Muddy Monday: Some Dirt on NAN/Bfest Week

Dirt, mud, clay, it was all there in Lexington, Kentucky, in particular concentration during July 9th through the 11th. Kentucky itself is known for its ball clay, which is an ingredient in many ceramics, but the events of this past week encompassed more than pottery. In fact, it was an extravaganza for all materials of model horses and animals... wood, plastics, plaster, metal, bone china, porcelain, stoneware, and earthenware.

My visit this year was short, because after all these years of attending, vending, and competing, I needed a rest. I opted for a light version of The Week that, during my annual phase of intense and insomniac preparation, I have no printable words for. On top of that, I have my own ceramics show to prepare for, and a month earlier this year, which means I can only spread myself so thin. More about that show in an upcoming post...

Here is a ceramics-centric bite out of the big week that actually began Monday the 7th, when many of the North American Nationals exhibitors arrive in Lexington. Tuesday is the first day of Nationals competition, which continues through Thursday, the ceramics day. Although several of my friends likewise needed a rest from this year, and others had circumstances that forced them to cancel, I managed to find a traveling partner who also opted for a "BreyerFest Lite" excursion. My longtime ceramics pal Maggie Barkovitz picked me up at the studio. I had huge boxes of restored models to deliver to owners at the hotel. Luckily, her vehicle is large and accommodated the whole mountain of stuff. There is no way I could have brought it all in my tiny car. The car packing procedure is likened to the game, "Tetris" for good reason. 

A carload of such infinite and subtle complexity

 that organic life itself will form part of its operational matrix.

We arrived at the host hotel at 2pm on Wednesday. While I was walking these patient pooches after the car ride, a smiling lady with a box approached me in the parking lot. It was my first trade of the weekend, from Jane Chapman! She was excellent to deal with, and it was particularly easy because we both had the same trade value in mind. Nothing says "BreyerFest Week" like being found as soon as you arrive, with the number-one horse you wanted to bring home. So much happiness! You can see him in the "loot" photo further down, the reissue Thoroughbred and Jockey in gray and green, a mold subject covered in this blog. 

Collectors already had some hotel rooms open for model sales. I saw that Ed Alcorn's room was already hopping, and so I directly delivered a box to him, straight from the car. This gave me just enough time to see the amazing old Hagen-Renaker factory seconds he had for sale. Of course, there were things I had been seeking for ages! And, you all know how much I love flaws and missing decoration... Can we say "Candy Store"? If you are now drooling with envy, wishing you were there, don't stress; you can buy many online, through Ed's store. Ed had some really odd ones, like the full-body-warp Swaps, plus broken and missing-parts horses, which he gifted to me. The box I dropped off in there was a gift to him, in gratitude for sending Jane to me as a potential trade. 

As I passed open room doors, I peered in to spot any chinas. Imagine my surprise at seeing more HRs, and finding they belonged to my old California pal, Susan Candelaria! When I was a beginning artist and collector, we went to shows together with Joan Berkwitz and Trep Parish. Susan and I even worked at Laird's together, one summer. She had some lovely models available, and I selected a handsome HR San Dimas Two Bits to trade. He's what I have been looking for, to start my Two Bits conga! Thank you, Susan! He's staying "in the family".

Now, to get him a Monrovia brother...

Later on, collector Bev Manderfeld handed me a trade Love "Mystery Horse", the 1155 in cocoa and gold. You all know how I adore "ugly horses". 

I love and appreciate this network of collectors! And since there is a trend online to share our Bfest loot photos, here is mine (at least, most of it unpacked at the same time).

Side note: I found most of the seconds to be particularly nice. HR Quality Control was tight, they must have been picky for all of these to be seconds. Some had warpage, which was easily corrected for cabinet display with a tiny clear silicone dot (as from scrapbooking and framing supplies) under the offending hoof. This tendency of the forward hind leg to warp is interesting to me, because I had the same problem with my CC2 racking horse mold, in a similar pose, in almost the same scale, and using the same earthenware formula.

San Dimas browns, white, all three from Ed.

The Monrovia white on the right, missing leg decoration, is from Jo Ellen Arnold.

Other seconds have glaze bubbles or pinholes. I personally can't recommend re-firing to "get rid of" pinholes, since the underlying cause of a pinhole may be a flaw or resist on that exact spot of the bisque underneath, or a too-thick glaze application. Re-firing can't address these issues, and it kills all that beautiful age crackle. Even worse, as the too-thick glaze oozes downwards with gravity, it could cause more caldera-like holes to appear on the lower legs, where it becomes thicker.

Meanwhile, our hotel room had just been painted. The window was wide open and the air conditioning blasting when we walked in. The construction crew continued painting and remodeling the rooms across the hall, through Thursday.

Each time we reached for the bathroom light, the switch plate fell off the wall.
No screws, that's a fresh remodel!

Our hallway was likewise full of paint fumes, which mattered because we had our room door open for sales and pick ups. I had brought along cookie dough from scratch, and Maggie supplied the toaster oven... we countered the paint smell with the smell of baking chocolate chip cookies! Then, I wandered around, offering people fresh cookies. This is what the hobby is about, making the best of a situation, and sharing nice things!

"Why would one take raw cookie dough to Bfest?"

For such a short trip, Maggie and I planned ahead for our meals. We brought an ice chest, just in case there was no refrigerator in our room. The CHIN rooms can be a bit of a surprise, if you asking for a combination of things like pet friendly, early check-in, and the remodel is active. Cookies are great, but we also bring healthy stuff, like fresh veggies, salads, fruit, hummus, yogurt, lean ham, etc. It is a win-win: feel good and energetic all week, and save the fast-food money for buying models and unavoidable convention expenses. Food is a big deal to me, and I can't begin to tell you how comforting it is to look forward to fresh meals and sweet summer peaches, during each exhausting day of the con. My Bfest tip, for you!

Thursday started at 5am for us, because Maggie had a judging assignment at the North American Nationals, the most competitive model horse show on this continent. This required us to be at the hall 30 minutes before the entrants. I was an entrant, and proxying for three others, including Maggie. As you might imagine, handling 19 china horses in one morning at the Nationals level, and you only own 6 of them, requires some fortifying snacks, steely nerves, and organization.

My NAN equipment.

Emergency chocolate courtesy of Cindy Evans.

Above you see the only page of the program I looked at. I never noticed the cover of the NAN program until tonight, when Jo Ellen Arnold pointed this out to me:

Front and center is her vintage Hagen-Renaker Thoroughbred and Jockey, shown as "Santa Anita", which was also featured in a previous blog post! Congratulations! (The different trophy design shown there is the one I sculpted for the previous 2012-13 NANs.)

At NAN, there is no fraternizing allowed between proxy and judge, so I had Maggie put all her tags and paperwork out with each horse on arrival, before the show. There would be no allowance for questions, if I got her horses confused. I did not see her again until the cart was loaded with packed boxes to leave! Organization is key to proxying at NAN.

Custom glaze and OF models owned by Maggie Barkovitz,

 Jackie Hasser, Elizabeth McKinnon, and the author.

These two photos are just one small segment of the portion of the judging rings devoted to all chinas.

It seemed to me, just one opinion here, that the OF division was not as deep,

 nor as fierce, as it had been in previous KY NANs. 

The opportunity to photograph variations and oddities for future blog posts was not lost on me. A couple folks (thanks, Diana!) alerted me to oddities, while I was walking back and forth. When folks said, "There's another blog post!" and "Is this going to be on your blog?", I smiled because that's exactly what my husband says! 

Can you spot why I took his picture?

Model owned by unknown.

Check out this cool factory error HR DW Heather!

When the greenware is dry, some colors of slip look very similar.
Looks like a decorator grabbed a white slip body and sprayed it 

as if it was a palomino tinted slip body.

Model owned by unknown.

Remember the Roan Lady post?

This San Dimas white has mixed blue and green ribbons!

Model owned by Susan Candelaria.

The busy day was bolstered with shared congratulations, humility, and forgiveness. Maggie forgave me for missing her class while I was called by a steward. In all my years of showing models as a proxy for others, I have never, ever missed a class. I was absolutely sick about it, especially that my misfortune had splashed over onto someone else. But, that same forgiveness and calm in use earlier, came back to me. The ripples have to go out before they can return, and everything we do at a show is amplified to those around us.

Here are some of the horses I owned or handled at the Nationals; sorry that I do not have photos of all of them. Custom Glaze Grey Workmanship was astonishing, as the top five point-winners in the class were all glazed by me. I was floored. Here are links to the official NAMHSA results with photos of some of the others I handled that day.

Custom Glaze by the author, on the Orion (CC5) trophy mold.

"Amadeus", formerly o/b author, now owned by Jayne Kubas.

Custom Glaze by the author, on the Clinky Classic 4 trophy mold.

"Emperor's Favorite", owned by Elizabeth McKinnon.

"Ighma' ", Claybody Custom by the author, on the Muddier mold.

"Smokin' Baby Back Ribs", Claybody Custom by the author, on the Phoenix mold.

The highlight of NAN for me was winning a Workmanship Top Ten with a... BLACK... custom glaze... standing horse. The single hardest color to make appealing or dimensional, on a plain standing pose. He is my personal casting of the "Go Boy's Shadow" portrait.

National Champions I handled for their owner, Maggie, but have no photos:

"Nabu", custom glaze by Joan Berkwitz, on Minkiewicz' Stormwatch mold.

"Widowmaker", custom glaze by author on Ratrod mold. This fellow was a double-National Champion last year.

Of the horses I was handling, I think only the affected three and my "just for fun" green decorator custom glaze didn't bring home awards. This meant I was busy, moving between judging rings, ribbon pick up, and trophy photo station. I saw several horses I made also win trophies, but everything goes so quickly, I was unable to snap pix of them. Ad Astra, owned by Marilyn Jensen- I saw you! These odds are really amazing, at the National level. I was beyond thrilled!

As soon as the car was reloaded, we rushed back to the host hotel, where the Breakables china specialty show was about to open. The show staff kindly delayed judging to 4pm, since some china entrants were still packing out of NAN, across town. As Maggie had done for me, before the show started, I laid out my models with their tags and paperwork for my Breakables proxy, Keith Bean. Keith did a great job showing my herd, and is always a solid citizen in our ceramics world. I had just part of my NAN string showing there, and my earlier misfortune of the day went on to a Reserve Champion in her division at Breakables. Every show is an opportunity, and it's never the same thing twice.

On the table closest to the door, where public are allowed to be, I snapped these blog-related subjects:

Me: "Does your Swaps have hole in his chest? He looks like he would."

Confirmed: super-old Swaps!

Model owned by Rachel Alex Stacy.

HR factory employee custom?

This sponge-dapple technique (including the shade of gray underglaze) is seen on the 

Specialties Draft Horse #3340 and the dapples-only on Percheron Tail-up #A-3213.

This is the only Love-sculpted Percheron Tail-down #A-459 known in this color.

The old dappled ones were matte, and completely different in technique.

Model courtesy Sue Stewart.

With literally nothing to do for a few hours, Breakables' office boss Maggie, Breakables former-awards producer Marge Para, and I - all taking this one year off- wandered around the hotel. We went for a walk to the convenience store, gabbed and laughed at how even without the structure of a show, here the three of us were, together! Yes, we are teaming back up again to do it, next year. We just can't be separated. Until Marge headed home, that is!

Shortly thereafter, Davina Divine arrived for her BreyerFest volunteer meeting, and to drop off a bunch of awesome Doc Holliday molds of horses and trophies! Some of the plaques are very Victorian Animalier style. She had never used them, some were poured once at DH, and she just gave them to me. Some of these will cast special awards for Clinky Classic. Thank you, Davina!

I picked up my horses at the end of Breakables, and kept our hotel room open for restoration pick-ups, for a couple more hours. At 11pm or so, we wandered into blogger Tina Dils' room, and saw some great vintage models, of all makes, for sale. Tina handed me a mystery box of broken models, which I did not open until I returned home. These were free to good home, and I'm excited because they are perfect for my ongoing ceramic outreach project.

When I am given free broken HRs, I restore them 

and then give them to people getting started in chinas.

Everyone has to start somewhere.

These are also known as "gateway drugs"!

At the end of that night, we had been on our feet for almost 20 hours straight. On our "Bfest Lite" tour. Us, taking it easy!

Then, Maggie told me she needed to run to the Kentucky Horse Park, aka BreyerFest proper, in the morning. The sudden plan involved friend favors, standing in line for models, and all the heat and humidity that July can bestow upon Kentucky. Of course, we went! Up we popped in the morning, ate a free delicious hot breakfast in the hotel, walked Pugs, and then we were off to the horsiest place on Earth. The car idled in line for a good long while, starting waaaaay back on the highway, and we were surprised to see the Park guards just waved every vehicle through. There was no badge check, no parking fee. This was because the time it would have taken to sort all the traffic would have made people miss the classes the had paid to attend. We were directed to the very backside of the Park, to a dirt road in an open field near the AllTech arena. We had never been to this part of the Park before!

The walk from the car to the portion of the Park where BreyerFest is held was long and full of sights. We passed an entire horse trials event- from stables, to warm up rings, to the actual deal. I saw a chariot, jousters, Clydesdales, Belgians, and lots of sunburns, all before I reached BreyerFest proper. Here is just a sampling of the Special Run lines. The Celebration model line was slightly shorter, but had no shade. We met a nice fellow who was standing in the sunny line with his horse-collecting family for moral support. I told him he was good guy for doing that. That's devotion.

It's true. 

In Kentucky. In July.

When the number for the noon Special Run purchase line was called, it put Maggie's ticket at the end of the line. She gave her SR ticket to Intrepid Model Horseman Jared Lain, and we made the long walk back to the car. At eight minutes to 2pm Friday, we checked out of the host hotel. A 48-hour Bfest Lite left me with some lessons:

1. Even staying in Lex for half as long, I was not particularly rested.
2. Short stay means missing the big sales windows.
3. The parking and crowds at the KHP get more intense, each year.
4. Get the T-shirt, get the program, while you are still at the Park.
5. Delivering a bunch of big boxes does not mean the car will be any less full on the way home. This is BreyerFest we're talking about.

Thank goodness for Jared picking up those last convention items for us, after we were already on the road home. I have so much appreciation and gratitude to all the collectors and staff who make this a huge and wonderful annual event. Everyone takes turns helping everyone out, and there is so much shared joy in one another's victories. I love you guys.

Muddy Monday: On Za Lips a' Lipizzaner

Muddy Hoofprints Law: There's no knowing when a new curiosity will drop in your lap, or when a random rescue will relate to an earlier pottery mystery.

A non-hobby friend who frequents estate sales found some china horses, one weekend in May. He picked up the only two Hagen-Renakers in the group, and gave them to me. They were a broken Monrovia white small Zara and a DW Lipizzaner.

I was intrigued by the Lip, even though he is, by far, the less valuable model of the two: missing a leg, multiple breaks and chips, and lacking his base and sticker, entirely. He retained small clues about his age. The bottoms of his hind feet had glue residue with woodgrain/wood chips still stuck in it. 

This was after the water boiling technique, to loosen misaligned glued breaks.

There is still some woodgrain debris left on the sole!

This was one of the earliest white Monrovia Lipizzaners, as he had originally left the factory glued on a wooden base. Wood bases were used for the first issue Lips for a short time, as with the DW Hackney, but ceramic bases are found with most examples. He did not have the tri-eyes of Middle Monrovia, but dot-eyes. No lashes, no whites. When I examined his painted pink muzzle, it struck me as familiar, but not something I'd seen on this mold before. 

Here are some variations of eye and muzzle decoration one normally sees on the white Lipizzaners, from several HR factory eras.

Muzzle has gray airbrushing, with pink airbrushed on top.

Lash bi-eyes, close to the age of my little patient, but this Monrovia is on a ceramic base.

Blue rectangle sticker.

Photo courtesy Cindy Dilks.

Another Monrovia decorated as above example, yet with sharper mold detail.

This one has a round gold sticker.

Photo courtesy Cindy Dilks.

No pink nose Monrovia.

Photo Courtesy Val Tudor.

Faint pink airbrushing, but only on this side! San Marcos era.

Photo courtesy Nancy Kelly.

Note pink airbrush overspray, even on the knee of the one on far right.

Photos courtesy Ed Alcorn.

The little broken guy doesn't have eyes or muzzles like any of these.

The photo on the left shows a fellow wood-base age example, without pink.

Another wood-base age example. Again, no pink.

Photo credit: unknown, Pinterest.

What was off about my broken little guy? He had a wood base once, and he has pink that doesn't look normal in hue or application. Pink that, frankly, isn't normally on a gentlemen of his age.

The hard edge of the pink, on both sides, seemed odd. Others had softly airbrushed pink, even extending up the face (or on other parts of the body). This fellow had sharp-edged pink. There are two possible causes for this:

1. An airbrush run. Underglaze can catch on edges of nostrils and lips. It will puddle or pool, leaving a darkened, hard edge as it dries.

2. Hand brushed-on overglaze.

It is not post-factory consumer-applied nail polish, because I chemically stripped him thoroughly, to prep for restoration. The pink is not coming off.

It seems odd that, if airbrushed, why doesn't the pink on the old guy show any overspray on the rest of the muzzle? When I get a run, it happens while I have been applying layers of pink underglaze to the muzzle and face, which places the darker pink run's edge within a field of softly sprayed pink. This next model shows exactly what I'm talking about. One can see pink airbrushing up the sides of the jaws. The hard, darker edges are where the airbrush caught the sculpture and made runs.

Photos courtesy Julie Harris.

Note the airbrush runs connect between the nostrils, no white space.

My computer's color auto-correct made these slightly different, my apologies.

Then it dawned on me where I had seen this watery, edged, dabbed pink before:

Readers may recall that this odd lady was purchased in a legacy collection of Monrovia pieces, boxed up and stored for decades. In that collection was this factory second Lipizzaner, missing some decoration, but with an airbrushed pink muzzle! The plot thickens.

This base is assumed to be employee-made, 

using HR factory materials/glaze, but is not this product's normal base.

It is unknown if this one was ever meant to have a wood base.

Photo courtesy Ed Alcorn.

Comparing my broken Lip and my odd factory custom(?) Zara.

Side by side, the main difference seems to be one is applied on a glossy glaze. Where the Lipizzaner's nostril interior has a pool of glossier glaze, the intensity of pink matches better than over the matte. This may be due to optics, as overglaze sinks into and takes on the character of the glaze it is applied to... or who knows? His pink looks nothing like the shade on the other Lipizzaners, except for the factory second Lip. There are also uneven patches of white inside the nostrils, as there are in the Zara's. Airbrush application would not leave white. Side note, he is even white between the pink slops on both nostrils. 

The old guy's pink stops dead, as if applied deliberately with a small paintbrush.

No pink pooling between nostrils.

As far as I have found, the employee-custom Zara dates between Spring 1957- Spring1958. 

The earliest (wood base) DW Lipizzaner dates to Spring 1957- Spring 1958.

Could be a coincidence, but it's worth noting.

I've already touched on the use of overglazes in early-middle Monrovia, in the Silver On Her Toes post. What I've learned since then, is that other DW models also received non-metallic detail touches of some type of heat-set lacquer or actual enamel/overglazes. The use of non-metallic over-deco on DWs is less familiar to casual collectors than the common Miniatures line use of overglazes (Circus Ponies, Drafter in Harness, etc.).

For example, the Monrovia DW Bison has a singular hue of brushed-on over-deco on its hooves and horns. The paintbrush strokes can be seen in some. His debut was 1961, which is odd compared to the time of use of hoof extra-deco in the DW horses.

Left: Monrovia with rust-orange overglaze or lacquer on hooves and horns.

Models courtesy Keith Bean.

So, there are Monrovia precedents with over-the-glaze detail pigment, and they were applied not by airbrush, but by paintbrush. The timeframe (in horses, at least) seems to coincide. I'm not ready to say this is a Monrovia overglaze pink-nose Lipizzaner- because artifacts of underglazing can fool the eye- but I'd love to learn of other wood-base Lipizzaners in collector hands, and what their muzzles look like. Do they have any pink? Does it show airbrushing artifacts, or is it more like a hand-brushed accent, on top of the glaze? Do you know of a wood-base Lipizzaner with airbrushed pink, just like the factory second above?

This entire investigation would never have happened, if someone had thrown the broken Lip in the dustbin. Instead, someone saved him from doom, and asked five dollars for him. The humblest little fragment can point out big production differences that we tend to not "see", even when we look at the whole a hundred times.



Gratitude to all who shared photos or let me photograph their models for this post: Ed Alcorn, Keith Bean, Cindy Dilks, Julie Harris, Nancy Kelly, and Val Tudor.

References:

Roller, Gayle. Hagen-Renaker: A Charlton Standard Catalogue. Third Edition. Pp. 69, 75, 97. The Charlton Press: Palm Harbor, FL, 2003.

Muddy Monday: When and Why's of Collection Downsizing

When it becomes a chore.

When it hurts my normal life priorities.

When I don't see the point anymore.

When I literally don't see the horses, anymore! They are all boxed up.

Does everyone have similar boiling points, the twists in life that make them decide to sell off the horses they have spent years collecting? 

The survey was completed by 22 ceramics collectors, all residing in the USA, in June 2014.

Of the downsizing collectors surveyed, 82% said that when they were actively acquiring, most of it was sight unseen by internet/mail order. As in, the actual model was produced later and shipped to them, or they saw photos by mail or online. They did not make the majority of their purchases in-person, buying the actual model shown to them.

This is really interesting because it begs the question of "disappointment". Was the photo better, or the actual item received? After three or four let-downs, does one look at that section of the cabinet and downsize it? If OF, was the factory color different than the advertising implied that it would be? Or, was it your only option when you got it, but decades later, you finally saw other examples of it at shows? Did you feel it was due for an upgrade? If Custom Glaze, was it live show proven before you received it? 

Of those downsizing ceramics, 91% acquired more ceramic models within the last six months. Yes. It is very tough to make the decision, but no one said you can't bring in one for every ten or so you sell!

Interestingly, only 25% made the decision to disperse within the last six months. Most have been at it for years, or at least plotting it for more than half a year.

Something that I thought would be a common factor for downsizing was lack of display opportunity. "If you can't see your horses, the urge to keep them is reduced", I thought. No, 73% display their ceramic collections.

I also anticipated a lack of shows in the immediate area ( a two-hour driving radius) would be a reason for most to downsize, or even drop out of the hobby. Gatherings are fun, and competitions can bring a lot to a hobby experience. Only 23% of responses have zero showing opportunity within that range. There are 32%- nearly a third- residing near shows (within that range), but they do not go. One reason cited was that there were no dedicated china classes offered. It is not fun to show ceramics in with plastics and resins.

Perhaps dealing with customers and distributors could cause a burn-out, which in turn inspires down-sizing?  Only 14% had ever had a model dealership, or provided a service professionally to the model horse hobby (or to its manufacturers).

The 54% majority of down-sizing collectors don't compete at the National level at least once every five years. This means, when they win a first or second place at a qualifying show, it is very likely that the NAN card will never be used for entry (they now expire after four years).

Speaking of burn-out and its many possible causes, there are other ways to "serve" the hobby public. Well, almost a quarter of china down-sizers (23%) have served or are serving in a North American Model Horse Shows Association office, or as a region representative, or in a paid assignment (NAN judge).

This next one made me proud of ceramic collectors. We as a group (although I personally did not take the survey, I've done this, too) pull our hobby weight as show hosts. Forty-one percent of down-sizing collectors have been a show holder member of NAMHSA, at least once! Can you just imagine how many shows there would be if 41% of plastic collectors (who have been in it long enough to need to down-size) would also host a show or two? Interestingly, most of these were not annual commitments, but occasional open (not china specialty) shows. We china people pace ourselves. Also, annual commitments to hold shows could absolutely contribute to a hobby burn-out and subsequent down-sizing, don't you think?

The results were telling me, I was looking for data to pin the culprit, but I had the wrong suspect. Burn-out from several sources combined was still a minor cause for down-sizing, compared to the unknown majority.

Economics are a huge factor in this. Several wrote in comments about the economy, their spending habits, and wanting more funds to put in their hobby, on yes/no questions. Of those polled, 23% are on a fixed income. It is impossible to "keep up with the Joneses" in ceramics, when your luxury spending is cramped more each month with rising living costs.

Of the participants, 72% said that a recent family/household change had an effect on their collecting habits. About a third of those were due to adopting new pets, or having old pets with new veterinary costs. This is not surprising, after all, people who collect art of animals tend to love real animals!


I asked if, despite downsizing, there was a model they will keep forever. Is it the most valuable to the market, or is it for sentimental reasons?

When it comes down to it, 82% want to keep at least one model for purely sentimental reasons. Value is no factor to these folks, when it comes to these favorites.

Still, who doesn't love a bargain? The 73% majority continues to hunt for models at flea markets, estate sales, and antiques shows.

At the height of their acquisitions, 95% of the down-sizers spent more than $100 per month on models. This was not a geographically selective survey, so bear in mind that one region's $1200-a-year is significantly harder to come by than another's. I didn't just poll one economic tier or part of the USA. The ceramics market itself must be fairly uniform for such diverse Americans to very nearly all be spending the same minimum. The polled 5%, a single participant, only spent under $100 a month because their main acquisition period was during the original mid-century $5 debuts of many of today's high-dollar vintage horses. 


At this point, the survey shifts in tone again, and asks the participant to examine their more specific reasons.

How would you describe the core reason for your dispersal? Select as many as apply.

a. bored of horses

b. no longer feel the creative spark

c. can't keep up with the costs

d. no longer show

e. frustrated by constant changes in color rules, breed registries, etc. required for informed purchase and showing decisions

f. unemployment

g. starting a family

h. found a new hobby, directing all luxury spending there

i. got into a different subset of the hobby, selling these to fund my new model horse focus

The good news is, no one is bored of horses. Six participants had "n/a", or reasons not listed. Some gave additional notes, expressing the reasons they had: lack of display space, general late-life downsizing. Thankfully, no one gave reasons of hostile home environment or illness! 

Of those who selected from the list above, and they could have multiple selections (hence this equals more than 100%):

• 19% no longer feel the "thrill" or the creative spark to assembling the collection, or any number of possible hobby-related activities
• 56% can't keep up with the climbing costs of collecting (even shipping costs are on the rise)
• 25% no longer show, so they don't need a big show string anymore
• 6% frustrated by constant changes in what one needs to know about real horses to make informed purchases and show successfully
• 19% unemployment
• 6% are starting a family
• 44% have found another hobby entirely to direct their spending towards
• 44% are selling to fund their refined interest in another subset of the model horse hobby

On the last one, it was encouraging to read that when ceramics were on the chopping block, it was only to focus on other ceramic horses. It is a refinement of the china collection, rather than a full-blown ceramics extirpation.

The last was virtually an essay question. Indeed, I received some essays! Beautiful, sharp, valid points were made, and I'd like to share them with you. Maybe, while you are reading this, you have a solution or something helpful to contribute.

Aside from life's obstacles, what change(s) to the hobby (or new services) would make your return appealing and possible?

More than a third responded that there was nothing they'd change. They love everything about the hobby. They'd of course like a little more spending money, but it's just life that is getting in the way.

Almost a quarter said they wish there were more gatherings, parties, swap meets, or shows. Can we just have lunch, and a PowerPoint presentation, something to further hobby education? No show really needed. Just get together. More fun, less stress. This is what collectors are requesting.

More than a quarter said they would be more "into" today's china horse hobby if there was less ego, less NAN emphasis, less drama. Those things can blend together in a super-storm that registers on the Fujita scale, but it is possible to have fun, even in today's atmosphere. I used to not define it, but just call it, "being on the fringe of the hobby". I don't mean that in a hipster way; it's not about being non-conformist, since we all like horses and have so much in common. I found that a lot of it had to do with being comfortable with my own taste in models- even if it wasn't the hot new thing, or the oldest great thing. I simply edited the things that I didn't like from my general hobby experience. This is largely solved by the Hide button on Facebook and avoiding online forums. For others, it means only going to non-show gatherings. I know folks who have only a buy-and-sell relationship with the hobby, and that is all the interaction they require. It helps them keep drama, with one exception, at arm's length. It is a hobby on their terms.

That one exception is related entirely to the buying and selling (and trading) of models, and some of the survey participants say it needs improvement: protection from rip-off artists (ROAs). This term is not directed at artists in the sense of those who make art; it means those who have made grift part of their skill set. Things are much better today, with tracking available on shipped packages, plus eBay's, PayPal's, and your own bank's fraud services on the look-out for the buyer. It is a bit of a different story for the honest seller who gets robbed by scam artist "buyers". There was a period of a year where I refused to do any business overseas, as we lost thousands in one year, in product, refunds, and cost of shipping/insurance, that were declared "lost" to overseas destinations. The scam artists knew how to check to see if tracking was in effect, and use it to their advantage. Our local post office had adopted a time-saving (for them) policy of not scanning every package, which, as you can imagine, resulted in some angry customers and lawsuits. An unscanned box is essentially untracked, and thus can't be proven not-lost, from the moment it leaves the sender's fingertips. So, there was no way to even claim the insurance we'd paid for, and had a receipt for, because as far as the post was concerned, we never handed the box to the employee. We just swallowed the loss, and refused a lot of purchases from overseas, until their scan requirements changed. In fact, I stood in line today, to make sure boxes I had to drop off were scanned, because it still stings. They really want us to just leave them on the counter, not take up space in line, and trust that they will scan them... Meanwhile, the ROAs just get better at jumping the new protection hurdles, with practice.

Within the hobby, there are a couple forums that allow reporting of issues, including full-blown ROA transactions. We try to watch out for each other. Facebook has become another avenue of communication about ROAs, and happily, it is as fast as they are!

Speaking of speed... improving the wait times for original art was mentioned by one participant. I am an artist, and I resemble the criticism. I am very up-front about my ceramic services waits, and my usual policy is to not accept payment in advance for anything. It's much nicer to do highly technical, delicate work when there is nothing looming over you. If the future buyer changes their mind on the custom glaze before I get a dime, I accept that it is now mine to keep or sell. Inevitably, if I make an exception to this rule, and wow, sometimes it just works out that way, it sometimes results in that wait. It's a bit of a no-win, Murphy's Law for the artist: if you refuse deposits, people say you are a snob and you only do art for your inner circle, it's unfair, nobody can get anyone to glaze their bisques for them; if you break your policy and accept deposits, the window of time you had will instantly shatter under an unexpected flurry of family commitments, and a downright blizzard of unforeseen commercial work with extreme rush deadlines. That's what happens to me, but I can't speak for every artist. I myself have been waiting, longer than several of my friends have been in the hobby at all, for a paid-for custom model. It is, indeed, a flaw of our horse hobby. It doesn't seem a viable solution for all of us artists to say, "No, we just won't make anything available to order, at all, anymore!", since some people really like ordering their own taste in finishes. Maybe, we should take a more commercial approach, instead of the constant fine art sales methods? If collectors could only issue Purchase Orders, and the same consequences applied...!

Another request was to have ceramic hobby artists all advertise new sales in one central site or group. Just the one, where it is a free-for-all when an edition opens, or a custom series is available. Today, most artists will not go this route, for their more important pieces; we've already seen what happens when we do that. For a clear example, consider the phenomenon of the buyers of current UK bone chinas: those who are first to buy up each new edition, but also quick to resell at a profit, sometimes without the horse even touching their hands. Much like ticket scalping, this was rampant in artist resin and hobby small edition ceramics about 10-17 years ago. Those of us artists who got the angry letters from those days know exactly why we don't put whole editions out for the public, in a central shopping site. Our faithful collectors expect some modicum of consideration, in return for following our work for years. That means, they want to have a chance at new stuff, away from those who are only buying to immediately profit on the secondary market. Hence, the scattered private newsletters, yahoogroups, Facebook sales and Pages have become the institution, since those days.

Some requests that need more hobbyists, not just artists, to get behind them are all show-related. These are:

• More shows
• More judging opportunities (shows and clinics can generate these)
• More china classes, without lumping them in with plastic customs and plastic OFs
• Add Youth & Amateur Artist divisions

The last one, I opine, cannot be combined and still called Youth, because adult Amateurs would be in the same classes as Youth. I come from the model horse school of hard knocks, where I was tossed right in Open and Senior divisions, with my wonky OFs and early, awkward art in Custom. So aaaaaaaaaaawkward. That said, I'd get behind an Amateur Ceramic Art division, no Youth designation, because it can be all ages and still a very good learning experience for everyone. Ceramics are a lot tougher to master than just acrylic repainting. In this, and in most art disciplines, youth have an advantage over adult amateurs. They get art supplies for birthdays and holiday gifts, they have lots more spare time to wedge art practice in (I know, because I slept about 3-5 hours a night, all through high school!), they have class by day, but they don't have their own kids to raise, no HOA meetings, no DMV lines, no post office lines- all the stuff adults squeeze in to their lunch breaks and after-work time. Nowadays, there are decorate-your-own-ceramics shops everywhere, and ceramics are so much more accessible to all ages than when I was a youth. Maybe we should organize some hobby fun days at those places?

The other items listed above, well, they require more show holders and more shows. Let's tell the plastic collectors about how 41% of our down-sizing ceramics collectors have hosted shows, and talk them into pulling their show-hosting weight. Then, let's sponsor china classes within their shows, so they have decent china divisions, which in turns draws our collector friends from more than two hours away... 

A cheer of thank-you to all the collectors who participated in the downsizing survey! I also appreciate those who did not fit the topic, but offered to take the survey. I didn't include them this time, but there will be future surveys that might be more applicable to their experiences.