It’s the close of another year. Another year of the pandemic. Of social distancing and masks and nasal swabs. Of making new friends on Zoom. Of vaccines. Of adapting.
Tweezers and rulers and luer lock bottles, files and scissors and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings - these are a few of my favorite things!
I hadn't planned on mapping out 2021 yet, but based on the level of interest I sat down and put a tentative plan on paper. As always, this is subject to change and if you have any questions please drop them in the comments, email me at studio@dreamflitedesign.com, or touch base via social media
When the bit you need isn’t sold anywhere, what can you do? Read on in this guest post from Katherine Bone of Barefoot Appaloosa Studios to find out.
There have been lots of IMTM changes in 2020; one of them is a goal to begin creating a library of easy to follow projects for participants. This is the first - a Traditional scale bareback pad. No leather required, but hobby buckles are recommended!
January 2020 in review: completed commissions, planned sales, the February outlook, and IMTM!
Like the last few years before it, 2019 was a little…intense. We celebrated our kiddo’s first birthday, bought a house, fixed up the house, moved, are still fixing up the house, and that’s just the personal insanity!
Yes, yes it’s true - I’m opening my books for 2020! Life has changed A LOT since the last time I opened my books and I’m tweaking my commission practices to match. Read on to find out everything you’ll need to know before I open my books!
I was on the fence since he was a larger scale, but when Sarah Rose announced that Reveler would be her last resin edition I decided to go ahead and purchase.
Once upon a time, I sculpted a western saddle tree from apoxy and sent it off to have a mold made. That was a pretty frustrating experience, so I vowed that the next time, I would do it myself. Eventually the molds gave out - casts were warped, the molds were tearing, and it was time to call it quits. Around the same time, life started to speed up and I had to put the mold making project on hold. Several years later, I finally got it done!
When the new walking Thoroughbred sculpted by Heather Puleo was revealed, images of famous race horse tack started dancing in my head. It made sense to start with one of our living legends, and I went with Justify.
If you follow my studio Facebook page or hobby account on Instagram, you'll have seen some of the new sales piece I've been working on. It's been a fun project - I'm refining skills, trying new techniques, and using new materials.
This is less of a tutorial and more of a walk-through. I’m not going to give you a list of materials, tools, or measurements or tell you what leather to use, but I will show you how to figure those things out for yourself as I walk you through my process for making a two-eared silver show bridle. There will be lots and lots of photos and (hopefully) helpful commentary, so buckle in!
Rio Rondo now offers a really nice selection of photo-etched hardware for minis in two sizes - Bijoux (approximately 1:18; Paddock Pals, Collecta, etc) and Bitty Bijoux (approximately 1:30; Stablemate, ish). I finally placed an order - which arrived at the speed of light - and am thrilled to review it.
Life is finally settling down a little bit. To recap - in the summer of 2017, I announced that we were having a baby AND moving across the country. Since the last State of the Studio post, we've had the baby (who is now a whopping 8 months old!), a few more California adventures, traveled back to the Midwest by way of the Utah National Parks, moved in to our apartment in Kansas City, and I have a tiny studio space set up.
I think by now we've all figured out that I am not a particularly faithful blogger. We can't all be good at everything, right? Big, exciting things have been happening over here, though, so I think it's time for another State of the Studio address.
Here's round three of the NMTM winners! Hopefully we'll make it through the remaining thirty or so of the finished projects.
Safety first! The next post in the Essential Skills series deals with some common safety issues in tack making.
