ori Daniels
had a collection of model horses as a teenager, but sadly, lost
them to a house fire. At the time she wasn't aware that there
was a whole hobby out there revolving around these miniatures.
In 1987, after she'd gotten married, she was forced to sell her
(real) horses to pay for medical bills stemming from her first-born
child. Hours spent sitting and waiting resulted in nearly going
out of her mind with worry and stress. On a whim, she bought a
Project Universe model at a hospital gift shop and found
the JAH info inside. When she saw Breyers that had been repainted,
repositioned and with new, flowing manes and tails, she couldn't
wait to try it herself. A doctor at one of the hospitals noticed
her fondling the model horse and gave Lori his grown daughter's
phone number who was selling a huge collection of model horses.
Soon after she was catipulted into our hobby and never looked
back!
Lori spent years customizing Breyers and in that time, gathered a following and a name in the hobby. After struggling to please her expectations, she began to realise that in order for her to achieve the results she was after, she had to reshape the models entirely. It was then that she began creating original sculptures. Lori says that the first ones were just awful--awkward attempts at what she hoped was "close enough." She would take the sculpture to a live show, it would do nothing, and when she got home, she'd hack it up and try again. Try and try and then try some more. She was also working on her painting skills. Eventually she began to use oils to paint her new and improved pieces; they looked far nicer than the acrylics, though they were three times the work. Then she began to put even MORE time and effort into each piece. Lori listened very closely to anyone who had something to say, anyone who she felt sculpted or painted better than her. She read everything on conformation and structure, art techniques, and upgraded her materials. She designed a regimen of daily work, a 'just do it' attitude and slowly, painfully slowly, the whole horse experience bagan to fall into place.
Her own (real) horses were replaced by far better specimens and while she had always had nice horses, they were nothing she could take to a show or even train to do anything but walk, trot and canter. With better horses came a better understanding of the training procedure and in time, one of her stallions, The Final Word, earned three championships in a year after being trained by her. Yet the whole time she rode these better horses, she plotted a better technique in the studio, better conformation, detailing, appeal and craftsmanship.
In 1997, her family--husband Jimmy, daughter Caitlin and entire entourage of pregant Paint mares, weanlings and stallion--moved to their current farm called Back of the Moon. A new house, barn, and a huge wide open studio has driven her to heights she never thought were possible. Yet Lori is ever-willing to try something new to improve and better her techniques.
Lori's favorite thing to do is paint--she says it flies by too fast! Lori use oils probably 95% of the time. She loves to paint other artist's resins as well as creating original sculptures of horses doing action-oriented things. Lori works in her studio for about 4-6 hours every day inbetween choretime around the farm. Horses are her way of life and she is completely happy with it!
The future for Crazyhorse Studios involves a VERY limited line of resins carefully customized to be highly collectable. All breeds are planned--from stock horses to draft mules, Lusitanos to Morgans--all frozen in motion doing graceful horse dances! Also beginning to become reality is her line of rodeo pieces--due out soon is the new rodeo bull in an EVIL mood aimed at some poor unfortunate cowboy, and a bareback bronc in an airborne position.
If you would like to get in touch with Lori, her web site (click on studio name) and email (click on name) addresses are below:
Crazyhorse Studios
Lori Daniels
Blog
Top: Caitlin and Lori Daniels, October 1997,
on their Quarter Horse and Paint
Bottom:
CZ Chex Maniac, chestnut overo Paint mare customized
from the Breyer Traditional ??; created in 199?
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