Heddle release: March 2, 2021
It seems I never get tired of carving horses. There is something about the arch of the neck that is very satisfying to draw out, and the fact that they are all shaped the same way and cut with one facet over the back and one over the chest makes the carving uncomplicated. I always know what to do next, while they all follow the same “recipe“ they get individual expressions since I make the initial sketch without a template. For the February release I decided to make horses in a lighter shade of blue than I have done before, trying out a new-to-me paint as well: Artist’s oil paint, diluted with a little lins seed oil.
Pushing a small stick through one of the heddles holes makes a great support for them when they are drying after a new layer of paint or oil has been added, and it allows me to arrange them in neat standing groups like this!
The oil paint was a bit different to the milk paint i am used to working with. The biggest issue for me was that it needed to dry for about a day in between the layers of paint coats, and I have painted the horses three times each so that prolonged the process quite a bit. It was worth it in the end though, as the horses turned out very nice!
Well, I should say most horses turned out nice. As you might notice some of them have not been painted, and as it happens they are all made out of Juniper. After painting one of the Juniper horses and checking back on it the day after it was appearant that something was amiss because the color came off the surface as if I had just painted the heddle! Turns out that juniper has these streaks in the wood that oil paint has a tough time adhering to. I wonder if it contains a lot of fat? I have always thought of juniper as rich in fat, but that’s just me speculating. Anyway I decided to leave the rest of the Juniper horses unpainted, and coated them with a layer of clear lins seed oil.
Actually, there is one heddle that is painted with another kind of paint in this batch. I also had the chance to try out egg oil tempera and made one light blue horse painted with it. Apparently these two paints are supposed to give different results in regards of finish, but they look pretty much the same to me. I guess I need to use them both more in order to be able to tell the difference!
Heddles available for preview in the shop
I have decided to try something new with this heddle release. Instead of doing a video preview only of the heddles I have added them all to the webshop now, but stated as “out of stock“. My idea with this is to allow you guys to have a look at what I’m offering before I release the heddles, with price info and all. Since the heddle usually sell out within minutes of their release I have understood that some people buy the first one they see available, even if that might not be the one they really wanted.
I’m not sure this will be the best way to tackle the problem, but I figure it’s worth trying out!