Fancy Hats

     I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love making fancy hats. That is, in general, why I enjoy making driving dolls. There are, technically, a wide variety of ways to make driving dolls but my basic driving doll has a long dress, a short jacket and some sort of fancy hat. I’ve made a good amount of driving dolls at this point, but every single hat is unique.

     I really love how this particular hat came out. It was not overly complex to make but it looks really fancy. First I painted a basic straw hat black, then I wrapped it with narrow silver ribbon, and to complete it I tucked the top of a very fluffy feather into the ribbon and wrapped it around the hat. 

      Yesterday was an interesting day at school. I have 2 new classes and get to work with a friend of mine (for both classes) who I have never worked with before. She is an excellent teacher. She is very inclusive, introduced me to everyone, had no issues with me jumping right in to help (weirdly, some teachers do) and the classes were small group and fairly laid back. It was nice. I ended up covering an art class 6th period, which gave me some time to read. It was definitely not a terrible Monday. And the new schedule, while lacking in lifeskills classes, is not bad. I only have one inclusion class, my biggest, and there are only 15 kids in it. I think the next largest class is 13. But Ludlow usually doesn't have super big classes. Anyway, I knew all but one of the kids in the 1st and 5th period classes, which makes jumping into the deep end less scary. It is easier to work with people if I know their names. Tonight is Open House and paras are allowed to go, but not required. I am pretty sure I am staying home. The "classes" are roughly 9 minutes, which means I would spend the entire time just running around the school. So sort of like my work day, just in a shorter time frame!

 

Tack Room Details

       I love miniatures and miniature details. They makes me really happy. Saturday I decided I needed to clean my tack room, again, and decided it was time to hang up my mini rosettes. I love mini rosettes. I love shows that offer them and think they are a really excellent prize. One of the ways I have previously displayed my full sized rosettes was hanging fishing line across the room. I decided to do the same thing, in miniature, for my tiny rosettes. To make things easier I used my cross tie rings that I got from Enterprise Props. I don't have a barn so they have just been hanging out on the floor of my tack room. I stuck them to the wall with glue dots. 

     I think I currently have one more tiny rosette that is coming at some point, and the other ones I have are neck sashes that the horses that won them wear. I really love the detail of the rosettes hanging in the tack room. 

    I actually started adding little details to my tiny tack room years ago. I added the little clock before I hung up the saddle racks. I am glad I still had room to hang them. I have a lot of tack (not nearly as much as some people) and going up was the only way I could make things fit. 

     I have this cool horse painting on the wall, which I really love. I sometimes want to look for more horse art to put on the walls, not that I have much space for it, but it would be nice. 

     And to wrap up the tour here is a view of the entire tack room. I swear, I cleaned it. I really need to put some of these things in another place. Or make a larger tack room. Not that I have space for that. I do want to point out that I have an empty saddle rack. Which obviously means I need another saddle. 

 

The Resin Storage Experiment

      A year or 3 ago I started an experiment. Clearly it was not super well planned out as I can't actually remember when I started it. But it has definitely been a while. I would say most likely closer to 3 years than 1. But I can't say for sure. But since Ethan and I have plans (well, currently desires) to move eventually, I need to figure out how to store artists resins in a way that won't damage them. Not necessarily for years, but potentially for several months in all sorts of weather conditions. That is a scary prospect with models that are not as tough as an OF. 

  

  I had a model that already had paint damage from improper storage. The concept was good, but the reality was not. The satin lined pouches were very safe for storage to and from shows, maybe even wrapped for a couple of days, but not in extreme temperature shifts. We don't have air conditioning, and live in New England, so it gets hot and humid here. But also very cold. Not that it gets super cold inside, but the closet, where the resin was stored, was definitely not as warm as the rest of the house. 

     It is just the side of the horse that has the damage in the finish, and I am pretty sure there is a way to fix this, but I wanted to use him for an experiment before I got into that project. He still had plenty of undamaged paint/finish on him. So I wrapped him up in parchment paper, packed him in a couple of padded pouches, and put him away. And then forgot all about him. 

      Yesterday I was looking for something in the closet and rediscovered him. I remembered the experiment and pulled him out. Hazard Pay still has unblemished paintwork on his face, and everywhere else he didn't have previous damage. I would call that a successful experiment. But no experiment is complete if you can't repeat your findings. 

     Clearly, further testing was needed. But I would try a horse that didn't have a mess of finish on a large portion of her. Enchanted Eve has flawless finish, though she does have a bit of paint damage from rubbing on the shelf. She currently could be easily touched up, but IS damaged, so seemed a good piece to experiment on next. Plus all my horses are performance horses. They do not need to be flawless. Not that it wouldn't be nice. 

     While wrapping Enchanted Eve (and a couple of other resin friends) in the parchment paper I quickly discovered that nothing sticks to parchment paper. I knew it was non-stick, which is why I used it for wrapping in the first place, but not even duct tape would not stick to it. 

     The solution to that was to just use more paper to wrap the horses (so they were fully covered) and then carefully put them into the padded pouches. The pouch will hold the paper on the horse, which keeps the lining away from the paint, and the padding adds extra protection.  

       The resins are tucked (hopefully) safely in their pouches and are in the tote that I usually use to transport horses to live shows. I am hoping they will be safe. I think this will work, it did before. 

       Maybe there are tried and true ways for long term storage of artist resins, but I have not heard of them. I did personally have success with wrapping them in parchment paper and then padding them and packing them away. Through all sorts of temperatures Hazard Pay hasn't changed from how he was when I first packed him up. Maybe I will check on my horses in January and see how they are doing. 

What a Day

     Work has been very frustrating at times lately. Getting adjusted to getting up early again is hard. The students sometimes have bad attitudes because they are trying to adjust to a new school, new setting, new schedule, etc. I have had classes added, switched and got 2 schedule changes just this week. One was supposed to be temporary. Then it went away with a permanent switch that I am really upset about. 

      I was so happy to be in lifeskills. The students are amazing and even though it was only one period of the day it was definitely always a bright spot. For a week. Until they took me out of there. Now I have to have 2 new classes, 3 weeks into the school year. We have already moved past all of the getting-to-know you things of the first days. Now I get to be tense and weird because I don't know the kids' names, and may never. I have to jump into another new situation which is not what I want. It stresses me out and really doesn't put me in a good place to be able to help. And I loved lifeskills. It was what I have been asking for. So it feels like being punished for doing a good job. 

       I became a para because it is something I thought I could do. After many years of raising my kids and learning about special needs I figured I was likely at least qualified in experience, even if I don't have degrees in anything. To me a para is someone that helps a kid learn. They are the people that have helped Travis in school the entire time. They explain when there is confusion, sometimes over and over, and break down big tasks to make it easier. Last year that was almost impossible because of remote learning. For 2 years before that I was a scribe. This year I thought I could finally get back to helping kids learn. And now I don't know if that will happen. 

     I was told this was happening because I can handle it. Because the kids need cheerleaders and consistency (then please stop switching my schedule!) but it still feels like a punishment. I am really upset over the whole thing. I have no idea what Monday will bring. I wish it was a full-time permanent switch to lifeskills. But I know I won't get that. 

     Writing this whole post made me sad. Really, all of yesterday I was sad. But the great photos of Travis make me happy. He is why I became a para. He is why I work hard every day to be a GOOD para. I don't want to be just a warm body or a random adult in the room. I want to actually help kids. Specifically I want to help high needs kids (I am good at it!) but likely I just get to help everyone except high needs kids. So now I am back to being "just" a sip/focus/LLD/inclusion para. And I am really mad about it. 

     Alex gets all the photo credit for the amazing Travis pictures. She took these the first week of school when she came over for pizza. That was a really excellent day. Yesterday was not.
 

Slight Redesign

      The dog vests/harnesses were a new design that I offered at my last live sale. I try to have one or two new items for each one. When interest wanes on an item I either stop making them or make them only rarely. Like the horse boots. Those are much less likely to sell than they used to be. So I haven't been making them. Maybe people have all the horse boots they need. Maybe they are finding boots they like more (likely, mine are OK, but not super great). But for now I am not making horse boots. I wasn't going to make any more dog vests after the first batch, but they were a really popular item. I don't know if it was because they were new and different or because they were pretty cheap. But since people liked them so much I decided to make some for the next live sale (which will be Black Friday). I will have to raise the prices a tiny bit because they have a lot of steps and I wasn't coming even close to compensating myself for the time. But none of the prices on my things are crazy. 

      I did a bit of a redesign on them this time around. I was informed that even though vests are advertised with search and rescue printed on the pouches, search and rescue dogs don't wear pouches because they might get caught on things. So I made completely blank pouches. They are still removable and I have "service dog" and "search and rescue" on removable labels. That gives these sets a variety of ways they can be used. I have 6 this time, 2 colors are repeats from the first sale but the rest are new. 

     I guess this means I am officially in the countdown to my next live sale. I have 6 items ready for it and 11 weeks to get ready. Wow, when you look at it that way I have almost no time at all! So I guess I better get into what I want to make next. I have a miniature I need to do some design work for, as well as figure out exactly how I want it to be. I am still working on the cat sets plan, but I don't know if that will be a workable idea this time around. We'll see. For now I can just get started on all the other things I need to get finished for the sale. 

 

New Herd Member,

      I really love Barnaby. He was the horse I painted for the 2021 NaMoPaiMo. I bought a Bitty Barnaby during Breyerfest. And recently I found another one for sale that I fell in love with. I resisted for a day or two but then needed to inquire whether or not he was still available. He was, we worked out the details, and when he arrived it was in the most padded packaging I have ever seen! I was immediately inspired to go post about it on the transaction board. Something I am abysmally horrible at remembering to do. 

     My new Barnaby, who was painted by Stephanie Blaylock, now stands on my mini shelf in between my NaMoPaiMo Barnaby and the mini Croi I bought from Stephanie Blaylock during Breyerfest. It seemed like the perfect spot for him. Both the Barnabys look like they are wondering what Croi is making such a fuss about!

     I think I have bought more new horses this year than in the past several years combined. Most of them have been mini or micro. Which is sort of funny to me since I prefer performance horses and don't show mini performance. I have definitely added some really excellent tiny horses to my herd this year!

 

Back Into It

      Last week was the first week of school and it went pretty well. I had just the one schedule change, but it was a good one, so that worked out nicely. Having a 3 day weekend after the first week of school was nice too. Our friend George came over on Saturday, and that was great. We haven't seen him for a long time. We had a cookout and a nice visit and really nice weather. Sunday was raining (again) so ended up being sort of a lazy day. I did an artist spotlight with Heather and Jackie for Mares in Black, which was a ton of fun. Of course I am now thinking of all the ways I could have answered things better, or stayed more on topic. I have way too much fun talking to those two!

     Monday Travis and I had the day off from school and Elecktra also had the day off, so we went out to do the laundry together. We did some errands in between and after and then when we got home I got back into some doll work for the 1st time in a bit over a week. And Elecktra made chili. 

     I could have very easily kept not working on dolls for a while. I was enjoying doing less. And the first week of school was a bit rough and I needed naps when I got home. Rough only because of adjusting to the earlier getting up time. It's still summer so I am not getting up at dark o'clock just yet, but soon enough I will be. Anyway, a day off of school seemed like a good time to get back into work on doll things. Though I started by working on dog things. I got started on these 6 dog vests. I wasn't sure I was ever going to make any of them again but people liked them so much that I thought I would make some more. The colors are not showing super well in this photo though. The top one is sky blue and the one above the teal one at the bottom is pale pink. I have to remember where I put my quick clip buckles (just found them!) and I can get those finished, add the handles, make leashes, finish the pouches, and do the tags. I am getting there. I could probably have gotten more done on them, but we were doing errands, laundry, and hanging out a bit. I have time. 

     My current goals for this week are light ones. I want to finish up the dog vests sets, I have a driving doll to make, and I have not really thought any further than that. I had an idea for another miniature I want to offer at the next live sale so I might start trying to work up prototypes of that. I have some ideas but my ideas need a bit more work. Hopefully I can share soon!