Frustrations

I find myself terribly frustrated with some of my fellow hobbyists today. To the point where I question my continued involvement beyond just collecting. However, I have some new show stuff that just arrived, and the idea of selling it all really doesn't interest me, either. So that isn't going to happen either.

Yet, I find myself wanting to go spend some time in the horse room today. It certainly NEEDS it. I need to catalog some new (and gorgeous) tack, and it needs cleaning, and its about time to inventory and photograph all those props (which can happily now be done in categories. And how did I end up with 4 vehicles?) so I suppose there is an excuse to go reconnect with it.

This is just not a good day for me. I can and do derive enjoyment from my collection, and there certainly are people who collect the level of stuff I do who feel no need to compete with it. Maybe that is where I need to travel next.

Breyerfest, here we come!

My Facebook feed is full of people wrapping up packing details and hitting the road for Lexington.  Breyerfest gets underway this week.  I'm traveling Wednesday with my bestie, Heather Malone, and my plan is to live blog the trip since the whole cell phone experiment worked.  Plus, we will have an internet connection in the car, so there may be actual posting as we travel from NJ to KY over 12 hours.

I am showing at Breyerfest Live for the very first time this year, and find myself inexplicably nervous.  I don't know why.  I am showing a handful of CM Breyers, but maybe 2 have a real chance of doing much. I also discovered that I do not own a single Traditional CM Breyer that is suitable for performance.  I was shocked.  So I am showing OF performance.  That was where I earned my performance chops in the first place, and this year OF and CM performance are split for the first time ever (typically, they run together) and most of the people I think would give me a run for my money are showing CM.  I am debuting a few-several-new set ups, but this isn't unusual for me.  I've pulled that stunt at NAN before. With good results.

It would seem Breyerfest Live is the last super prestige show I have yet to conquer.  I've judged it before, so I know what it can be like.  And about the only reason I am showing this year is that it is no longer held in the horrible tent, but in a nice, truly air conditioned hall.

But why the butterflies?

Digesting BOYCC 6 weeks later

BOYCC ended up being an inadvertent test for using my cell to make posts.  Looks like it worked!

In the 6 or so weeks since BOYCC, I've had a lot of time to think on my experiences there.  Yeah, there was the show, with all its attendant ooooh and aaaaah photos.  I brought my very best across the country in a plastic tool box, and got my butt kicked hard (I am so glad I did not risk my Hagens.  Even I would have pointed and laughed at them on the table) but it was a deserved kicking.  I could look at the table and pretty much predict where I was going to place, and I was right about 90% of the time.  There was just amazing, crazy rare things there.

However, it is NOT the show I keep coming back to.

The entire weekend was structured to be the very best of what my friends and I used to call a Hack Session, where we would meet up for a weekend afternoon and work on customs and props over snacks and maybe dinner.  Lots of socializing and brainstorming.  BOYCC had a ton of social time built right in, and lots of food.  This helped me meet folks I hadn't known before, and to rekindle friendships outside of the typical hustle and bustle of Breyerfest.

I also got to exercise my creative mojo in ways I have not in a very very long time.  My first workshop was overglaze painting with Karen Gerhardt.  I haven't painted in about forever, so that was fun, and while overglaze is a bit finicky, I had good results without too much frustration.  Next up was a medallion sculpting class.  This was more intimidating to me, as I had rarely worked in 3D when I was doing a lot of artsy stuff, and I had NO IDEA what to do.  Everyone was doing horses, so I decided to NOT do a horse head, and instead, sculpted a reclining cat from behind.  I've been drawing a lot of cats looking over their shoulders of late.  I was very pleased with how this medallion came out, so when it came time to create a 2 part plaster mold for it, I was scared.  The medallion was done in a non hardening wax clay, and I know it could be destroyed in the casting process.  And I know that it wasn't "precious" it was still hard to let it go enough to create that mold.

The mold making process was more technical, and sort of suited to how I generally do stuff-- methodical, making sure measurements are accurate.  Very conducive to how this vet sees the world and work.  My mold was a success, and my sculpture survived the process to go home with me.

Yesterday,  the dry plaster mold arrived from Southern California, and with it, a pair of bisques of the medallion and a finished art glazed version.  I am amazed that I made this thing.  Joan Berkwitz, who organized and ran BOYCC with Adalee Hude, posted her part of the process on her blog so I will direct you there for photos of the finished work.

I do think I will pursue slip casting more of these, and firing them in such a way I could china paint them and use them as gifts.  The power behind just this idea is staggering to me.  This is why I do this.  It is not about NAN trophies, or cards, or arguing about what the ultimate goal of NAMHSA should be.  It is this being able to spend time with like minded women in creative pursuits that are related but not necessarily the same (my friend Liz La Rose once described performance showing as collaborative work, and she's right).  The other stuff is just small and not truly that important--this stuff will go on even when NAMHSA fails.

CMG Knut

This pretty CM Glaze Knut is part of the Other Pony class. 32 entrants!

BOYCC on the wind down

Today is the last day of BOYCC, and the show is sort of starting to roll, a bit late. The plan for the rest of the day is to finish up the CM Glaze stuff, and then head back to Pour Horse for lunch and a mold making workshop. On Friday, one of the workshops was to make a medallion and we'll be making simple molds of these medallions that we get to take home. I also did a china painting workshop that included some samples of paints, so I could take my mold and make some medallions and paint them. My medallion isn't something that I'd consider selling, but it certainly would be a nice giftie type thing for friends and family. I also made a pin and a tile in the china painting class.

This has been a lot of fun...the show is really de-emphasized.

I would love to see more of these immersion type weekends. I've toyed with doing a performance oriented thing, that would include a trip to the Horse Park of NJ for combined driving or something, but I have yet to work it out. I do wonder if the hobby is really ready to take this step. We constantly look for ways to grow, and focus so much on kids, and I am not sure that's the right place to look to the future. If it never rises about plopping a plastic horse on a table, those kids aren't sticking around anyway.

I'll likely ruminate on this more as I fly home tomorrow. And better pictures when I get home!


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Creative stuff from BOYCC

L to R: My medallion, china painted pin and tile. I'll be making a mold for the medallion later that I get to take home. So some of you may get china painted kitties as gifts in the future.