Here is another of the “Grand Finale Greys”.

This is the “Giselle” warmblood mare sculpture by Brigitte Eberl. It was released by Breyer in porcelain last fall as a “Connoisseur” limited edition (in matte chestnut). They sent me a bisque to glaze:

This porcelain will be offered to BreyerFest ’09 attendees this coming July in Lexington, KY, in a silent auction. So you must be there to win or have someone to bid for you. I’ve glazed her a lovely soft dappled grey with two socks and a touch of cream in the tail. The dapples are there but don’t show up too great in these photos. It is permanently marked “BreyerFest 2009, Custom Glazed by Karen Gerhardt” with my logo, in metallic gold, on the belly.

The quality of the finish, luminosity of the fine porcelain, and even the sculpture itself reminds me so much of the old European porcelains like Rosenthal and Nymphenburg. This will be a really rare and special piece for china collectors and Breyer fans alike.

They asked me to name the piece so I came up with “Newtown Dawn”. I have attended the BreyerFest event for nearly all of the 20 years they are celebrating this year, and I wanted to choose a name that evoked the feel of the place for me a little. I think of those July early mornings in Lexington in the misty fog—before the heat of the summer day comes on. I was the manager of their Youth/Children’s model horse shows when they were first introduced and ran it for many years, so I had to get up at the crack ‘o dawn each year to run the show. Those peaceful mornings (before the busy, horse-filled day) with fog over the bluegrass pastures are one of the things about BF that I love. (And something we don’t see often in dry Colorado!) And Newtown Pike is where the BreyerFest host hotels are—which attendees spend a lot of time driving back and forth on while there!

I am very sorry to be missing out on the 20th Anniversary of BreyerFest this summer, but I have a really good excuse!