A friendly Rivalry

     

     Back in March, Jackie Rossi contacted me about making an unusual doll for a performance set-up she had in mind for Candyland Live. Jackie has ordered many unusual dolls from me and I was confident that I would be able to make him. The doll was deceptively simple looking from the reference Jackie sent. I soon discovered it was one of the most complex dolls I had ever made. 

     A couple of weeks ago Jennifer Buxton sent me this photo, saying that she knew I would appreciate it. And I absolutely did! I asked if it was all tiny candy on there and she said it was. Holy cow that is a lot of tiny candy! Apparently this is a week or two of work for the jump. Which I can get behind that kind of obsession dedication.

     Jennifer knew that I knew what Jackie's entry would be and asked if she was going to get beat. I said the entry was fairly epic but you never know what will happen at a model horse show. Jackie's entry from Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild had very detailed documentation for people who are not familiar with the game. 

including screen shots from the game. 

      I loved how Jennifer's jump, for the first class of Candyland Live, said Welcome to Candyland. And in case you forgot, there was also an insane amount of tiny candy on it!

      When I started making the Link doll for Jackie I asked if I could post about his creation after she got to show him and she said I could. I received so many photos! Including screenshots, preliminary set-up shots, and show pics. I wish I could have used everything. Though I am sure between Facebook posts and Jennifer's blog we have at least seen a good amount of pics of the entries. 

     I really can't get enough pictures of the tiny candy! I know more exist in the world.

     I was really happy to get this screen shot from Jackie.

     And this awesomely similar show picture. 

    This really is an amazingly cool set-up! I was very happy to have been able to be a part of it. 

     Jennifer's jump is very cleverly executed. She said the giant gummy bears are dog toys (how creative!) and everything else she made by hand. Which goes to show that Jennifer is not only a skilled tack maker, but a skilled prop maker (and skilled painter and photographer, and blogger...)

     There were of course other entries in round one of performance at Candyland Live, but I was really interested in the Buxton/Rossi rivalry. 

    Both of them are very talented performance showers who are super creative and put a lot of effort into their setups. 

     Jackie was happy to be able to put together a performance idea she had in her head for awhile, that would not work at any other show because of the size constraints. I feel that the effort was definitely worth it. This was an incredibly cool entry to watch come together. 

    In the end, Jennifer got second place with her pony jumper entry with the cool Candyland jump. I think I may have made the doll on this one, but I am not positive from this angle. 

    And Jackie got the blue. Round one was just the start of the friendly rivalry between these showers. And it definitely looked like it got the show started off with a bang! Jennifer has done several posts about the continued rivalry between herself and Jackie. Both of them were on their A-game for Candyland Live. 

    In the end, one of my favorite things about model horse showing is that even while competing against each other, we are still focused on the people and the friendships. This past Sunday, while I was attending LIMHE, I was interviewed by a girl scout (who did not tell me her name) for a project on the model horse hobby. One of the first questions she asked was what my favorite part of model horse shows is. I immediately said, the people. She said that everyone said that.

     For most of us model horse showing really is about friends getting together to play with their toys. Rivalries are friendly and showers will often help each other out. Competition for the most part if fun with a bit of (or a lot of) silliness thrown in. And an insane level of obsession to tiny details creativity. 

    I have a bunch of show report posts planned for LIMHE. I was distracted by making tiny candy and working on finishing up talking about Candyland Live. I was not there but I feel I got to be a part of it and I love that! My showing experience this past weekend was likely not as epic as Candyland, but hopefully it will be fun to read about anyway.