When Judy and I met more than twenty years ago, we were both relatively new artists specializing in mini-scale models. We also shared a love of Arabian horses and their pedigrees. Judy had already been on my mind as I worked on Al-Hadiye, when I heard about her hospitalization. I had always meant to create a horse that reflected the two horses that we were probably best-known for all those years ago - her liver chestnut sabino Arabian stallion "*Valotte" and my pinto part-Arabian "Love's Perfection" - but somehow never got around to the project. When I heard we had lost her, it seemed important to mark the influence she had in my development as an artist, and I decided it was time to make the horse I had envisioned long ago.

NiteWatch is a reddish chocolate color with a pale blonde forelock - colors that will be familiar to fan's of Judy's painting. On top of that is an intricate tovero pattern with sabino-influenced lacey edges. He has a blaze and white chin that extends under his jaw on both left and right sides, and a white mane and tail with creamy ends. The sculpture is surprisingly small in person - only 2.5" high - yet still has the most wonderful detail.


Gossamer
Dapple rose grey Arabian stallion, customized from the Deborah McDermott's Al-Hadiye bisque. Created 2008. Leslie describes this piece: When I was a teen, I responded to an offer for a free sample issue of the Arabian Horse World. And there they were - hundreds of pages of horses so beautiful it was hard to believe they were real. Elfin horses! Ardent Tolkien fan that I was, that's what I imagined them to be. That was why I approached Deb McDermott about casting Al-Hadiye. He reminded me of those long-ago horses - particularly the young *El Shaklan. When I imagined him in china, it was that shade of pale, rosey dapple grey that I saw. I wasn't sure I could pull it off - you only seem to get pale hints of red in ceramic when you want strong red! - but I had to try. And it worked. This guy turned out just as I envisioned him, which is a rare enough thing for a ceramic artist. (Kilns always have their own ideas about the horses you give them.) He's extremely fine, with an abundance of tiny, tiny dapples under a thin matte glaze. Holding him in your hand, he seems almost like a fairy horse himself.

Sullivan
Grulla tovero Tinker Pony stallion, customized from the Donna Channey/Animal Artistry Highland Pony bisque. Created 2007. Leslie describes this piece: The mold is a bone china Highland Pony from Animal Artistry. He's been glazed as a pale grulla tovero Tinker Pony with one blue eye. Some might mistake Sully for a pintaloosa, with all the roaning and ticking (darker and lighter than the body color) on his hindquarters, but he was intended to show a variation of sabino roaning that tends to concentrate on the hindquarters. Regardless of how it is classified, it gives a lot of detail and interest to the piece, while the softer body color keeps the effect more subtle than it would be on a darker base color.


Charity
Dapple grey Shetland mare, customized from the Kristina Lucas rancis Maggie bisque. Created 2008. Leslie describes this piece: Maggie remains my favorite of the early Pour Horse sculptures. Joan had just started producing her when she invited me out for my first visit to the factory, so she was one of the first pieces I ever glazed. For the past month or so Charity here has been sitting on my desk beside the little bay roan Maggie I made almost exactly ten years ago. What we can do now that we never dreamed of then! And this particular Maggie represents the best of what we know about making dapple grey horses in ceramic underglaze. It's a color that really suits this particular mold. Like her fellow grey in this lottery, Gossamer, she has a matte finish that really shows off all the tiny detail in her dappling. She also has a sculpted base to match, which her new owner can glue her to if they wish. (She can stand without a base, though not perhaps as securely as most might want.)


Phoenix
Chestnut pinto grade pony mare, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Spinnaker bisque. Created 2008 as a donation for RESS.


Shindig
Chestnut tovero grade pony mare, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Spinnaker bisque. Created circa 2006.

Elvis Impersonator
Bay roan pinto grade pony mare, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Spinnaker bisque. Created circa 2008.

Name unknown
Dapple grey Andalusian stallion, customized from the Donna Channey/Animal Artistry Mini Andalusian bisque. Created 2008.


Antionette
Dark palomino overo mustang mare, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Vixen bisque. Created 2009. Leslie describes this piece: I first saw Vixen at Sarah's house during our first Mayhem gathering. As I recall, she didn't have all her legs and Sarah was rather frustrated with her. That probably should have been a warning, since my own trials with molding her were documented on my blog this past winter. But I was smitten with her from the start, and just had to see her in glazed china. And it was worth it, because she glazes beautifully. This gal is also a bit of a break with tradition for me, because I usually keep the first glazed piece from each production. I thought I might with her, but the truth is that I started that tradition because first pieces usually have some small flaw that I can use to justify keeping them. Antoinette doesn't have any flaws, and a life spent hidden away in my china cabinet seems like a waste. Antoinette so named because I lop off her head as part of the molding process - is a rich golden palomino with a creamy mane and tail. The darker hairs at the end of her tail and mane show off the movement of the strands - even if they make her less of a "show ring" version of the palomino color. (I'm thinking that her attitude might be handicap in that area, too!) The base color is a new formula that is unique to her, and it is a lovely gold without any hint of orange to it. She had an intricate, lacey pattern typical of horses with both the sabino and frame overo patterns. Special care was taken with the edging on her pattern, so she has no tell-tale tool marks and everything is in scale. (She's even signed on the bottoms of her grounded feet so that nothing distracts from the pattern.)


The Little Schoolboy
Dark grey donkey-spotted donkey, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Brownie bisque. Created 2009. Leslie describes this piece: This little guy was done back in May at our annual "Mayhem" gathering. Sarah's original Brownie had gone home with Joan after the previous year's event, and she came back this year with some bisques and some really interesting techniques for working with textured coats. Her method made it possible to get soft edges on the pattern, which work much better for capturing the look of a young, fluffy foal. I named him after the chocolate-dipped cookies that also came to Mayhem with Joan. I thought this fellow's slightly worried expression reminded me of a boy caught in some mischief. That expression is due in part to his one blue eye peeking out from under his knot-top. I loved the look of the blue eye - really dark eyes on pink skin tend to look painted on in ceramics - so I was happy to find that blue eyes do occur on donkeys with a lot of face white, if only rarely. (Though I'm not sure why he should feel naughty, since it was his kiln-mate that was so very muddy and not him!)


Gaudi
Bay roan sabino Iberian stallion, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Lirico bisque. Created 2009. Owned by Joan Berkwitz.


Name unknown
Chestnut tovero grade pony mare, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Spinnaker bisque. Created circa 2009. Leslie describes this piece and the photo below: I finally finished my latest project - an extensively patterned Voltage. I suppose most collectors would call her a sabino roan, but she was done from references of Dominant Whites. While the name would suggest that the horses with the gene are white, in actual practice many have breakthrough coloring that is almost impossible to distinguish from sabino. Whatever someone wants to call her color, finishing her has been my obsession for weeks. I could really relate to my friend Sarah's blog post from several weeks ago, where she talked about difficult projects that cause almost everything to stop. This mare was like that for me. The consolation is that horses like that often turn out really cool. She's also a good horse to show the difference clay makes. These two horses are made from two different types of clay. The Lirico in the back is made of English bone china. The Voltage - the horse just finished - is made from American earthenware. Bare bone china fires really blue-white, while earthenware fires a softer, creamier white. The difference is visible if you compare the two sets of legs. (It's even more obvious in person, but my camera tends to bleach the whites a bit.) I had asked Joan if I could hold on to her Lirico to see the differences between the two horses. Both horses were painted with the same formula of colors. Much of their painting was done at the same time, and they were often kilnmates, so the only real difference in their color would come from the clays. (Well, the clays and firing conditions. Kilns have a mind of their own when it comes to what they do with any one piece, even when pieces are fired together.) I expected the Lirico (left) to be cooler in tone than the Voltage (right). It was, but what surprised me was how rosey the brown tones were on the Lirico. I didn't expect that. In person, the Voltage looks very much like she is gray, but the Lirico looks like a rosey taupe. Both are very appealing, but more different than I thought they might be! I should add the the differences in their patterns are not due to the two kinds of clay. I was simply after two different looks with each horse. It would have been easier to create the more lacey, patchy pattern on the bone china, and the softer, more roaned one on the earthenware. That's because unfired color can be wiped off bone china, while wetting underglaze tends to stain earthenware. But I wasn't thinking about that when I picked the patterns for each horse. (I will next time!) And with these two (regretfully!) going to their intended homes, I am anxious to get back to work - and to more regular blog posts.

Name unknown
Dun Paint colt, customized from the Carol Williams Okie Rio bisque. Created 2008. Leslie describes this piece: This guy was the first horse out of the kiln for the new year. He's a rare custom order, donated to a benefit auction for Habitat for Humanity. I think he looks a little worried in this photo. Maybe he knows we are supposed to get more snow in the morning! His color is a little off in these photos. In person he's more mousey and less tawny. I rely a great deal on the natural light in the house when I take photos, and there hasn't been much of that with all these storms. Hopefully I'll get the chance to get better photos when the weather clears.


Joy
Bay snowcap Appaloosa filly, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Pixie bisque. Created 2008. Leslie describes this piece: She is intended to be a foal-coated snowcap appaloosa. She's young enough not to have developed her facial mottling (though she does have pink, speckled skin under her upturned tail), so she has the dark skin around her eyes and mouth that give her soft, appealing expression. She also has softly suggested tonal variations along her cheeks and chest. She has no facial white, one hind sock, and the shell hooves one would expect to see on a homozygous appaloosa. (Heterozygous appaloosas - the spotted ones - have striped hooves. Homozygous ones do not.) She was originally intended for my own collection, which is why she is a pattern not often seen in custom glazes.

Butterbean
Brown pinto stock filly, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Imp bisque. Created 2009. Leslie describes this piece: My first glazed Imp, "Butterbean" is finally done. He wasn't cool enough to pull from the kiln until it was dark out, so I won't be able to get proper studio pictures of him before I leave for Boise. But I had to share, because he's just painfully cute!.


Name unknown
Brown pinto stock filly, customized from the Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Imp bisque. Created 2009. Leslie describes this piece: He's a super-secret surprise wedding gift for my friend, Mel. It's not every day that a friend gets married, and even rarer that it's to someone as nice as Mel's husband, Herm. So I wanted to help her celebrate with something shiny. And since Mel loves foals, an Imp seemed most appropriate.

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