The finished dark rose grey Boreas Percheron, which will be on his way tomorrow to new owner Lisa Sents of Georgia:

I couldn’t be more pleased and excited with this result. The the dappling in the coat is wonderfully subtle (and if you compare the earlier photos I posted you’ll see how much of the sharpness I took away in the process). The target was a dark horse and I was able to get just the balance of richness and greying-out that I had envisioned.

Paul and I are off to Vienna and Budapest tomorrow!

A quick peek at how awesome the dappling on the neck turned out today. Woo!

Here’s an interesting project I started last week. I received a bone china “Heart of Darkness” Oldenburg sculpture from casting in England, which had a flaw that showed up in the kiln. The hindquarter on the right side was pushed in. The cast is otherwise perfect and it would be a shame to just discard it! The photo below shows a perfect one on the left and the flawed one on the right:

So, with thanks and support/help from fellow ceramist Paige Patty who is a pro at this sort of thing, I am attempting a fired-clay type of repair. Plus I sculpted a new loose mane and forelock on the piece, to make him a one of a kind china! Here’s how he looks right now, while the clay dries and before sanding, touching-up, and detailing:


Then he’ll go in the kiln, and the hope is that the new clay will fuse to the existing china!

I had a few more sessions on the china Boreas last week. Here is how his other side looks at present:
I need to deepen the color on the neck and shoulder with another layer. Once I have gone around the entire horse with the air eraser dappling, then I will start detailing and deepening the color and fine-tuning the placement of the dapples (or even eliminating some of it in areas). This one is going to have a black mane and tail, and 4 white legs. The contrast of the black mane/tail will be really striking I think and will bring up the bay coloring in the coat.