Reentry into work and life in general after a long holiday break is always a challenge, especially when your break was more of a working vacation. But that work involved playing with our model horse collections, so at least it was very enjoyable! Over the holidays, I visited my family in Georgia, and my sister Sarah and I put in some long hours organizing our giant herd. Much of it is boxed up at the moment---you know that last scene from Raiders of the Last Ark? It's kind of like that. We worked hard to put together an accurate inventory and photograph a number of our models for this blog. It's an ongoing project, but a fun one!
Taking stock of the collection has led to some interesting surprises and discoveries. We already knew we had duplicates of a number of models---Sarah and I both have our own distinct herds, and because we have similar taste in models (vintage and weird), we often both have examples of the same rare models in our collections.
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| These perfectly matched Woodgrain Belgians came from the same estate sale. Somebody had good taste! |
We discovered we have three (and sometimes four or even more) of a number of models as well, the result of purchasing upgrades or finding bargains in antique malls over the last 30+ years or being unable to resist fun color variations (looks askance at seven all very different woodgrain Fighting Stallions). Doh! These duplicate models will hopefully make for excellent trade fodder down the road. We generally think of ourselves as black hole collectors (things go in but never go out), but realistically, we will have to let some models go (if only to exchange them for new ones, mwahaha).
Part of the goal of our inventory work over the last year has been to find a few cherished models to put back out on display. My sister's favorite Pacer, the stunning 1984 Riegsecker's special run in dapple grey, had disappeared after being stashed in a random box several years ago in the wake of a small leak that had compromised his original storage box. Happily, while working our way through boxes and adding or correcting the labels on them, we found him!
I was also delighted to find one of my favorite models, the 1979 mail order special run dapple grey Clydesdale Mare. Naturally, she was literally in the very last box in a big stack of 40+ boxes that we knew she had to be in. My girl came from Marney Walerius' collection, so not only is she lovely, she's a treasured part of my herd.
We did find a few new shrinkies in the process, one of whom is destined to be the subject of a post here eventually, but for the most part, I think we've managed to eradicate most of those poor sad models from the herd. We did also find a couple of stripped chalkies that have begun to crack and shatter. It's so sad because they were so very cool. (We bought them stripped before we knew what could happen.)
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| Even the plastic on her legs is cracking and crumbling away |
Now that we finally have a pretty solid handle on our Breyer collection inventory, we'll tackle our much smaller Hartland, Stone, and china herds in the coming year. Which segues more or less well into discussing that fun end of old year/beginning of the new year topic---what we did and what we hope to do going forward.
An enjoyable trend on Facebook and Instagram in recent years has been for collectors to share their favorite acquisitions of the previous year.
For me, 2024 was a very lean year---my disposable income was mostly
non-existent---but I was happily able to add a few really cool models to
my collection for pretty bargain prices.
I'm delighted to finally own Gladys Brown Edwards' large metal parade horse sculpture made by Dodge. His one hind leg needs a repair and he's missing his reins, but I couldn't pass him up for $40. This is very likely the piece that inspired Mastercrafters, Hartland, and Breyer back in the late 1940s.
My Breyer Money Manager was another thrilling $40 find. I'm so happy to finally have this goofy bit of Breyer history in my collection.
At the beginning of the year, I paid off a Hartland holy grail that had been on long time payments with an amazingly kind friend, and it's just too awesome to not include. I have wanted a Hartland Champ clock for at least 20 years, but they're so hard to find. Two slipped through my fingers over the years, so I'm elated to finally have this very rare piece in my collection at long last.
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My only big expenditure of the year was my Young Ferseyn from Hagen-Renaker Tennessee. I socked away money for him for months beforehand knowing I would never be able to afford him on the secondary market, and he arrived just in time for my birthday which was a really nice treat.
In terms of less tangible things, though I haven't been able to blog every week as I would like, I've been better about posting a couple of times a month at least, and I'm hoping to keep that momentum going in 2025. I have so much I want to write about! I have now had the opportunity to take a bunch of the photos I've been needing for planned posts, and with our new inventory system, my darling sister can easily find things to photograph for me when she visits my parents every few weeks if I need more.
The weather here in Chicago is of course ugly cold---in the single digits or teens lately with subzero windchills---which means it's much too cold to paint, primer, or spray fixative. I am anxious to get back to work on customs, but for the next few weeks, I'm going to take advantage of the crappy weather and get some writing and website work done. I am also hoping to get started on organizing and culling some of my Chicago herd, both OFs as well as bodies I'm just never going to get around to painting.
I have some plans to do a spring sale of customs, probably more minis, very likely with Jane Austen and bad Regency-pun names because what is spring without a good thunderstorm and Northanger Abbey? Or a pond-soaked Mr. Darcy pining for Lizzie Bennet's fine eyes?
This little mare may be part of that sale---she is clamoring to be finished, but I'm not sure I'll be able to part with her. I just love this mold so much!
And speaking of irresistible sculptures by Maggie Jenner-Bennett, I think my only real OF acquisition goal for the coming year is to buy a Stone mule. I'd love to get one of the fun stripey ones like The Squad or Charade eventually. In the meantime, I have a trad mule body I acquired at Stone Horses Country Fair, and I should really decide on a color to paint it! Stripes? Unicorn horn? Realistic? Too many choices!
So anyway, hopefully 2025 will be a year of productivity, writing, and more organization. Losing myself in creative outlets is also going to be important for a number of reasons, and my sister (who is also an artist) and I have challenged each other to do something frivolous and artistic every week. Paid work doesn't count, just fun art for ourselves, whether it's sketching, cross stitching, sculpting, or painting customs for our own collections. I may share some of that here depending on how rusty my drawing skills are!
