VARA Rights and Intellectual Property Laws

       For a long time I have wanted to talk about VARA rights and intellectual property laws. Every so often there is a bit of hobby drama surrounding someone changing a horse, either in the paintwork or the sculpting, and then either trying to sell it as the work of the original artist or reproduce it as their own work. The phrase "I bought it, I can do what I want with it" usually comes up at these times, and there are a lot of people that defend that. But not only is it a slap in the face to the artist that worked hard to produce the original piece, that now sees it was "spiced up" with some new white markings, or that it was partially resculpted and the plan is to cast it, these things are not OK. It is also not OK to copy the work of another artist and claim it as your own. Or change the work and still say that it was even partially done by the original artist. 

      This is Cloud Dancing. He was a Bold Endeavor resin that I had years ago. His paint was damaged (I don't think my models like that we don't have air conditioning) and I eventually sold him at body price because I did not have the skill to fix him. After awhile I missed him and started looking for another Bold Endeavor. He's an excellent show horse after all. 

         I asked my friend Susan if she happened to have a Bold Endeavor I could buy, she did not, but several months later she gifted me with this horse! She had found a very damaged Bold Endeavor for me, and had Sherry Clayton paint him. I was overwhelmed! As I looked at him I thought he looked so familiar...

     So I looked up photos of Cloud Dancing. It wasn't just close to the same pattern it was THE SAME pattern. HOW??? Well, that's easy. Sherry was the painter of Cloud Dancing, and Susan, knowing this, asked Sherry to paint the new horse for me. Sherry copied HER OWN work, that no longer existed. 

      This is not going to explain VARA or intellectual property laws. I was giving an example of a copied work. This one is OK, Sherry did both horses, and the original didn't even exist anymore. But other copies are not OK. And they keep on happening. Mostly I added photos because blogs are boring without them. But I want to give you a something new today. Liesl Dalpe made a wonderful video that really explained both VARA rights and intellectual properly laws. And why they are so important. I hope you take the time to watch. 

Saddleseat

      Did you ever have a day when you were supposed to be doing something, and you were doing a lot of things, but none of the things were what you really SHOULD be doing? I'm having a week like that. Some of it might be because I never got my mini-vacation from doll making after my live sale. I pretty much always do that, but I wanted to get the ride along dolls (and a couple orders) finished, so I just kept working. I am also teaching, which is equal parts exhilarating, frustrating and brain eating. Anyone that says teaching is easy needs to give it a try for a bit. not a day or two, but a week or two, at least. It is hard. It is hard coming up with lesson plans, making sure you cover the material that needs to be covered while also trying to keep the kids interested. It is hard planning lessons that are not too long or too short. Or too hard. Or too easy. I work in special ed so I also have to be super flexible with coming up with repeat lessons (which are also not identical to the last lesson of the same material). I might not know that I need to repeat a lesson until it is just about time to do something new. Everyone needs repetition. Kids who struggle with recall needs LOTS of repetition. 

     Anyway, I managed to finish this saddle seat lady this week. She was almost done last week and then I just ran out of time, steam, and desire to work. So I stopped. I have a much healthier attitude about letting things go these days. I won't let them go forever, but I won't super stress about having only a doll head (and hat) left on a doll. She stayed like that for the weekend. And I was fine. 

     So back to teaching. I have a lot of rowdy classes. When the previous teacher was there there was a lot of yelling. Teacher friends tell me that they could hear her screaming at the kids all the way down the hall and on the next floor up. My hallway neighbor says it has been really quiet since I started. A couple days ago he popped in to say I am doing a really good job. I am trying. When I came in things were a bit wild. The classes were unruly and the kids were defiant or just unwilling to do anything. I am very stubborn and I don't like to see anyone fail. If you willfully won't do anything, there is nothing I can do about it. Sort of. What I can (and do) do, is check in constantly. I can stand there and give you a pep talk and say I want to see you do well. I can offer to help over and over until you either give in and let me help you, do your work just so I will leave you alone, or go to sleep. And it's working. I have a kid who didn't do anything in math when I was the para. Wouldn't let me help him, just said he was not going to do it. Now he does the work. Not always without prompting, but it's happening. We're getting there. I have another who was super disruptive AND wouldn't do any work. The last few days there has been so much work production and a much better attitude. Things are coming together. It's making me really happy. There are setbacks and bad days, but the little wins make it possible to keep on going. Though a lot of times teaching is like trying to dig yourself out of a hole while several people shovel the dirt back in.

     Even though I often am sort of avoiding doll work, dolls are coming together as well. I have pieces of several dolls in the works. When I am done avoiding dolls by writing this post I will get out the sewing machine. I will, I promise. I am getting there, the dolls are coming together.

     Back to school. I decided that other than modeling a calm and positive attitude (which is tough when everyone is talking over you and being very negative) I decided I wanted to change the atmosphere of the classroom. So I got some lamps from my friend Angelique. No more harsh overhead florescent lights. Now we have a much calmer variety of light. I need another lamp though, it's still a little dark in the back of the room. A teacher friend, who stopped buy to compliment the vibe of the room with the new lighting, suggested goodwill when I said I was hunting for another lamp. That's an excellent idea. I just kind of don't want to spend even more money on the classroom. I like that I am making a better learning environment for the kids. I don't want to go broke doing it. ~~~~OK, they have a floor lamp at Walmart for $9, I think we have a winner! I can talk myself into spending $9 more (this week...) on my class. 

      Anyway, I am not really avoiding doll work, my brain is just sort of mush by the time I get home. I need some downtime (yay, it's just about the weekend!) and I need to not think. But yesterday I ended up doing all sorts of things, instead of working on dolls. I organized books, I sorted holiday gifts, worked on updating my collection spreadsheet. I am so bad at keeping up with my collection spreadsheet! I have things on there that I have sold, don't have things that I recently got (recent as in, sometimes within the last 2 months), I had a whole shelf of minis that never even got put in the document. So much to do. No desire to do it. Anyway, I will work on dolls again. I actually have been this whole time. Just a little bit more slowly than I usually do. And I am being a bit more forgiving to myself when I "slack off". 

 

A Munday Kind of Day

        One of my somewhat recent purchases showed up yesterday. And all I can say is wow. No, I also can say, I think I need a new doll. The gorgeous western set I bought from Evelyn Munday arrived and, since she asked me to, I immediately put it on a horse and got some photos. Partly Cloudy was a gift from my friend Susan and I have not had a chance to show him yet. I did get some English tack on him when I was doing photos for the Mares in Black Spooktacular show, but I didn't get any show photos. 

     Now that I have had Partly Cloudy in western tack, which looks amazing on him (and amazing on the table, or in my tack room, or in my hand...) I definitely need to find some time to get some show photos of him. And seeing how excellent that saddle pad looks on him makes me want to make a new doll. I am thinking some sand or brown chaps with a denim blue top with either sand or brown accents. Or both, that could be nice too. 

      Partly Cloudy was painted to look like my old horse Cloud Dancing (same pattern, slightly darker color). For anyone concerned about copying, Cloud Dancing was painted by Sherry Clayton and so was Partly Cloudy. Cloud Dancing looked amazing in a sort of bright goldenrod color and royal blue. Partly Cloudy looks so nice in the denim color. I am sort of obsessed with the idea. Not that I necessarily NEED another western pleasure doll (I also want one in black and red) or have time to make another doll. I kind of also need a parade doll so I can stop using a western pleasure doll for parade. But I need to have time, lol. So maybe next year...

       So anyway, I have a new tack set, my tack room is a mess again, and soon I will need to clean it. Maybe I will get some new photos when I do. For now I will just enjoy this new western set and a renewed plan (lol, "plan") to show Partly Cloudy. There are bound to be some photo shows still happening somewhere. 

     I am managing to get some doll work done, though it's pretty slow going most of the time. Yesterday I had to break my own rule and work on some school stuff at home. My plan for today for one of my classes needed to be altered so it actually works for the group. So I had to type something up and make some fill in the blanks, instead of big empty boxes to fill up with notes. The first round, the website I was using crashed and erased all my work so I got to start again. Good times. But anyway, I have the plan now and the next two classes for that class are definitely doable and better. Six days until break. Things are going pretty well.
 

Secret Santa

      I love secret Santa gift exchanges. They can be tricky, and a little bit scary, since if you don't know the person you have to try to figure out what they might like. Which is also part of the fun. I signed up for a couple of hobby gift exchanges this year, though this one is about the Mares in Black gift exchange. I still don't know if my person got their gift, but my gift arrived from my Santa, who was Jana Wright. 

     Jana spoiled the crap out of me. 

     So Monday I got this package, I opened the box and saw Rudolph! There was also a card and a lovely gift. 

      I opened the card, because it didn't say I couldn't. Then I made myself wait until I went and did the laundry, folded and put it all away, made supper, and washed the dishes. Then I was allowed to open my gift. 

There was a large candy stash they immediately went to Elecktra (to her delight). There was a Christmas pencil and some stickers that Travis claimed. 

      A whole bunch of bits of pieces of tack making paraphernalia. Which is perfect because there is a western bit in there and I have another bridle to make. And this bunch of stuff is giving me ideas. 

There was also this little box...

OMG!

     This micro, that Jana painted, is absolutely stunning! I love everything about it! It is so detailed and perfect. 

     Thank you SO MUCH Jana! This was such an amazing gift and everything is perfect! I love it all!
 

Never too Early

     It's never too early to start making things for one of my live sales. Except that it kind of is. I am still working on getting some ride along orders finished from the last sale. I also have a couple of unrelated orders that I am finishing up. So I guess while right now is slightly too early to get started on stuff for the next sale, soon I will have time. And soon I will be ready. I got in this order of supplies for cat sets the other day. I also still have a couple more colors of litter boxes and bowls. I think this time around I might need to make more cat sets than I did the last time. They are the newer item so seem to go more quickly. Since I have all of the supplies, just about, to get started on these sets. Soon anyway. But first I need to get some dolls finished. 

        I don't yet have any ideas for new items. I like to have one or two new items at each sale but so far I don't have any ideas for anything new. I still want to make the fur trimmed suede coats, like the one I made for Little Elecktra. I started on some before the last sale, but for some reason they didn't work out. I'll keep on thinking about it and maybe I can come up with something new and cool. 

Lilith

       Yesterday we talked about Flash in the Sky and how she is not a prolific performance horse because she is just standing there. Today I want to talk about the madness that possessed me when I decided I HAD to have the premier club Rhian, and that I was going to use her as a performance horse. Because of course I did. The first show I put her in was Medieval Madness, which was held May of 2019. It was an OF only show, which meant of course that I had to use OF horses, even in performance. My preference is custom or artist resins, but you do what you have to do to show in performance. 

      One of the things I have often done for a live show is obsessively create things for a single class. This particular class was medieval costume. So I made, what is clearly a costume (there is a kid on a pony after all) which was a medieval knight. The knight is actually my Travis doll (I still need to make a grown-up Travis doll) who has some chain mail and a tunic over his riding clothes. Lilith may have done well in this class because it was not a large one. Themed classes don't seem to have a huge draw for some reason. 

     One of my favorite live show tricks is to take an existing entry, add some things, and turn it into the next entry in the show. This is a huge time-saver, which is definitely a good thing with the fairly strict time limits that we have at most live shows. The next class in the show was medieval games so I gave my little knight a lance and a practice target. I also spent way too much time coming up with documentation. The idea was decent, the execution was so-so, and the placing was sort of meh. 

     Lilith also went into the regular English division at Medieval Madness. The only tack I have that fits her is a very old set of Braymere tack I got secondhand from a friend of mine. This is the set that I cut the browband  to make it fit properly. This entry was really a way to use a lot of miniature candy and some other neglected props. I spent a ton of time creating the trail class pattern. As an overall picture, I really like it. As a trail entry it's sort of iffy. The youth doll is collecting candy and Little Elecktra is holding the pony, who is just hanging out. It's cute, but would likely work better as a scene. I guess it depends on what else is on the table. 

     For other English Lilith and her kid rider (who was built to fit this saddle) were delivering candy. I can't remember what the sign on the mailbox says, but it has something to do with Easter (the show was near Easter). I made the little panniers and all the candy just to pull this little entry together for other English. Because why not spend a big chunk of time crafting things for an entry you might set up once?

    Lilith also went into other performance with my picnic at the horse show entry. This entry was originally created for a horse in halter, coming out of a showmanship class. I needed something that didn't take more than just moving the horse, since by the time we usually get to the other performance division people are tired and rushing to get the show done with. The entry, which has grown a lot over the years, is an easy fit for Lilith. The rider is visiting everyone who is having lunch. Easy. 

     For some reason natural trail was put in other performance and was mixed English and Western. Standing on the bridge looking around actually works for the entry. And the judge agreed it worked. 

      Another themed show I took Lilith to was Fun in the Sun. This show also turned into how-many-classes-can-I-put-Tiny-Abby-in. And it was a lot of fun. But Lilith started out with this natural trail entry, which was nearly identical to the first time she did it, down to her second place ribbon.

     She also went back into the picnic at the horse show scene, but this time she was sideways so she could eat her fruit plate. A fruit plate has been making appearances in many horse show classes, not just mine, for years. That came from a situation surrounded NAN. If you don't know what it's about, it gets to remain a mystery. If you do know, have a laugh at the large fruit plate. 

     Lilith really seems to do well in themed classes. This class was water games. So I created a game where the rider needed to dismount with a handler ready to hold the pony, and use the water gun to knock over as many milk bottles as possible in 30 seconds. I think I have had those milk jugs for about 10 years and this is the first time I have found a use for them. 

     The next class was Dog Days of Summer, which obviously meant I needed to put a lot of dogs in the scene. Including Tiny Abby. It was not a super well thought out scene, but I got to use a lot of dogs. 

     The next class was Sizzling Hot. This was another class I spent a ridiculous amount of time creating props for. I bought the little grill and then made a ton of burgers and hot dogs, plus all the rolls and the grill tools. Because I clearly had to make a cookout. And since every horse show entry should have a horse in it, the kid and her pony stopped to visit a neighborhood cookout. 

     You know how I said that I love it when I can add some things to an entry to turn it into the next entry? That is what happened when I turned Sizzling Hot into Scene (which needed to be any beach, ocean, or nautical theme). I kept the cookout portions and added a bunch of other things. Including a campfire that flickers, a bag of marshmallows, with marshmallows on sticks, the bikini girls, water guns, drinks. These scene had a ton of details. And a cute pony that really worked well in it. 

      For anyone that is curious, I named this pony Lilith for a very specific reason. In biblical stories,  Lilith was Adam's first wife. Adam wanted her to play a subservient role and Lilith didn't want anything to do with that kind of life so she grew wings and flew away. Apparently that made her a monster (the wings or not doing what she was told, I'm not sure which) and she was mostly regarded as a demon. For anyone that is not familiar with ponies... they are also often considered to be demonic. Which is why I gave a cute little pony the name of a demonized woman. And I like the name. 

     Lilith is another one of my horses who is not necessarily a great performance horse, though with some careful setups I can make it work. She shines in creative/themed classes, potentially because of my obsessively making things specifically for those themed classes. I have not shown her since these two shows in 2019, not even in any photo shows (maybe in halter once or twice). But she may come out and show again eventually. 

 

Flash in the Sky

     I have not been doing as much as I need to with doll work so it's time to talk about my horses again. This is Flash in the Sky. She is my Matriarch resin Joan Yount painted for me a whole bunch of years ago, but I don't remember how many. I may still have been St.Onge then, but I am not sure (and I can't currently get at her to check and see if she has a date on her. 

     Flash in the Sky was the name of Dr. Mike's horse in Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. I love that show. I used to watch it mostly because it's full of horses. But now I also just really like the show. Somewhere I have the entire series (plus all the movies, which were not as good as the show) in a DVD box set that Ethan gave me as a gift a few years back. Anyway, my Flash looks nothing like Dr. Mike's Flash, but I like the name. Joan did an amazing job on her finish work. Joan did the paint work as a gift to me. I have loved this special horse since I added her to my collection. She does do some performance showing, though not a ton of it, and even with her light showing career she will always stay with me. 

     As a standing horse Flash in the Sky is not necessarily an ideal performance horse. You can absolutely show a standing horse in performance, but it is certainly easier with a horse that seems to be paying attention to a rider/handler and not just standing there. She does work well enough for things like this two barrels and a pole game (all of the reference is from the Braymere blog). I have put it in the show ring for years as a game. And it certainly can be a game. It only just now occurred to me that it can be used as a trail obstacle. Which is basically what Jennifer's post says. You really do learn something new every day. 

     Flash in the Sky also works nicely as a roping horse. She really should just be standing there, waiting for her rider. The fact that her head is slightly turned works out nicely, in my opinion, because I can't imagine a horse wanting to stand with a rope laying across the side of it's face. 

      One of my favorite uses for Flash in the Sky is this Extreme Cowboy entry. The idea of the class is very simple, but you need some specialized equipment (aka, super bendy doll) to make it work well. The idea is that the rider rides to one cone and picks up a tennis ball without dismounting. Then they ride to the next cone and put the ball down on it. As the reference shows, the horse really is just standing there and the rider leans way down, and basically hangs off the saddle, to complete the task. I made this doll specifically for this entry. Though he also is my roping cowboy, sometimes a random side walker in therapeutic riding, and whatever else I can get him to do. 

     Anyway, I am sure I have done some other things over the years with Flash in the Sky, but I know she has done the Extreme Cowboy set-up often. Maybe one day, if I ever feel like going to a live show again, I might want to see if I can get her to do more things. Maybe. But I have so many horses that I can show I don't know if I would try it or not. Maybe if showing starts to get boring. We'll see. 

     Most of my traditional scale horses really need to earn their keep. If they don't do well in the performance ring they often move on to new homes. But Flash in the Sky will stay with me even if she just hangs out and looks pretty.