Muddy Monday: Ceramic Performance Showing

Performance is the only division at a model horse show where the use of scale miniature tack and props are required to enhance the entry, and tell a story. Many model horse people never consider showing their fragile horses in this complicated manner, but it is a resurging trend. Perhaps tackmaker innovations (breakaway girths, wax-on splint boots, etc.), more ceramics issued with the option of a base, and the growing comfort level fostered by all-ceramics shows have contributed to this shift?

Still, the first reaction:

"We search antique fairs, flea markets, eBay, and estate sales for these vintage treasures. We keep them safe, clean, restored, and carefully stored. We often forego shipping to hand-carry them to their new homes. They are often highly valuable and some are irreplaceable. Put miniature leather tack on them, stand them up in scenes, and have them judged at a show? Are you mad?"

Not crazy, but quite serious, yes. Showing ceramics in performance, where tack and props are used to create a real life vignette, has a long history in the model horse hobby. It can be done via "photo showing", where the entries are submitted as carefully staged photos, digitally or hard copies through the mail, or at a "live show". 

Clinky Classic is a live show, for ceramic horses only, where all the Performance entries are set up on a time limit, and judged "live", in person. This is our second show offering this division, and the tradition has begun for these glaze colors on each year's unique trophy designs.

Clinky Classic Performance division awards, for November 1st-2nd, 2014. 

Many people view Performance showers as a breed of their own, much as ceramics collectors and exhibitors are viewed. They do have a lot in common, so it was natural for all-ceramic shows to offer Performance.

The following are some more recent examples of both photo and live show Performance entries.

Exhibitor Kim Jacobs creatively showed her Arabians in a variety of African, Asian (India being part of Asia), and Middle Eastern riding cultures:

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

2012 Clinky Classic Performance Champion.

Owned by Sue Stewart.

Native American Costume

Owned by Sue Stewart.

Saddleseat
Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

Harness

Photo courtesy Kim Jacobs.

"Sure, these are expensive ceramics to replace, but they can be replaced. What about performance showing unique tests, or custom glazes? Is that still even done?"

Yes, and very well, I might add!

A custom glaze Performance entry.

Photo courtesy Marilyn Jensen.

A custom glaze English Performance entry awaits the ring.

Photo by author.

Western Pleasure with a unique custom glaze.

Photo by author.

This custom glaze by Maureen Love, shown as "O'Carolyn's Tribute" in the late 1980's-early '90's by Joan Berkwitz, was a Performance model! Several such vintage custom glazes, and factory finished ceramics, are known to have been strong Performance competitors. There is a rich tradition in the model horse hobby of competing unusual models under tack. The only limitations are your courage in showing them, and your creativity in presenting them!

Good luck with your future investigations into Performance showing your ceramics. There is no limit to the creativity or historical era, as long as it can be a recreation of a real-life horse use. Is your model performing tricks at Liberty on a movie set? Is your horse part of a reenanctment? If you can find real life reference, even ancient art, add it to your set up as documentation. 

If you have questions about attending or Performance at Clinky Classic, just drop me a message. Entries close soon (October 1st, 2014) for the next show.



Thank you to all the intrepid ceramics exhibitors who shared their images for this post!

Fearless in Handling Ceramics

As a person who handles a lot of ceramics- in collecting, producing, and restoring them- I get asked how I got so comfortable with them. 

"Where did you get nerves of steel? And, can we borrow some?"

Practice, and developing a light yet secure grip, is key to reaching a certain comfort level. The other thing is, I know no experience I will face with ceramics, not even shipping them blind across the country or the oceans, will ever be as harrowing as the one that shaped me.

It was the summer of 1996, and I was about to experience my very first trip to BreyerFest in Lexington, KY. I had only been to one model horse event outside my home state of California, prior to this mega-convention. I had never flown with models before, and on top of that, I am not a big fan of air travel. Let's just say, it was a big commitment of finances, courage, and a general gamble. I was living at Pour Horse Pottery, at the time. Joan Berkwitz and I were convinced that we needed to vend at this ultimate model horse convention to properly promote the then-fledgling pottery.

While Joan produced a bunch of Bressay ceramic ponies to sell at the 'Fest to cover her expenses, I made some claybody customs to sell to cover my share of the hotel and my flight. When I did OFs and customs, I paid Joan to do the moldmaking, pouring, and airbrushing, and I did the rest. 

This was the 1990's. The only other claybody customs (ceramics resculpted in greenware) known at that time were the cold-painted (unglazed) works of Janice Brent Starr. There was no Custom Glaze division in shows. Glazed claybodies were so rare and new, people often asked, "What am I looking at? Will it last?" because the idea of changing a ceramic was not yet commonplace. Longevity was a question because customized Breyers, with their cracking putty and fillers, were the only analogs. With big dreams of funding my entire trip and keeping my dog in prescription food, I claybodied a Voltage into a trot, and an Owynn into a cantering pose. 

A claybody custom from a Voltage, named "Lyre".

Resculpt by author, airbrushed by Joan, detailed/glazed by author.

Photo by Joan Berkwitz.

What a normal OF Voltage looks like.

Photo by Joan.

A claybody custom from a Pour Horse Pottery Owynn, titled, "Coch Pistol".

Photo by Joan.

An OF gray Pour Horse Owynn.

Photo by author.

I was also filling Voltage orders at the time, as the 90-day ordering period had closed, and the claybodies were worked on in stolen moments. They were risky poses, had delicate facial details, and were generally the ultimate I had done in art, up to that time. They were each going to be sold for nearly 8 times what a Voltage earned me, after the dealers' cut. Hopes. Dreams. Ambitions. Eggs. One basket. 

Literally, one basket. I didn't own luggage (I had a backpack), but Joan loaned me the use of her small vintage ladies' cosmetic hard-side case. It was the right size to fit under a plane seat, and I fully intended to carry-on these horses. Frankly, if I could have had them installed surgically for the flight, I might have considered it. That is the only way I can summarize how seriously I needed these horses to survive their voyage to BreyerFest.

Note: this is long before 9/11. There was no aggressive TSA. In fact, flying was super mellow and easy, compared to today's security routine. You could go to the gates with your family to see them off or meet them. You could buy a ticket with cash at the counter. These were carefree times.

So, here we are, arriving at San Diego airport to fly to Lexington. It's July, and we even went out and got new summer clothes for the trip because we heard that Kentucky was really hot and muggy (men's shorts, no super-short shorts that are routinely marketed to young ladies). We resembled laid-back skaters or surfers with our loose T-shirts and long shorts, long hair, and very light luggage. I was one step up from carrying my clothes in a paper grocery sack. We weren't high-maintenance. I didn't even own any makeup.

Looking back on it, through the eyes of the airport staff, we didn't look like typical lady travelers heading anywhere overnight, let alone ladies heading across the country for nearly a week. We probably looked very, very odd. 

We dutifully placed our carry-on luggage on the X-ray conveyor belt, and quickly went to the other end to collect them. I was more than a little wide-eyed, no doubt, since so much money was riding on that bumpy conveyor and about to bang at the end of the metal slide. The X-ray tech stopped the conveyor, and I can't even remember how many airport staff entered the scene at this point. It may have just been the one tech, it may have been five people surrounding us. All I remember is the next few minutes were the most horrifying ceramics-related moments of my life.

We were told to immediately open the hard-side carry-on. I told them it had fragile ceramic horses, is there some place I can lay them down while I unwrap them? They were mummified with toilet paper, as there was no room for our stiff 1996 custom foam inserts in luggage. 

No, do it right here, completely unwrap the items. 

And, did you say, "ceramic horses"? 

We'll need to break them open.


*** Reader, I will give you a moment.***


To my credit, I did not have a nervous breakdown right there in the airport X-ray line. I felt like every bit of me was shaking with a spicy blend of financial-ruin-horror and anger. I had never had a brush with the law. I was always a good kid, always followed rules, worked at a stable, Honors classes, and perpetual A+ in Citizenship. The worst thing I did in high school: I painted the musical Phantom of the Opera poster on a friend's mortarboard, and a zebra on my own, to innocently celebrate graduation. No one had ever said we couldn't decorate them, and since we paid for them, we mistakenly thought they were our own to do with as we pleased. My high school saw this as threatening self-expression and a gateway to gang insignia. Yeah. Andrew Lloyd Webber always be gangbangin'. I was threatened with my diploma being withheld because of Art. (This, sadly, is not a joke.) I was never an actual troublemaker.

So, this whole scene was completely foreign to me. I was being singled out by authority for my perfectly innocuous, hand-made horses, and being told I will not be able to pay for the very trip I'm embarking on because the X-ray tech wants to break open my claybody customs.

Joan and I were completely shocked and, of course, asking why, and who do they think they are?

Another security dude comes over. They just asked us: "Are they hollow?" 
Our answer of "yes" was apparently the wrong answer.

After the concerned security people had roughly turned my horses over and over in their hands, and mumbled among themselves, they finally gave us part of their reason.

Recently, passengers had come through this airport with ceramic horses in their luggage. These hollow ceramic horses had been stuffed with drugs. The X-ray techs now have to break open any and all horses that they see on the screen, and check them for drugs.

Joan pointed out the tiny 1/16" stilt holes in their bellies, asking incredulously, "How could anyone put drugs in those holes?"

How we must have looked to the security staff: shady, shorts-wearing skaters, with way too little luggage to look like legit out-of-state travelers. Backpack. No makeup. An adult woman and a 15-year-old, whose driver's license "says" she's twenty. And the kid looks like she's about to lose her mind, watching every movement of the horses with crazy eyes, and quivering. She's wearing a very weird hat, looks like a drug thing. And they both are questioning the routine destruction of some cheap, crappy knickknacks! Suspicious.

The weird hat. Photo by Joan, from the same time as this adventure.

The author packing the first batch of Voltages on Joan's front lawn.

I have since had three-hour layovers in other airports, layovers that become frantic gate changes across the entire airport complex. I've had indirect cross-country flight schedules where I was awake for 24 hours straight. None of those experiences took as long as those minutes at the luggage X-ray. 

At last, the security staff decided that, indeed, there was no place on the horses' bellies to fit a plug for drug installation. The stilt holes were truly too small to stuff baggies of anything, and they certainly weren't plugged, nor dusting out coke like over-sized salt shakers. When we explained again that they weren't cheap tourist ceramics, that we made them by hand, and then quoted their value, the staff looked at each other. They handed them back, not without suspicious glances, and we were stuck TP-mummifying irreplaceable ceramics in a busy airport, with no soft or uncrowded place to wrap them. Strangers. Elbows. Jostling.

Every collector knows how horrid it feels to rush to pack a china, let alone under emotional duress, and with a now-impending flight departure. That was bad.

Despite the mad re-packing, these custom ceramics survived the security inspection and the flight, and were sold at BreyerFest. They remain in collector hands, to this day. 

The art of claybody customizing has changed so vividly in the past 18 years, it may seem odd that so much stress and value was rolled up in these two early pieces. But, at the time, for the time, a claybody custom was cutting edge and almost impossible to attain. All the claybody customs Joan & I had made by that time could be counted on one hand. They showed in Artist Resins divisions, if you ever even saw one. I can't even think of a good analogy for something like that phenomenon, today. 

This ceramic airport experience is why I am so mellow about layering my ceramics in plastic bins to go to shows. It's why I seem pretty unconcerned about the whole process of exhibiting, selling, and shipping. Nothing can be worse than having persons in authority tell you they are going to bust open the bodies of your artwork right in front of you, because they suspect you of a federal crime. If the post office breaks your horse, at least you don't have to witness it and simultaneously be excruciatingly aware of some ludicrous excuse for the destruction. This will never happen at a model horse show. 

Too bad the molds weren't long-ears. Drug mules. 

Muddy Monday: Reunited in Clay

Is fifty-five years too long to wait for a "boyfriend"? 

As covered in this earlier post, my research indicates that the real mare used for Hagen-Renaker's Roan Lady model had only one recorded mate. This stallion was two-time World Champion, Go Boy's Shadow, and for reasons already discussed, I aimed to sculpt a portrait of him.

I wanted to sculpt him in Trad size (1/9th scale) for the purpose of a resin run that is in scale with my other 2013 resin editions. At the same time, I wanted him to be around mid-DW or classic size (1/12th scale-ish), so that he stood just 1/8th of an inch taller than HR's Roan Lady. The goal was that the ceramics could be plausibly displayed together. After all, Zara has Amir, Sheba has Ferseyn, Erin has Two Bits...

First, I poured a waste mold on the original sculpture, salvaged after the resin edition silicone mold was made by my husband. I had to glue an ear back on, but otherwise went straight into it. 

Original epoxy sculpt clayed up and ready for the first plaster pour.
Waste molds don't have to be big and fancy.

Here comes the plaster!

Many pours later, this is what the cleaned mold looks on the inside, 

several pieces removed for photo.

Left: first generation bisque
Right: 8 3/4" tall original epoxy sculpt, after plaster molding trauma

The previous post about this sculpture mentioned pouring a rubber master. This plan changed. My husband helps with the rubber pouring, but he was swamped with his own work. To stay on schedule, I went forward with a technique that is tested and true, but might be a bit horrifying to ceramic fanciers. It involves destruction! 

I have to pour a "waste" or "clean-out" casting in each mold, to remove any mold soap residue my sponge may have missed, after I pull the original out. This clean-out casting was quite riddled with plaster and soap gunk, and to glaze him would have been folly. I don't want any of that to cause a resist while airbrushing or firing the piece! So, if it is to be used at all, it has only one reliable state: being unglazed bisque. The great thing about bisque is that it loves mold soap. It just yums it right up. A clean-out bisque casting is just the thing to mold off of, when you want to shrink the sculpt down a generation and retain all that first-shot mold detail.

Soaping up the first gen bisque for the next gen plaster moldmaking.
The two dark gray patches are epoxy, filling the vent in belly and a divot on face.

The bisque awaits its final plaster piece pour.

Rather than mold the second generation off a soft rubber, I molded directly off of the first generation bisque out of the waste mold. Its lovely, clean surface was just saturated with mold soap, and even water mist droplets beaded up on it. As each poured piece of plaster cures, it does a little expansion-contraction dance, pressing against the hard bisque that lacks the "give" of a rubber master. If the planes and parting lines have been planned correctly, the two main outer halves, and most of the small pieces, will come away from the bisque in perfect shape, without coaxing. However, the inner leg pieces of a mold with a parallel-legs stance and/or a belly piece between the thighs (like this sculpt) are pressing against two bisque surfaces, locked in place. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, and this holds true for the bisque.

Strategic bisque breaking yields a clean release, with no damage to the plaster.

So, now I have a perfect second generation mold; in fact, it's much better than the waste mold. I made a mistake on a waste mold piece (chest) that I did not repeat on the second mold, which saves me some greenware cleaning grief.

How do the greenware casting measure up to each other? Here they are, dry and raw.

Next, I poured a clean-out casting as before, but this time, in the smaller mold. This casting wasn't perfect, and I could have very easily tossed him away, but I really wanted a black portrait model of my own. Badly. I cleaned every bit of plaster and soap off of him (he was much cleaner than the first guy), ran him through a first bisque, and started the airbrush stages of underglazing him a realistic sunburnt black. In the raw underglaze stage, the color rubs off like pastels on your hands, or any surface where it rests. I use the softest things I can find to handle him, and I try not to sneeze, talk, or cough. Any of that can permanently stain him with moisture drops!

Raw underglazes.

After the bisque fire, his color sharpened up. I then decorated his eyes and details by hand. I love hooves with detail, and it takes some tricks to give them the optic effect of layers of hoof wall.

Bisque underglazes.

Final height: 7 3/8" tall.

Top left: In his prime, showing snip and sock on this side.

Top right: in retirement, showing sunburnt black

Lower Left: in prime, showing other side of sock

Lower Right: completed portrait of retired horse

Real horse images used with permission of webmaster Judy Handel.

Then, I had to spray on satin glaze. Satin hates black underglaze, or vice versa. They don't play well together. It either is a drought, where the black sucks up every bit of glaze and leaves a dry surface, or it's a flood. Then, the glaze looks opaque white or gray, obscuring the true color below. Anxiety over how it would look kept me from sleeping.

I had worried enough to sate the kiln gods, I guess, because he came out as I'd hoped. Many collectors find black horses boring, but you'd be surprised how many colors and layers went into this black. I was so smitten, I took him outside for photographs in his "native environment", a pasture of Tennessee.

This sums up what I wanted to do, and now I am satisfied. I will now make a few of these for sale, in different colors. It will be less painful to part with each one because I have my Go Boy's Shadow. Roan Lady has him, too.

It is fascinating to compare the masculine short back with the mare-long back.

The masculine shoulder and neck is contrasted with the feminine.

The feminine face against the "hard" stallion face.

Overall, he lost 1 3/8", but he gained a whole Lady.

Gratitude to everyone who wrote to me (publicly and privately) about the TWH series of posts, and to those who gave me encouragement in person and on the phone. I'm looking forward to seeing more representations of Heritage TWH in collections and in the model show ring. The availability of this particular sculpture is:

Unpainted trad-size resin (link to ad)
Small trad-size ceramic
Roan Lady-size ceramic

Left to right: original sculpt, small trad-size ceramic, RL-size ceramic with braided forelock customization.

I am the only source producing all of these, at Lucas Francis Studio. You may private message/email me for more information on the ceramics; the resin has all its information in that ad. Thank you for following the progress!

Muddy Monday: A Walk In The Mud

As a resident of Tennessee and a professional equine artist, I get struck by the shrapnel of hate-bombs directed towards this state's native horse breed. I dodge the landmines of local horse people. The social and news media drive non-horse and AR people into such a froth that they have difficulty separating the Horse from what is done (to the Horse) in the name of Fashion. The Horse did not ask to have these things done to him. His only fault is being such a forgiving and compliant being, that this could even go on, at all. I've run into a few serious horse people who fail to grasp the distinction, and there is a tendency to throw the bay out with the bathwater. Or the black, dun, gray, chestnut, roan...

To see the breed before humans really took it to extremes, all one has to do is look at great old paintings, early photos, and sculpture (like last week's blog feature, Hagen-Renaker's Roan Lady). Why go to extremes, in the first place? One reason, although not the only one, is financial. The horse with the flashiest, most visually-arresting movement (in other breeds, it is flashiest color or most extreme skull shape) wins, by any means necessary. A World Championship meant lots of breeding money in a state, and a whole region, that had been economically depressed for a very long time. This is the sort of business that doesn't require higher education in the day-to-days, with the exception of needing veterinary services. Financial ambition, limited education opportunities, agricultural setting, and a state with weak or non-specific laws about animal welfare all contributed to the perfect storm of Fashion superseding Comfort. Some laws have been added, others amended. 

Today, enforcement is imperfect, as seen in the statewide "leash law"; every owner except three or four of us on my entire street let their dogs roam, without so much as a warning. Again, this goes back to the agricultural and hunting traditions that defy or circumvent paper laws: if the owner can prove that the dog is currently engaged in hunting or herding, it is exempt. Sadly, breaking from the history of soft enforcement will take an enormous coordinated effort, time, and an attitude shift. For example, our county animal shelter has made huge strides in the past seven years, including rescuing horses, not just small mammals and poultry/fowl. If I told you of the amount of difficulty, the number of concerned citizens and volunteers, the hours of meetings and labor, and listed just a few of the community events that it took to turn this single shelter around, your head would spin. If that's what it took to make one TN county shelter state and federal law compliant, I have some small perspective on what it will take to completely eradicate the statewide soring of Tennessee Walkers. To be honest, it doesn't feel like enough people reside here to vote and enforce it into extinction.

What Fashion and Greed have done to the Tennessee Walking Horse is not the Horse's fault. Please, stop blaming the victim. The TWH was originally a beautiful and handy all-around riding horse, sound with ample physical substance. They had bone. They had chests. They grew abundant manes and tails and didn't need wigs. They could live long lives. They had natural movement that made them famous, before anything was augmented or artificial.

I've seen educated horse people take stands on social media, but a photo or a shared link does not touch what I feel and experience. Most of these well-meaning people have the comfort of distance. A few of them turned their venom to the mistreatment of this breed, rather isolated to this region, but were silent about Thoroughbred racehorses, Arabians, Quarter Horses, or any other breed with even worse death, misuse, and inflicted injury/drug/soring/surgical records. Unlike most of those vocal folks, I live here. It affects my entertainment choices, my business, and my relationships with locals. I do not attend real horse shows here, for fear of what I'll see. Non-horse people, upon learning what I do for a living, attempt smalltalk, and ask if I will be going to the World Championships for inspiration this year. I have to gauge my response carefully, because you never know who is related to someone in that industry; this is a state where the pride is strong and a little dangerous. 

So, like any artist in the midst of a turmoil they sense around them, I needed to make a statement that no one else could make for me. I was going to make a natural TWH portrait. At ease. No parked-out stretch. I needed a vintage subject for the sculpture. The modern two-legs-out -of-one-hole log-head Fashion was not going to cut it. This needed to say, "Do you remember when they looked like this?"

There are people still breeding for this old type. They call such horses "Heritage" Tennessee Walkers. Here is one of the last breeding farms for this type, in our country.

While researching the blog post about Roan Lady's real life identity, I ran across retirement photos of her only mate, Go Boy's Shadow. While he was a two-time World Champion, and was show-shod in the early era of the Fashion, he was kept natural for most of his life. 

At age 23, photos taken in 1975 by Mary Ellen Areaux.

Photos used with permission of Walkers West webmaster Judy Handel.

At the stud farm, he was barefoot, had a natural tail set, and looked better at age 23 than most of today's representatives of this breed look in their prime. Even in an early publicity photo (see below), he had one hind leg casually forward and under him, as if already defying the future Fashion. This was my portrait horse. "This guy", is what I needed to say.

I tried sketching him in a few different ways. To get a feeling for the conformation of a portrait, I sometimes trace a show-prime photo, and stare at it a while. Then, I freehand a drawing, then stare at both to see what meshes. I then trace my own drawing over, about three more times, adjusting model size while examining his retirement photos, because I am trying to teach myself to shed perception vs. what the horse actually had grown into. His underline had dropped, his head carriage had risen, and his hips had rounded.

Then, I made the armature by laying it directly on the drawing. I have grown into a very untraditional sculpting method of finishing the horse entirely in sections, rather than working round and round in many, many stages. This method developed when I made models out of Aves Apoxie, instead of the plastalina, Chavant P-40.

In epoxy putty, I condense it to just three main steps: sculpting, sanding, veining. This is not how I was trained, and I do not recommend it to anyone. I can't explain why I can do it, other than my brain does organize/identify/process things differently. This method will only lead to frustration and mismatched body parts, if you are a beginning sculptor.

The real horse had a very large shoulder and neck, so when he matured, his deepened waist balanced him out nicely. I loved his diamond-shaped nostril flare in his older photos, so I went with that look.

In his retirement photo, he stands proudly with his forelegs under him, sort of like the Hagen-Renaker 6" Style Two Amir (whose real identity is the subject of a future blog post). 

His natural tail reached to his ergots, in the old photo. I sculpted a light breeze blowing his tail, mane, and forelock. 

This angle shows the soft undulations of his crest skin and muscle, and his handsome face.

The unpainted resin edition is only a single mold run. This means after about 30, the mold is aged. Sometimes, the rubber holds up for more. However long it lasts, we will not make another mold to make more resins. Thirty-odd resins of a natural TWH can't come close to outweighing the model horse world's Big Lick mold majority, but it will take lots of efforts like this to slowly change attitudes. Orders are open for this unpainted resin model. While I normally allow customization of my resins, I do not allow Big Lick conversions on this resin. I purposefully chose leg poses and pastern angles that would make such a conversion an enormous headache, if attempted.

The big question is, "Will he be ceramic?" Yes, I have scaled him to shrink down to Roan Lady's size in ceramic, so they can be displayed together. Happily, the original survived the resin molding process, so I cleaned the mold release off, and I will make his plaster directly on the original. The first plaster mold is the waste mold. This will be used to pour a rubber master. The rubber is what the future production plaster molds will be poured against. As the plaster dries, there is a degree of shrinkage. The rubber has so little shrinkage as to be inconsequential. But, the next generation of plaster, off that rubber, will reduce. Then, when the clay casting dries out, it shrinks more... and even more, in the bisque firing. The final product should stand just a hair taller than the average Roan Lady model. 

The ceramics will be announced as they are finished and available. A Walk in the mud never felt more freeing and purposeful.

On the subject of the breed and its use, it feels good to replace a small bit of the hate, frustration, and aggression with beauty. Despite what the formal art schools tell us, Art that makes the viewer consider issues, and where we are going as human beings, doesn't have to be ugly or unrealistic to give topics some abrasive therapy. On that note, I have some sanding to do...

Muddy Monday: Meet Sue Thiessen, Artist and Restorer

The first time I heard of Sue Thiessen's work was about twenty years ago, when I was a beginner collector of Designer's Workshop Hagen-Renaker. By then, Sue was known as a leading restoration artist of Hagen-Renakers, and among the first to cast replacements for missing legs. Most restorers built replacement legs from Gapoxio, or transplanted Breyer legs from the same molds. 

The piece of Sue's work that most impressed me was a DW foal. Joan Berkwitz had been gifted a Scamper from the HR archives that was missing two legs (color plate 54, in the first edition HR handbook).  

Joan sent this piece to be restored by Sue, around 1989. This fixed Scamper represents the Scamper mold, photographed anew, in the later editions of the Handbook. I purchased the Scamper, and to this day, her replaced legs are show quality. This inspired me to try my hand at restorations. I have always wanted to meet the artist who did it.

Scamper, as she is today, with Sue's restoration work.

I recently had an opportunity to interview Sue and share it on this blog. I did not know that Sue started out as a 2D artist, then became a model horse customizer and restorer.

Trainer George Dines and his champion cutting horse mare.

"Henpecked"

 This watercolor is a portrait of one of her Saddlebred foals. 

Sue and her husband Paul raised American Saddlebreds for over 20 years.

"Old Friends"

"Big Red", portrait of Sue's husband's horse

Do you sell your 2D paintings or prints?

Yes, I sold many western and wildlife paintings over the years, and kept only a select few.

Do you come from a family of collectors of objects?

Actually I come from a long line of artists, on my Dad's side of the family...my Mom collected tea pots and hummels.

HR DW test tabby on the "Tom" mold #B-631, owned and photo by Sue Thiessen.

This came from a factory employee.

What was your first ceramic model?

There were several as a child, but the one I remember most, was a beautiful Hagen Renaker white Roan Lady, I saved my allowance for weeks to buy.

How often do you add to your collection?

I just added a gorgeous Sespe, after wanting one for 25 years! hadn't added anything new for 6 years, so don't add to my collection often.

HR DW test Standing Arabian "Abdullah". 

This model has an unusual color shifts under different lighting. 

You will see all of these images in a future blog post.

Photo, leg restorations, and owned by Sue Thiessen.

Is your collection specialized by factory, designer, species, breed, or clay type?

My collection is Hagen Renaker only, with the Horses being my favorites, Arabians, Saddlebreds,  and Tennessee Walkers.

Do you keep all of it on display, or do you rotate pieces out of boxes/storage? If you rotate, do you display in seasonal themes?

I keep it all on display in 4 cabinets.

How did you get started doing restorations?

It all started after we moved to California for a short time in the early 80's. While going through shops looking for models, I found out about some other collectors in the area. I purchased a beautiful Hagen Renaker Lippizan from one of these collectors, that was badly broken 8 breaks! I found out about a restorer in the area, so took the Lippizan to him for repair. When I got him back, the repair was ok, but the paint job over the repair was not good!! I told my husband, I think I could have done better! After acquiring more broken Hagen Renakers I decided to see if I could restore them, so I went back to the restorer, and paid him to teach me his method, and then I was able to use my own artistic ability, with a lot of experimenting and practice to restore my Hagens...soon after, I was doing repair for other collectors....

Before

Photo by Ed Alcorn

After

Restoration and photo by Sue Thiessen

Where do you get your inspiration for customs?

When I was doing customs, my inspiration came from Hagen Renaker's method and colors.

HR factory bisque Zara, painted in acrylic lacquers.

The HR decoration technique is evident in this lovely custom model.

Photo and custom by Sue Thiessen.

Owned by Sharon Carabajal.

What paint type do you use for customs or restorations?

I use acrylic lacquer.

Do you ever fire restorations in a kiln? It was rumored that you were the only restorer doing kiln-fired mends, back in the 90's.

No, I do not fire restorations in a kiln. They are heated in a special cabinet, but not a kiln. Some of my customs, that were china painted, were fired in a kiln.

How do you make replacement parts for missing limbs?

I cast replacement legs in a special molding powder, mixed with epoxy, very ceramic like, only much stronger, pretty much unbreakable.


What was your favorite or most uplifting piece to restore?

There have been so many through the years, but I would have to say probably the San Dimas brown Zara for Jo Ellen Arnold, with all her breaks and cracks in the body, definitely one of the most difficult! But after,...she was so beautiful!! Or the black cutter I did for her, with all the missing parts, holes in the body of the cowboy, missing arm, legs and tail gone from the horse etc.

"Ghost Rider", the black Cutter Sue restored for Jo Ellen Arnold.

Your favorite custom model?

My favorite was a "Made With Love" Clydesdale, I remade into a Gypsy Vanner horse, and named him " Kalender ".

Kalender, custom and photos by Sue Thiessen.

Owned by Jenny Palmer.

Do you participate in the model horse hobby? Any shows or Breyerfest?

My participation is through my restoration work, I attended Breyerfest twice in the mid 90's. 

How do you find or acquire most of your models? Do you shop on eBay, or go to fleamarkets?

I used to have great luck finding rare Breyers in antique shops, Flea markets etc., and the model friends I made in California, collected them...in turn they would find Hagen Renakers, and not wanting anything to do with china horses, we were able to do a lot of trading through the years....I also would trade restoration work for models...

I once walked into an antique shop,which was over the border in Oregon. After seeing the usual plastic horses, Breyer, Hartland, I was walking out the door, when the dealer asked me what I was looking for...I told her "ceramic Horses" and she said wait a minute...she then called to her husband, who came walking down the stairs with a Bedouin in his hand!! I nearly had a heart attack! then she proceeded to tell me, she knew nothing about these Horses with the State of California stickers on them, so she didn't want to sell the model, till she did some research on it...After looking over the model, I pointed out that something was missing { rifle was gone, and tassels on the bridle } so after almost having to get down on my knees and beg, she finally agreed to sell me the Horse { I wasn't going out of there without it!} then her husband came down the stairs again, with a beautiful rose grey small Amir, so I was able to acquire him too...then, to make things even more exciting, she told me there had been an estate sale, and that the dealers just down the road had gotten a lot of Horses...I couldn't get there fast enough!! I walked into that next shop, and there before my eyes, were shelves all around lined with Horses!! dozens, and dozens of them!!! Breyers, Hartlands, and Hagen Renakers!! two young girls were minding the store for their parents, who had a used car lot next door...I started picking Horses off the shelves, and those young girls ran out the door yelling "mom some lady is buying all the horses!!" This was an experience I will never forget, I was like a child in a candy store!!!!!, after loading the car { thank goodness it was an SUV with a lot of room } and driving off, I actually had to pull over to the side of the road, and look back to make sure I wasn't dreaming!! I was able to trade a lot of Breyers and Hartlands { 50's models most with original boxes } for Hagen Renakers, besides the wonderful ones I had gotten in this collection.....

I have shopped ebay some, my beautiful white Monrovia zara came from ebay, she was found at a church rummage sale, on the toy table priced at .10 unbelievable!!!

I love stories like that! Is there a particular model you've sold or no longer have, but would like to replace? 

Due to circumstances over the years, I did part with some models I regret selling or trading. That would be Roan Lady in San Dimas Grey, and my Nataf...I had a glossy Nataf, but, preferred one in matte finish, so traded the glossy, figuring I would replace it someday with a matte one, and was never able to do that.

What would you like to see change in the ceramic production and collecting world? 

I think things are great as they are, would be nice to see a Breyerfest in the Midwest, closer to me!

Glossy or matte?

Matte

Base or no base?

No base

DW or Miniatures?

DW

Action pose or standing?

Both

What are your goals for the new year, in your art and collecting fancy?

My goal would be to continue restoring these beautiful Hagen Renakers to their former beauty, which gives me great pleasure, and the important part making collectors happy to have their models restored! 

Sue and her Saddlebred mare, Bandit's Little Celebration

Thank you Sue, for participating in the interview, and giving collectors an idea of how and where your art developed. Your restoration work has impacted so many collectors, and kept the ceramic artworks alive and displayed with Love.



*The foal mold comparison is a topic for another day.