this horse makes people smile

Words spoken by my trainer today.

Holy Moly!

I'm riding tomorrow.

My trainer offered a full day riding camp between Christmas and New Year's and I jumped at the chance. I know, I know...I haven't even been near a horse since September so I will likely be a mess. We're having two mounted lessons, one unmounted, a potluck and we're finishing the evening by seeing War Horse. Hopefully, I'll get my horse quota for a little while to hold me over.


Now where did I put my riding clothes?

And do they fit!?!

Are you serious?

This post today on Craigslist really has my blood boiling:

I'm a sucker for a chestnut mare

Those who've been reading from the beginning of this blog, know that it was inspired by one very feisty, very opinionated chestnut mare. A mare who not a single person would dare catch (much less ride) and somehow the stars aligned to put the two of us together. Our individual stubborn streaks managed to keep us working with each other and helped us form a very special bond.

What you couldn't know is that this love for all things fiery and red-headed started wayyyyy back in the beginning...Meet Cleo:

Yep, a 6-year old me carrying a crop! Love her roached mane!

All dressed up as Maid Marion for Halloween (we needed a lead!)

What a cute little face! She was maybe 15 hands and the first horse I rode after I graduated from ponies!

So thank you Cleo, for making an impact on my young equine-obsessed mind that chestnut mares are awesome!!!!!!!

When the going gets tough...

the tough get, errr....creative?

I've been so honored by the responses I've gotten through the internet from my blog and re-posts from others about the paper cuts! I've received several requests for commissions and I now have 3 in the works! Each one brings a new set of challenges and so far they've all been pretty straightforward, with one caveat...

...not all photos are created equal.

I mentioned in my step-by-step  blog, that finding a good photo is the first part of the paper cut process. You have to manipulate it slightly in Photoshop to separate out the layers and then you may begin cutting, the photo doesn't have to be perfect (since you eliminate background info and distracting elements anyway), but what happens when the photo a client gives is awful? Well, this was the situation I was faced with for my very first commission. The woman lives in Canada and her horses are back home in England (more on how she found me and our serendipitous internet meeting later)...she knew exactly which horses she wanted for the first round (she's having me do two more in January) and after a little back and forth via email she finally sent me the photos she'd like to me to use. She admitted they weren't the best, but hoped there was some way I could make them work. I'm not going to sugarcoat it...it was tough. At first glance, not only were they small file sizes, but they weren't very good photos from a technical stand point (poor lighting, composition, etc). And likely, low resolution scans of photographs. This was a factor I had simply overlooked when embarking on doing commission work...so after struggling with the files a little and doing some magic in Photoshop, I managed to make them into a posterized image I could work with. I decided if I was going to make this work, I should start with the most challenging one first...and here he is...

this is Frankie (what a cutie!)...I massively improved on the original file and this was just about all I could get out of it

I used Frankie as a chance to play around with adding another layer of tonality. This time I used 4 layers and I really like how he came out. I took a quick picture of the finished cut out against a bright color so you could see. He and the other piece will be mounted on a neutral handmade paper to be framed with the others I complete.

I may clean up a few areas before he completely finished. What a sweet face!

What helped Frankie is that he oozes personality. So despite being a black underexposed pony in a dark stall, I managed to improvise a little and get a lot out of the original photo.

What do you guys think?

RIP Rowley

I made this for my best friend's dog Rowley who sadly passed away a few weeks ago. I've known him since I was a sophomore in college and as one of 4 dogs they had, he ran that household...even putting their Lab/Chow in his place. He was a Grade-A snuggler and he and I were bonded for life because I dog sat overnight for him the very first day he came home from the shelter.  Their little pack will not be the same without him.

Original photo -- I knew he's be a challenge because I'm emotionally attached to him, and he's a mostly black dog!

Finished! Mounted onto some handmade neutral paper and matted with cream 4-ply

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I used leftover paper I had from Gogo's which got the job done, but I might have picked slightly different ones if I was starting from scratch. She doesn't know that I've been making these so I hope she's pleasantly surprised when she receives hers in the mail tomorrow!

I have several commission requests underway! It's super exciting. I'm hoping to play around with a few techniques while I work on them (specifically adding a fourth layer) and maybe introducing some textured papers.

Let's get crafty...a sort-of-step-by-step-tutorial to paper cut portraiture

Apologies in advance if this hurts more than helps explain the process I took to make these portraits! There are lots of teeny, tiny steps along the way and I tried to document as much as I could, but it's a little hard without 2 pairs of hands (next time I might make a video tutorial). Here is the video tutorial that I used to figure out the whole process.

Fair Hill International ***

Photo dump! Details and captions to follow! I realized two things: 1. I should have brought my tried and true Nikon and a zoom lens, 2. I need to learn how to use my fancy pants Sony NEX compact digital SLR (it's such a great camera and I STILL don't know how to use it consistently...it's either awesome, or terrible).

Paper Cuts!

Well, I took it upon my crafty self to use my skills towards something equine-related! I was hoping to work on something for Andrea and Gogo before she had to say goodbye (It will be a lovely photo album)...and so I wanted to practice with another horse to know I could actually pull off the technique! Some researching of paper cut techniques/photoshop tutorials later and voila!

Klein mare in three tones, cut from paper and mounted onto blue cloth (Klein's colors!) and I matted it with some 4-ply mat board!

Apparently, I am ambitious with my first attempt...I didn't think about how difficult getting contrast and depth out of a dappled grey horse would be. I like how it turned out...though next time (and for Andrea's) I will invest in some quality paper...I just printed various colors that I would need rather than purchasing them, because honestly, I wasn't sure I could pull this off. I am fairly adept with an exacto, but I can get frustrated easily with things that are tedious, so I spread this project out over several days so I wouldn't crumple it up along the way. If anyone is curious about the process, I started with this:

Klein and Stacey killin' it

And turned it into this:

And then cut each color layer out of paper!

I'd say it was a success! Contact me if you'd like to know more about this process!

the next to last song

This isn't the last song
there's no violin
the choir is so quiet
and no-one takes a spin
this is the next to last song
and that's all
     - From Dancer in the Dark

Andrea and Gogo

 This is for Andrea and Gogo. Today she says goodbye to her beautiful mare, Gogo. I started reading her blog at the beginning of my journey with Kiki (and found myself going to the very start to read about her entire adventure with her opinionated mare). She was inspiring, to say the least. Honest, comedic, intelligent, patient and compassionate, Andrea was the only girl for this horse. In this dark hour, I know that Gogo is grateful for you...and all of your fans and friends are here for you both.

xo.

Devon, Dressage, and DQs

I've only been to Devon once before...and it was for the Spring Hunter/Jumper show. The whole scene there is a little strange for me...I mean, I grew up riding bad ponies, mucking stalls for lessons. I'm not implying that some of the people who go to Devon didn't start there too, but the money that is seeping out of pores around the Dixon Oval is hard to comprehend. Just waiting for the restroom you get an idea of the caliber of THIS horse world vs. the one you might be playing in. There's not a horse listed on the classifieds wall (outside the restrooms) under 25K. Green 7-8 year olds are going for around 10K. It's pretty amazing really. Don't get me wrong, the horses are gorgeous, but wow. But...long story short, the Grand Prix Freestyle was amazing and two-thirds of the riders performed their tests in a chilly downpour! I felt surrounded by greatness and indeed I was in the company of riders and horses of Olympic caliber.

Busy, busy, busy...

I've been busy lately...but not riding. While I would love this blog to be strictly horse-related, I think that being a multifaceted individual allows me some wiggle room to talk about the other parts of my life that are distracting me from, or keeping me from riding. I am admittedly, a bit of an over-sharer, even though I consider myself intensely private at times.