I paint my ceramic horses using overglaze chinapaints airbrushed on. I don’t use maskings of any sort. White markings have to be removed using a flat paintbrush. I swipe away the paint, dip the brush in water to remove the paint on the brush, wipe off the excess water from the brush and do it again. Always moving the paint into the white area and working the edge to make it crisp. Here’s how a dark bay tobiano looks after I’ve roughed out the pattern but not done all the cleanup in the white areas:

And here’s what he looks like all done:

When I first started into glazing, I was over-careful. I would apply each color shade with the airbrush, fire it, then add the next. That meant I had to clean up the overspray in the white areas each time I added a new layer! Talk about tedious, and it is difficult to “stay within the lines”. If I make a mistake, the underlayer color will show up lighter than the current layer being removed. I have since learned I don’t have to be that careful with firing on the color layers. Now, I blend all the colors on the horse at the same time in one airbrushing session. I paint each shade, starting with the lightest, slowly covering them up with the darker ones. Because the glaze stays wet during all airbrush applications, the colors merge together far better than the old way of firing each on top of the other. And I only have to do the whites once!!

I’ve had to re-shuffle my glazing commissions and work only on non-dappled colors this month. The part for my air compressor is on order and not in yet. Apparently the compressor was made in Italy and the electrical relay is proving an exclusive part to get hold of. Thankfully I can do basic airbrushing of solid colors and pintos, with my Dad’s loaner compressor.

I also worked on Clarity a little bit. Now I think the legs are all too long. But when I shorten them, they look too short. AAARGH!

I’ve just listed the one of a kind Breyer “Lady Phase” model that I painted, to ebay. It is a 7-day auction with no reserve. Thank you!
Ebay Listing.

Well, I’m all set to offer for sale the dappled grey Breyer “Keltic Salinero” test color. If you are interested, go to the test Salinero page. All details and lots of good photos are there. It is not an auction. Thank you!

UPDATE: This horse has been SOLD.

While waiting for my air compressor’s electrical part to come in, I borrowed my Dad’s hobby (1-speed) air compressor. That allows me to at least airbrush solid colors. (I can’t do any dapple greys because the air eraser requires a pressure gauge that I can turn way down.) So I started on a black-bay tobiano Boreas today:

I also had gotten another painting session in on the Phoenix and the Sabiha last week before the compressor proved not to be fixed. The Sabiha is going to be a fairly dark bay-going-grey, so it has a long way to go. I have to lay down all the bay-colored undercolor with dappling first. That’s why it looks so “red” at the moment. The darker shades will be laid on top later on:

My life has been put into a complete hold right now. I’m awaiting some big news and if it happens EVERYthing is going to change! (And no I am not pregnant, ha ha!) I’m not ready to talk about it here until it is for sure… but it’ll be insanely great if it does ! What a distraction though.

Putting that aside… and trying to focus. I want to thank everyone who has been patiently waiting for custom glazed chinas on my “no-commitment” commission waiting list. I have been very pleased with this system. Basically I just put names on a list for each china, and when I am ready to glaze one I contact the person atop the list for that piece. If they decline, then I go to the next person. Especially in this economic climate, it is good for everyone. You can choose to go to the back of the line if you want, and I don’t have the pressure of taking on more work than I can handle. I can work on what am in the mood for, when I am in the mood for it! I’m not taking any more commissions for glazing on pieces I haven’t sculpted right now. But I am adding names to the list for Boreas, Optime, Streetwise, and Caprice.

Some news on upcoming work. I was very fortunate to acquire a bisque china Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig “Stormwatch” Mustang cast by Joan Berkwitz/Pour Horse, and I will be glazing it. Though I’ve never seen one of these sculptures in person so I might just have to keep it! If I decide to let it go, it will be in the to-be-glazed queue for sometime early next year. I was also able to get two of Sarah’s “Davyyd” Welsh Cobs in bisque china. I will be glazing one to sell and one to keep! I need to draw down my backlog of my own china sculptures first before I get to those however. I have the two HA “Sharif’s” that I haven’t glazed yet that will also have to wait. I’m building up a china inventory thanks to Donna Chaney’s production efficiency so I need to do those first!

I fired a few more Keeshond dog tiles, finally. Only one dried warped too much to be used–the corners curled up so much it looks a bit like an upside-down ashtray, heh. But I fired it anyway, it’s of even less use left as greenware. I now have about 6 tiles that I can finalize. Now to decide how many to finish in art glazes, realistic colors, and clear glazes. I’ve got several wall mirrors and wood boxes/jewelry boxes they can be mounted into. Then onto the Etsy store. Hopefully before Christmas, that would be ideal!

I am waiting for the certificates of authenticity to arrive from Breyer, and then I will be putting the Lady Phase and the Salinero that I painted up for sale. I think I may put the Lady Phase to ebay and offer the Salinero here at a set price. Hopefully this will be next week. Stay tuned to this channel!

The refinishing of our house with stucco is done! We went from this:

To this:

We couldn’t be happier with the looks and the workmanship. I think we might even see a difference in our energy bill, since the house is now really sealed up! Next spring we have to address getting new landscaping in, and we’re going to get rid of the ugly swamp cooler on the roof.

I am disappointed to report that when I picked up my irksome air compressor on Monday, it STILL was not starting up reliably. They got it running quietly again (it is supposed to be a “super-silent” model and it was running pretty loud) but it still only runs for about a half hour and then has trouble starting up again. Or just doesn’t at all. So I took it back yet again, and the guys at Boulder Electric Motor Co. finally got it to “fail” while I was there. They started mumbling electrical terms… something about needing a capacitor or a relay… so I left them to it. I think they like seeing me; it’s one of those gritty places full of machine parts and I don’t think they get women customers often. Anyway I feel confident that they finally saw what I have been talking about being wrong the last 2 months!! Though I was amazed at how many things needed repair on it overall. I guess I’m guilty of neglecting one of my very important tools. Lesson learned!

It is frustrating because my entire china glazing process hinges on being to use the airbrush. I’ve lost nearly 2 months now and am champing at the bit to get back to the work. I hope it’ll just be a day or two more for them to get it repaired. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to work on the Clarity sculpture. It has been neglected since August, shame on me!!