Books + Halters

Kristian Beverly4 Comments

Tomorrow is the first day of my spring semester! I’m excited about my classes because A) I don’t have a mathy math class. Which is always wonderful. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is waking up way earlier than what I’m used to. :)
I came home to a package, which included books. I read Elizabeth Wein’s Rose Under Fire which is the second book after Code Name Verity, but they’re connected standalones so the order isn’t nearly as important. Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in a quartet (fourth book is coming out in the next couple of months).  I need to finish the second one. So two completely different genres with the connection being awesome authors. 

I also finished some more halters. A couple of people asked about more American Pharoah, so these have been claimed.

The odd ball is for Weather Girl. I *still* haven’t unpacked from my last show so this was the first Weather Girl I found. I think the halter looks nice on a decorator model!

Zombies From The Other Side

Kristian Beverly2 Comments

I ordered some more leather lace and that arrived today, which is always a welcome sight. But that isn’t nearly as exciting as zombies.

The boxes I sent out arrived safely and I enjoyed reading Jennifer Buxton’s blog post about her zombie and zombie related things. Emma also won a zombie and sent me some pictures of her  zombie and zombie halter. She also wrote a longer post here. I enjoyed reading both of your posts!

Zombie halters are always great

Carrick is tolerating being ridden very well.

Time to chase

Even if you’re a zombie, riding helmets are always important. 

Paper+Leather=Saddle

Kristian Beverly4 Comments

I ordered some leather lace, so it’s in the hands of the US postal service. So no more halters until then.
I directed my attention elsewhere. I’ve been having good luck with model horse tack making so I decided to play with my english saddle pattern.  The flaps are always my biggest problem area. I see what the real saddle looks like, but having my hands and eyes coordinate enough to where it transfers well into paper can be the biggest struggle.
So I found my reference and drew it out before going through multiple paper prototypes.

Then I did a dummy leather attempt. It’s a saddle of many colors and leather type!
I did some more fixing after that point.

Today I decided to put a sorta fake but a fake with nicer leather saddle together. I left off stirrup leathers and dee rings, but I do like the flaps. SO MUCH.   I plan on switching my skirt pattern with another I already made. Instead of using thin metal for the tree I used a thicker sheet metal. I have to remember that the metal is thicker and it doesn’t need as much bulk added. The panels, well, I didn’t really wait long enough to glue them, haha.
But yes, here it is!

Water Horses In A Signed Book

Kristian Beverly12 Comments

These two books look the same, but they aren’t.

Back in December, before Christmas, Maggie Stiefvater made an offer on her Facebook page that I couldn’t refuse.

A signed book with a doodle in it? YES PLEASE. The first thing that crossed my mind was “Nice gift–for myself.” I am a semi-selective book hoarder, so having multiple copies of my most favorite books is not unusual for me. And The Scorpio Races is one of them. I bought the first hardback last year after having an ebook copy for a couple of years.
Maggie Stiefvater is an artist and was one before becoming a full time author so I knew the doodles would be nice. A week or so after ordering, she posted a video of her drawing and signing at Fountain Bookstore.

And what’s the book about? The Scorpio Races takes place on the island of Thisby from the the dual perspectives of Puck and Sean. Every November there’s a special race where riders try to control their horses long enough to survive past the finish line.It’s called The Scorpio Races. The story surrounds the events working up to the race. These aren’t regular horses either–they’re called the Capaill Uisce and the sea calls to them. And sometimes your blood. 
In other words, it’s pretty awesome and I love the characters, plot, and writing style. Hence why I now own three copies. My doodled copy came a couple of weeks ago, but I thought it was about time to share it.

I am quite pleased with my copy.  And I love the horse!

And in tiny model horse news, I finished another American Pharoah halter today. I liked how it came out, so here’s a random tack photo!