I lost a week and a half or two weeks worth of studio time this month, which meant that when I was able to start commissions I had to
start. I finished, photographed, and emailed photos of both to their respective commissioners yesterday, so now I can share with you!
First up is an Icelandic set. This was a new one for me, and quite the challenge. The knee blocks are huge, and the reference photos sent to me included blocks by the pommel, too. Getting those done was tricky, but it worked out!
The biggest challenge, oddly enough, was size. The model is a Bridgett Eberl mini, and he's about the same size as larger stablemates or Sarah Rose's minis. Icelandics run between 13 and 14 hands, per Wikipedia, and all of my reference photos showed saddles that looked a bit oversized - because you're putting an adult on a pony-sized horse (yes, yes I know - Icelandics are horses!). For the tack to look really believable on the model, I had to make sure that it was slightly oversized, just like my references. It took 7 or 8 tries before I had something large enough - not a thing you hear from a mini tack maker every day! I'm really happy with the results.
The second commission for the month was a much simpler order - a plain jane english saddle and a western curb bridle. I'm just gonna spam you with the saddle - there's a certain elegance to a plain saddle.
Unrelated to April's commissions, I've been working on getting a new website and blog put together. Those changes will roll out soon, and the akirby@dreamflitedesign.com email address will be permanently retired in favor of studio@. I'll let you all know when these changes officially roll out, but it'll be this week I hope!
