts - which is all the time "lately" (the last few+ years?) I feel like I should address it somehow when I unexpectedly post here again.  But also... "Ain't nobody got time for that"? 

I'm simultaneously somehow okay... better than ever, really - no.. really - while also struggling with a darkness I can't articulate.  Many times I've been told, or read or heard, that it takes being "safe" to finally be able to process trauma that you were stuck in survival mode to get through at the time it was happening.  I've realized that most of my life has been spent in that survival state.  I'll spare you the trauma dump(s).  I'm okay.  I really am.  It's just - at times - a daily fight to convince myself that it's true.  I'm trying to find myself again and this is part of that.  Thank you for being here. 

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In the chaotic mess that is my life and my studio, there are some strange constants. 

One is this:

"What is that?", you might ask.  Good question!

I've come to think of him as the "guardian of the cards".  You see, for some reason, he ended up parked on top of the box my business cards are in.  He lives there.  Whenever I need a card, or three, I move him, retrieve the cards, then put him back at his post.  

But..  what is he?

He's a wooden bear, from Japan.  

Here's a better view of him, briefly taken as I rotated him on his perch.  (He looks a bit concerned.)  

Just a few days ago, the box of cards he guards was changed out.  The best way to describe that is probably to share the post I made on my Facebook business page tonight.

That about says it all, or all I need to say right now.  

More about that bear...

Wooden bears were everywhere when I was in Japan.  The one who guards the cards is the smallest in my little collection - and the smallest I'd seen there, which is why I bought him at a random sale somewhere over there.

The biggest one I have is this guy. 

He was a gift from my bonsai instructor, when he accepted a job in Tokyo and moved away from rural northern Japan, where I was.

Here he is with a Stablemate, for scale.

I laughed after I took that picture, realizing how that is a Stablemate (1:32) mold who is also a traditional (1:9) scale - which makes the bear look HUGE.  Ha!  He's not THAT big.

So here's another picture, with Hazard - a classic (1:12) scale mustang stallion.  (He is a son of Reckless, for anyone who's followed me for a while)

I also grabbed another bear to show off here, but the picture ended up blurry.  Ah well.  This bear has a fish on a fishing pole.

At times I had wished I knew the significance (if any) of the wooden bears, often carved with fish, in Japan.  While I was there it felt beyond the language barrier for me to ask.  Someday I might go searching on the internet, but for then and for now it's just a memory of my time there and that's enough.

There are definitely bears there and they are nothing to mess with.  The Asiatic Black Bear, which was found where I was living and exploring, was known to attack people.  Us Americans were warned that they are not the often timid black bears we might be used to.  Up north, on the island of Hokkaido, are big brown bears.  I saw some fairly fresh bear scat on a hiking trail once and I think I saw a bear in a field along the road another time.  That was - thankfully - as close as I ever got to one.  

The tiny carved bear who guards my cards feels like he is well suited to the task.