Rope halters and a Newmarket quarter sheet!

Rope halters are something that I have always found absolutely impossible to get my head around, and yet, I have somehow managed to make twelve of them in a matter of days!(one is currently being modelled by a really wobbly HOTY who always falls over, hence the lack of evidence, lol)

I used -this- tutorial for real horses and after an hour or so of faffing about with knots, something just clicked and everything made perfect sense. I still struggle with the final knot/loop under the chin, especially for horses with tucked heads but I'm getting there!

Oh and a tip for anyone wanting to make their own - the 'rope' material is commonly sold as 'Shambala Cord'. ;)
I used the 0.8mm and 1mm grades on my Julips but you would probably be best with 1mm or 1.5mm for Traditionals. I saw some of it sold simply as 'craft string' in a shop in Glasgow which is what got me in the mood for making them so it's worth keeping an eye out!

I started off making one for Kenway (you can see my horribly crude repair job on his paint rub at the bottom right :( ) which turned out ok, but my next wasn't quite right; the underside was too long! XD



Next up was a plain black one for Harper and a deep red number for Simba.



Kestral wanted a pink one but it ended up too small so now Arkas is being forced into wearing it until I can make him one of his own. XD You'll see that I managed to overdo the chin loop on both Kestral and Kerry's. >.<



The purple cord on Fanta was bought from a wholesale bead shop I recently discovered in Glasgow whereas the other stuff on Agrimony was the 'craft string' which handles a little differently.They're both essentially the same stuff but the Shambala cord on the right is a lot neater I think.



Finally, I found this 0.8mm stuff at my local craft shop and instantly bought three metres of the stuff because I knew I just had to make halters for Jazz and Archie. XD It's so wonderfully over the top but I love it!



I gave Archie's a thicker noseband as an experiment but I really liked how it turned out so I doubt it'll be the last time I do it.



Another item of tack that's been on my to do list for ever is a Newmarket fleece.
It's such an iconic pattern that you'd have thought there'd be loads of it about but there's simply nothing small enough to use for models. Like that was going to stop me however. :P
Ever on the lookout for bargains, I was browsing the local Poundland/£1 shop the other day when I spotted a pair of fleecy socks and leapt at the opportunity. They were just plain white and not really *that* fleecy but they had potential I thought.
I got them home, cut one apart and then set about 'dying' them with copic markers. It went a little stiff but still retained much of its fleecy character and well, Giovanni doesn't seem to mind. :P





I'm definitely going to make a couple of actual rugs and perhaps a shorter quarter sheet as this one absolutely swamps 'vanni and he's one of my tallest Julips! XD

Next on the agenda...christmassy tack!

Long time no blog!

Apologies for dropping off the face of the earth for a while, I had a really stressful college project to get through and it really drained me of all enthusiasm for anything else. I'm really pleased with how it turned out though so I'll hopefully get a post on that up soon.

In the meantime, I have some new tack and accessories to show off as well as a new Julip or two... :P

I bought this lovely Irish Draught as part of the last batch of spares produced under Annabel (The Originals side of Julip is now under new management) and as he is just the most gorgeously shaded buckskin I couldn't resist. I named him Kenway after the protagonist of the latest Assassin's Creed game (which is brilliant by the way, I'd heartily recommend it) and love him to bits.

 





I added a freezemark to him - JI 13 - as the money I used to pay for him was earned through my very first bit of paid employment at 'Justin Illusions' where I worked for a few days several months ago making giant prop clouds for a theatre production. XD I'll post about that too soon enough, it was great fun!



Alas, since these photos I managed to get a spot of glue on his nearside barrel which has taken some paint off and since his colour is so difficult to match, he's not looking especially happy right now, sorry pony! :(

Another new arrival to EAE came in the form of a lovely little dalmation from the first batch of spares of Laura's reign at Julip. I was really skint so I couldn't afford a horse or pony but a dog was definitely within my budget! He doesn't have a name yet so any suggestions would be welcomed.

Here he is with Lily, my other dally. I love that they are a little different in terms of size - it's one of the things that makes Julips so endearing - no two will ever be exactly the same!



If anyone is interested in getting a Julip when the next batch goes up, keep your eyes peeled on the facebook group as until the website goes live in the new year, that is where they will be found. :D

https://www.facebook.com/groups/198372595637/

Skara Update!

I'm still working on her first photostory (my muse has disappeared again, typical) but for now, here's a bit of a costume update.

When you last saw her, Skara was kitted out in a very basic shirt 'n' trousers combo which, while fine for escaping a burning town and whatnot it just wasn't suitable for everyday adventuring. Her kit needed some work too, so...

First to be tweaked was the costume. I use a lot of custom mods on my copy of Skyrim for the PC and by far, my favourite is -this armour- set I got from the Skyrim Nexus. I didn't want to copy it completely, just get the feel of it so I tweaked things rather a lot.

Here she is in game... (oh and I have a tumblr for all my screenshots now too, -here-)

First to be made was the leather breastplate. In hindsight, I should have made it a bit differently but hey-ho, I'm pleased with how it turned out nonetheless!

I used some tooling leather I had lying about and using a picture of some celtic knotwork I found online, began to carve it out. As often happens when a sudden bout of creative inspiration occurs, I found myself entirely without leatherworking tools so I was forced to improvise. In place of a punch, I had a mini screwdriver and my 'mallet' consisted of a bottle of water. Oh and did I mention that I was doing this not at my desk or in a specific working area but right in front of the PC with my parents trying to watch a film in the room almost directly below? Yeeeah, they weren't particularly impressed with the noise I was making but once I'd dampened the leather I couldn't just stop so they had to put up with it! :P

I'd never really carved leather before and aside from the tremendous noise I ended up producing alongside it, I really enjoyed it. The runes on the back piece say 'shadow' in Dovah script - an apt phrase to apply to a sneakthief archer I thought - and the symbols alongside relate to Skyrim's Thieves Guild.

I didn't have anything to treat the leather with once it was finished so after I had finished carving it I dampened it down and formed it to Skara's body so it would hold its shape once it dried, then I used a combination of acrylic washes and hand cream to keep the leather supple.

Oh and the hat is just fine leather from a charity shop purse (£1, bargain!) with some fur fabric. I had a little scrap of rabbit fur I was going to use instead as it looked nicer but I couldn't get it to sit properly. I've trimmed the fur since the picture too.

Next up was the maille. I'd attempted to make my own using tiny jump rings but gave up after only a row and a half as it was incredibly fiddly so I had to use my backup plan - metal mesh from an old purse. (another charity shop find) One one side it has flat metal pieces but the other side can double as chainmaille if you squint a bit.



Either way, it was only a couple of pounds for the bag so I thought I'd better give it a go. The 'rings' are a little too big and I have another purse of the same material in a smaller size that would look better, only they're in a much more gold/bronze colour which isn't really what I wanted so I'll just have to put up with it for now until I can find some smaller stuff.

I made her a nice cosy looking overtunic out of some £1 shop socks the other day and oooft, I HATE sewing sleeves! I sewed one inside out at least twice and messed up the other once but now that they're done I can't say I'm too disappointed although now that I look at photos I realise I made it woefully too short. Bugger.
Oh well, she probably took them off someone else anyway so we can just say that it wasn't her size...

At some point in her story (which I will commence writing again once this is posted!) she will make her way to the small village of Falkreath which is one of my favourite places in the game. All the guards carry shields with the individual Hold's sigils so I thought it might be nice to make her one too as I tend to use a shield with her and a sword. I made it from balsa wood, with superglue/bicarb for the metal parts. The sigil I drew from a reference picture and ended up having to repaint it several times as it was so fiddly!



She got a sword too, though it's only temporary as I made it in a couple of hours from a wooden coffee stirrer and I'm not confident it'll last long, haha!

(on a strangely related side note, it sits in the above picture on the blade of a German WW1 bayonet that we found recently in my grandpa's garage. This is odd in many ways but mostly because he wasn't around in the First World War and even in the second he served in India on the trains so we have literally no idea how he came by it and neither does he!)

I'll be taking her and Inky down to Dumfries with me this weekend for a week's holiday so I'll be taking lots of photos, weather permitting!

Exciting news from Julip!

Cross posted from MHL, GJF and the 'Just Julips' FB group. Julip has a new owner!

Post by libby on Oct 1, 2013 at 5:26pm

A couple of months ago I was given the opportunity to purchase Julip as a company with the exception of the Horse of the Year range; as a result, Julip has now been divided into two entirely separate companies, those being the Julip Horse of the Year range and Julip Originals.

The Julip Horse of the Year range (which will still be owned by Annabel) will continue to run in much of the same way it always has and horse of the year products will still be available for purchase directly via www.juliphorses.com/
and through a variety of online suppliers.

However Annabel will no longer be producing the original latex Julip’s, these products will now be produced by us (me!) under the new name of Julip Originals.
The aim of Julip Originals is to produce everything you have come to expect from the Julip brand in exactly the way it has always been, from the moulds to the latex, from the paints to the thinners, everything is identical to what has been used in the past.

While we are aiming to produce all of the latex products Julip Horses has released, which includes horses, ponies, yearlings, foals, cats, dogs, foxes and even doves, initially we will only be able to make batches of spares and not custom orders; of course special orders will be able to be taken once production is in full swing and we are also hoping to introduce some new exciting moulds in the coming year. Its also safe to say that the Julip shows and 'paint your owns' will also continue to be a part of Julip.

Over the next couple of months we will be launching an official Julip Originals website, community forum, Facebook group, Twitter feed and Flicker account.

In the meantime if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to ask and we will strive to keep the Julip community up to date with any progress.

As we have only just taken possession of all the moulds and other paraphernalia it is going to take a little while to get up and running, so please bear with us and i'll do my best to keep everyone informed of our progress

This should mean that orders will be far easier to make and will get a lot faster and more efficient as they were kinda lacking in that department the last few years. 

Shift 17

Unbeknownst to most of you because I've been a really terrible blogger this last year, I've been working behind the scenes on a film.

Don't get too excited, it's hardly oscar material as it's only a student production but it's been an interesting experience nonetheless. We managed to score a nice little budget thanks to Kickstarter (most of which went towards making the set) and you can see a little clip here with Liam, Julia and my Unicorn from last year! (Alas, I wasn't in the day they filmed it or I'd have been there too!)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/264586587/shift-17

....see below for millions of photos...

Bunny!

I was supposed to be visiting my grandpa in Perthshire this weekend which would have meant that I could have taken some nice photos of Skara and Inky in some nice scenic scenery but my dad wasn't feeling well and as he's the only driver in the family, that ruled that visit out. XD
On the plus side, it did spur me on last night to make a couple of new props...

I'm still writing out a photostory for Skara but really wanted to do a hunting scene where she could utilise her bow. I didn't have time last night to make a deer, so I thought I'd aim a little smaller and make a rabbit instead. :P

Making an armature that tiny was challenging to say the least but it worked out pretty well in the end. The fur was some really nice coloured faux fur that I trimmed down almost to it's backing. I chopped up some more and glued it onto the head and feet afterwards to blend it into the fimo. His ears are painted leather.

 

As well as the bunny himself I made some raw and cooked versions of the rabbit legs found in Skyrim along with some (really unconvincing) cooked meat and some bread. All of this was made from fimo.

I kinda don't want her to eat him now! Maybe he'll become a pet...

Skara is finished!

It's taken a while but Skara, (in her current costume at least) is finished!

Aside from the base body, everything you see here I made from scratch myself.

I based the top on the Miner's Clothes from Skyrim, but I used a lot of artistic licence, likewise with the weapons and things. I had an old top made from cheesecloth that I'd cut up for craft fabric ages go which was perfect for this. I'm usually useless when it comes to sewing but I somehow managed to make it look reasonably good. The fraycheck I used on the edges stained them a bit but I like to think it adds to the well worn and weathered look. Once the shirt was all sewn up and had the edges sealed I soaked it in a bowl of strong tea and water to make sure it didn't look too new and bright white.



I stuck some copic markers up the arms so it would dry to shape but alas, one cap must have been open a little bit as it left a mark on one shoulder. :/ I didn't bother trying to get it out as I thought it would just pass as some accumulated dirt or something. XD I painted some of the tea around the bottom of the shirt and the ends of the sleeves as they were the places most likely to pick up wear and tear.





The leather I used for the belt had a really horrible finish to begin with; far too shiny and new looking so I took a bit of sandpaper to it which made it look a lot more worn. The pouch on her belt is made from the fingertip of an old leather glove and opens and closes using a little toggle I made from carved styrene to emulate bone or ivory.

Her dagger is based on the iron and steel ones in game but I simplified the design a lot. When I get back to college in a month or so I'm hoping to use the lasercutter so I can make a few of the really fancy swords with carved out details but for now, simple is best.

The blade and guard are made from 1 or 2mm styrene (I can't remember which, sorry!) and the grip is just wrapped with thread and covered in a layer of superglue to hold it all together. The scabbard for it was cobbled together pretty quickly so I'll probably remake it at some point.

Her bow is a little small but I didn't have a long enough section of wood to make a proper longbow. As it was, I used a wooden coffee stirrer instead! I soaked it in very hot water until it was pliable, cut notches in the ends and strung it with tooth-floss. It sounds like a very bizarre choice but it looks and feels like sinew and does actually work!

(and yes, I did test it out. :P)

She used to be an adventurer you know...until, well... XD






It was sanded and stained with Games Workshop washes and finished off with some matte varnish.



Now no archer worth her salt could go without arrows so I made her a few!



The heads are all individually cut out of styrene (again, another thing I'd like to make with the lasercutter is some more realistic arrowheads.) and the flights were all hand glued and fletched with thread. (which was incredibly fiddly as I kept gluing bits of feather to myself rather than the arrows!)



I thought I had a better range of feathers than I actually had, hence why they're all different sizes and shapes and colours. In my headcanon for Skara, she starts off in Skyrim as a bit of a scavenger so I like to imagine that she's picked up these arrows from all over the place, hence the variety.

The quiver is all leather, stitched together with thread. I struggled to find good photographs of all the associated straps and how they attached to it so I improvised a little.

Her pendant has a real glass gem in the middle, the rest is Fimo clay painted silver and glossed with varnish with a couple of seed beads alongside.

Given that she was wearing Miner's clothes, I thought she might benefit from having a pickaxe on hand...unfortunately I didn't bother looking up a reference picture to work from because I thought I remembered what they looked like...which I clearly didn't as I forgot that one side of the axe was wider at one end...oh well. XD

The handle is a scrap of dowelling I had lying around with some chips whittled off, the blade is styrene and the bit round the top is of all things, leather!

Painted up you can't tell though. It's probably way too small as well but never mind, if nothing else it can be a useful prop to have in the background at some point.

Inky got herself a tack set too! Seeing as I had already strayed from making exact replicas of Skyrim stuff, I saw no harm in making her stuff a little more unique. (Given the kind of world Skyrim is set in, I find it highly unlikely that everyone would have had exactly the same kind of weaponry and whatnot. :P)
 I have never liked the default Skyrim tack, especially the bridle with the little spikes and things so she got a simple snaffle bridle minus the noseband and throatlatch instead. Normally I make working buckles for everything but these ones are just for show as the whole bridle just lifts off. I had left a hole going through her mouth so I could use an actual mouthpiece for the bit - it only goes in a cm or two but with a little sticky wax, it stays in place quite nicely and looks far more realistic than if I just stuck it to her face temporarily. The detail at the browband is just thread.



Her saddle is a lot closer to the original game tack, though I added a few touches of my own.



The bedroll is made of thick felt and I made the saddlebags from scratch out of fine glove leather. The fur covering should have been a little longer but I only realised this by the time I'd glued it together!



I took them out for a couple of photoshoots this week so stay tuned for a big picture filled post!

Here's a sneak preview of what's to come...