All the tiny things

     After SNEWRU I was thinking that I needed a casual doll for Halestorm. After LIMHE it was decided officially. I can't really show him in natural trail with a doll dressed in show clothes. Sure, I can do it, if I include a note that explains it, but it is not super believable really. I have in reality seen a couple of kids riding home on the side of the road in show clothes. But it's not something you see often. 

     The trouble with Halestorm, or his tack, is that he really needs a youth doll that is smaller than the Breyer youth doll. So that leaves me with taking apart a Breyer and rebuilding it. So I once again built a doll to fit a saddle.  This doll has had terrible things done to it. Originally this was the doll I cut up to make the first hunt seat doll for my pony. But then it was looking too small and nothing was working right and I went with the other doll. I finally took a look at it again with fresh eyes and saw that I could make this work. So I glued and taped together the shortened mid-section. I measured wire sections for the thighs and glued those in. I know, the doll looks like she is being tortured since she is taped to a cutting board, but that was to hold the pieces in place while the glue dried. The lower legs still ended up being too long so I cut off some of the ankle portion before I pinned the feet on. Literally pinned. This allows them to still turn at the ankle and go heels down. It also makes them somewhat delicate.

     I decided since I was changing so much on this doll to make it smaller I should also take off the giant gorilla hands Breyer puts on their youth dolls. I ended up pinning on some old pale Yvonne hands. This is not an ideal set-up as the pin ends are sticking out of the palms a bit and I can't get them into the wrists (which were also shorted) anymore. I may have to take off the hands and try that again at some point when I am feeling less rushed. 

     I figured that a youth doll dressed in fun breeches (or leggings, they could be leggings) and wearing a helmet, could actually go in natural English OR Western. If you are out on a trail you can wear whatever you want in whatever tack you want to ride in after all.  I am sure some judges won't agree, and I don't even know if this doll will fit the western tack (probably not...) but I think she is cute and she will work for what I need her for. 

    Because I can't seem to ever be done with show prep, even if I just finished up a bunch of show prep, I came up with another idea that I thought would be fun to show. Which involved me making some little panniers (sort of). This was just a quick sketch of the cardstock base of the panniers. 

     And a quick picture of them all finished up and filled. I still don't really know if they will properly sit on the pony, but I think they will. 

    Some of the cute stuff that is in the panniers. 

     I have no idea if this set-up idea will come together or if it will even really work out where I want to put it in the show. 

      But there is candy! So that should count for something. Plus I managed to finish up with most of this idea so it is now out of my head. Maybe now I can do something else.

      There were also other ideas that needed to come out. Or continuations of ideas. Lucky for me I own paper plate presses in several sizes. That made this part of the creating process faster. 

    The paper towels I realize are not totally in scale, but I don't happen to have paper that is embossed with a paper towel design that is in scale. I think miniature paper towels for doll houses are actually most often made like this as well (it is a strip of actual paper towel glued onto a small handmade paper tube). These are just a couple more tiny elements for an idea that I have. 

     So I have made a new doll, all sorts of new miniature things, more chips and more candy. I am kind of hoping I can be done obsessively making miniatures now. Or at least stuff for myself. I should work on horse boots and maybe chaps and chinks. QVPO is on Saturday and I have a show plan, I may be done with my prep and I have a very busy week ahead of me.
     I know I keep pushing back the LIMHE show reports, but I keep finding things to talk about that I am currently working on. Tomorrow I have an autism conference to attend and there will be a report on CM Sporthorse and CM English.