Trends in what to wear in Western Pleasure change often. I try to stay at least fairly current but basically, I am not overly interested in what is "in" in real horse show rings. When I made a doll I want her to look nice, not doll-like, and be as realistic as possible. Something I struggle with is symmetrical swirl patterns. For the most part any decoration on a doll is done by hand. It is incredibly hard to mirror image a tiny swirl pattern. Lucky for me symmetrical geometric patterns seem to be quite popular at the moment. Not that I would hesitate to make a style that is out of date if it is something someone wants that I can do well. But today we'll talk about geometric patterns.
For almost anything it is easiest to work from a reference picture. When working on a multicolored coat design it is definitely easier to work from a reference. This particular pattern was from a different colored coat and needed to be modified to work on a 1:9 scale doll. The reference was a helpful guideline which allowed me to grab elements of the design to give a similar feel to the finished piece.
Some designs don't translate well to miniature. The available materials and space just don't allow for an exact translation. And sometimes an element of the design is especially tricky. The curved pieces of this pattern were especially challenging.
Dolls definitely go through an ugly stage! Actually, often dolls are in an ugly stage from the start and right up until the finish. This can be incredibly frustrating. And at times it can be a little bit scary. This design took a lot longer to put together than many other designs. I had to trust that the extra time was not going to be a complete waste and that everything would come together. In the end bling saved the day!
The finished doll is not exactly like the reference pictures, but that was unlikely to happen since we took the colors from one coat and put them with the designs of another coat. I especially like how the back pattern turned out. I am very tempted to make a geometric western pleasure doll for my live sale. Though they do take a good chunk of extra time. And time is something I am starting to be short of.
Speaking of my live sale, I may need to change the date from Saturday August 14th to Sunday August 15th. I still have to figure that out. Which I will do soon.
3 comments:
This one is a real beauty. Yes, bling saves the day! Congrats on always pushing your design envelope. Symmetry in handmade objects is never perfect, but always charming, because each side is its own work of art.
Lovely! Do you sell them/ where do you sell them ? Thanks in Advance!
I take custom orders (like this one) and other than that I sell them during my live sales, mostly. The next one is August 15th.
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