“After innovation comes repetition” is a saying that I’m not sure I have heard before but I’m going to use it now. After a winter of exploring what heddles can look like, how many houses I can fit onto them etc. I just wanted to make something simple. Something simple but with a good swoop! And before I knew it I had a set of horses waiting to be painted. I was debating which colour to use for them and I had many good ideas, but in the end I just really wanted to paint them light blue with some spots so that is what I did.

**I used milk paint this time.** I have pre-mixed paint powders that only require water added, and mixed blue and white and also smidge of yellow to get the right colour. I thought I was going to have to add some black as well but I didn’t!
Milk paint can easily become caked and cracked if you use too thick paint so I painted the horses in thin coats of paint twice rather than one thick coat. In the end I was debating with myself wether to add a third layer but I decided not to, because this way there’s a hint of the blonde birch wood glowing through the paint in some places and I really like that!

**After that I added black and white spots** / spatters by dipping a piece of birch bark in paint and flicking it towards the horses. In hindsight I should probably have used a toothbrush instead because that would have been quicker but I just didnt think of it at the time!
This painting technique has its origins in folk art traditions, and it came i use in scandinavia in the 1600’s as a way of imitating the looks of stone walls. Back then people would add spatters to their interior walls, and later it also became popular to add the spots to the glazed tiles of the tiled stoves that became common in wealthy homes in the 1700’s.

**The milk paint is matte** as I mentioned, but it can also be a bit grainy which will make the surface feel a bit coarse. Polishing the painted surface with a cloth is a way to create a nice hand-feel of the heddles and I always use a coarse linen cloth for this. I’m sure some other fabric would do the job just fine too but I used coarse linen when trying this the first time and like it so much I just kept using it! The last stage is adding a thin coat of lins seed oil to the heddles. This adds a little glow to the surface and makes the paint more durable!
Also in this picture: My new thumb-glove, which will hopefully help me heal my aching thumb joint, and my phone which I used as a remote control for my camera and didn’t realize would end up being in the picture. Oh well, it was the first time I tries using it in that way so I’ll cut myself some slack for that mistake!

I have used only birch wood for these horses, as usual. I think birch will be staying for a while, as my father gifter me a whole tree so I have a big stash of wood just waiting to become heddles now! Also I want to mention something about the milk paint: This paint can have a tendency to chip off and is often used to create “distressed“ surfaces. I prefer not to pre-distress my work, but you should expect these heddles to show some wear when you have been using them for a while. This way the distressed surface will tell the story of your weaving journey together! The heddles have spots only on one side, with the occasional sneaky one having found its way to the backside but generally staying on the front.

This set consists of 15 heddles that will be released on June 3, 21.00 Swedish time. The heddles will be for sale in the webshop, not here on the blog. Here is a preview for you guys, so you can have a look at the heddles before they hit the web shop. Click or tap the images to enhance them and see the heddle measurements!