Adiva Arabians

Lots of stuff going on today!

2011-02-28T16:29:00.001-08:00

Everytime I open a box with a new resin for my collection in it, it's like Christmas! Here's who I added to my collection today...the lovely Kha-Moshun resin! I've been planning his color since I started making payments on him and pretty much already decided his fate. I will be removing his mane and tail (yes I know! even though it's amazing the way it is) and I will be hairing him myself. My goal is to try to stay as original to his sculptured mane and tail style as possible, so it will be long and flow-y. I hope to ask Mindy Berg to paint him a dapple rose gray for me. An awesome horse needs an awesome painter and I know that lady can nail the dapples this horse needs to really come to life!

Here is Kalendar Prince today after 30 minutes of "wet" hairstyling and hair trimming. As you can see wetting the mohair activated it's natural wave. I do like the look of the wave in the tail but I think I'm going to try to do more with the mane. I'm hoping to smooth it down and sweep it back a bit to give it some movement. Arabs typically have the straight silky manes and tails but it's hard to want to remove all the natural wave that occurs with this hair because it can be really pretty. I also want to add some more thickness to his forelock and add a slight bridle path patch behind his ears. So he's not done yet, stay tuned for more pictures. Again, this horse is painted by Shannon Mayfield, and he's incredible! I'm just doing his hairstyle! Shannon is also currently working on another bay Timeless resin for me, whom I will also hair when he's completed! Yay! :0)

Here's those better shots of the woven halters I was "playing" with on my new loom last night that I promised! I really like how clean and even they look. I plan to make a bunch in this style for sales this month, so stay tuned to see lots more of these! This is just the headstall base for now as you can see, there's still a lot of details that go with these babies before they are considered "done".

This one is multi-colored. I love how it turned out and think I'm onto something new here!

Also newly completed tonight, my first little bit scale Arabian halter made to fit Sheri Rhode's new Arabian resin "Treasure". I'm crossing my fingers that this will be a good fit on her...

An update! How and what am I doing?

2011-02-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well, here's the reason I'm behind on my tack as usual, and the reason why I will probably continue to be behind on tack for most of the upcoming summer as well! This happened to me on my birthday which was February 12th....
Yep, I got engaged! My fiance and I had innitially decided we were going to wait until next year to get married, but then I went to this wedding expo last weekend and totally changed my mind! We are both too excited to wait! So we're getting married this year on August 6th! Now I've got 5 months to plan my wedding! Ahhhh!!!

But...I did finally manage to get another costume done....I really wish I hadn't decided to take photos of it on a horse that has no tail...yep, he's bald!

Here's a close-up of the halter/bridle part. Ignore that blob of sticky wax hanging down...it slipped during the photo without me noticing....

Here's one of my newer horses that I've been working on hairing. He's a Kalendar Prince resin painted by Shannon Mayfield, and he's really amazing in person! I'm bummed I didn't get him done on time to model that blue, black and silver costume I just finished. Here's what he looks like after 3 hours of hair glueing....yep, I'm fussy...

And here he is 6 hours later....obviously I haven't styled him yet. He's having a bad hair day right now but is happy to not be completely bald anymore! This picture was also taken in the dark and I lightened it, and it makes his color look kind've strange. I promise to post better photos once he's all done!

I have two more horses here that I'll be rehairing very soon for my friend Erin! Stay tuned to see pictures of their before and after styles!

I've also been working on a group of 8 traditional scale presentation sets to sell after completion. Kind've a fun group of colors! Watch for these to pop up on MH$P soon! I've just got the tassles and cowries to finish and I should have them up this week! Hopefully Prince can models these sets once I get to styling him!

Here are the collars that match these halters....8 in all! Don't they look like a flower arranged this way? LOL!

Bought a loom to play with today! Decided I wanted to try my hand at weaving a few headstalls for some halters since I usually braid them instead. The first two I did were kinda flukey, but then I came up with a couple of really neat ones....here was my first attempt...I'll post pictures of my better attempts later....

That's all for now! More to come later!

:0)

2011-02-06T18:54:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since last summer! AHHH! I'm going to have to do something about that pretty soon! I'll take some pictures of what I'm working on and post them on here soon!

It's been a very busy summer!!

2010-08-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Can you believe how fast summer has gone by, and August is already here? Well I sure can't! However, in between all the summer play time I have managed to get quite a bit of work done!

Pictured above is a newer halter that I made. It's part of a set of 12 that I'm planning on selling. So far 3 have been listed to MH$P, I have 9 more to finish and list. Something different, and fun anyway!

Just completed a few new presentation sets. These are pictured above. A pretty sage and dark green, and then a black and white combination! These were a comission order.

That's all for now! Will write more soon! ~Melissa :0)

Maroon Costume Finished Up!

2010-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Congradulations Pat! Your costume is ready! :0)

Are you done yet? Are you done yet? How about now? mmm and now?

2010-04-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

386 tassles later....

Just added the tassles to the collar finally, so now I am done stringing them together in 3's. That does take awhile! Now to put on the finishing touches...bridle, reins, lining, stirrups, girth, throat lash, lead line, chain, cowries...etc... Hopefully I'll be done with this one this week!

More Progress on Maroon costume!

2010-03-30T08:09:00.001-07:00

Just sewed all the tassles onto the back, vertical sides and bottom panel sides of one side of the costume. Still got the bottom panel tassles to string and sew on the otherside yet, and on the collar as well. Hopefully I'll be doing that today! I've got my reins, leadrope, throatlash, bridle etc...all braided and ready to be tied off. Once I get all the tassles sewn onto my saddle I will be adding maroon trim around the edges. I hope to finish this one up this week!

I've got 5 silver crystal chain halters in the works that will also hopefully be ready this week as well. I'll be posting photos of items as I finish them up, so stay tuned to see more!

Presentation sets & costume progress...

2010-03-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Been hard at work on another costume! Got a couple more in the works right behind this one. Several distractions over the past few weeks have put me further behind in my work than I want to be again, but that's life there isn't much I can do about things that happen unplanned! I guess I'm trying to work on not letting it get me down so much, seems there's always something stupid going on that manages to mess up my plans! I find it frustrating!:0)
This costume has a maroon base, and it will be a tripple tiered costume when it's finished, also one of the reaons that it's taking me a bit longer to complete!

386 tassles on this one total. The tassle are maroon, pink and ivory. It takes me approximately 5 minutes to assemble one string of 3 right now, but I'm getting a little faster at it. I have 97 strings to put together total. Using size #15 beading needles for the first time has helped me increase my speed and accuracy, however the needles seem to break a lot faster. I can't tell you what a relief it is to finally have needles on hand that are small enough for the beads that I use! I've found that these needles are impossible to find at either of my local craft stores and found these while shopping out of town. I now have a source online that I can order from in the future. But in the past when I had a bead color on hand that I wanted to use and the needle was too big for it to slide over, I would hand string the beads onto the threads! Ack! Can't picture doing that now, this is way easier! I definately think there is some level of craziness that comes along with the desire to create such small things! LOL!

I just finished up four brand new Arabian presentation sets today. These are a new style for me. They are native-inspired with a little added bling. Each set features real swarovski crystal decorations embedded into intricate silver findings to create a unique frame for each crystal, alernated with hand-sculpted, baked, and gloss cowrie decorations made to replicate the ones seen on real native sets. Tassles are hand-brushed for a silky effect and each comes out of a thin, long bugle bead for a nice lined-up appearance. Each nose chain has hand-sanded shark teeth decorations for the ultimate protection of the model horse's finish, and small diamond shaped findings with little gemstones attached to either side to add extra sparkle!

As you can see I also added a new horse to my collection: Renovatio a.k.a. "Reno" sculpted by the talented Debbi Lermond! Very excited about him! I have plans to have him painted a very light dapple gray with a long flowy white mane and tail out of mohair. Haven't seen a mohaired Reno yet, so it will be fun to give this a try, and yes, I will probably do the hair myself!

These sets are currently forsale for more information on purchasing you can contact me at: melissa@adivaarabians.com

In Loving Memory

2010-02-17T16:54:00.001-08:00

In loving memory of my "Sassy". How you will be missed. They say man's best friend is a dog, well this woman's best friend was a cat. You were so beautiful with that soft shiny coat that had the feel of rabbit fur, and those shiny lime green eyes. You were just the right amount of pur mixed with a snottiness I just couldn't get past sometimes. But man did we play. I will never forget your sassy personality that made you so live up to your name, or that cute little smudge of gray on your lip, or how you would suprise me by wrapping yourself around my wrists and ankles to playfully bit and kick. I will always bear the scars on my wrists and ankles from the times you bit too hard--you definately left your mark on more than just my heart. So much spirit, and such a sense of humor reserved especially for me. Rest in peace my furry little friend. You will always be missed, and I will always love you.

For those waiting on work from me right now, know that I have encountered yet another delay in life. Something I knew was coming, but was unexpected for this week. My cat had to be put down this afternoon, and I am so lost and so devastated. I doubt this will put me too much farther behind because I welcome any kind of distraction from the incredible emptiness and sorrow that I feel. I am planning on going out of town this weekend to see some friends, and hopefully when I come home the hurt won't be as bad so I continue where I left off. I just feel like a person has died, and that's what my pretty little kitty meant to me as a friend, she was like a human, she was more actually. :0)

This is much easier!

2010-02-15T21:40:00.001-08:00

Well I thought it was time to get a real blog so here I am, or at least one that's easier for me to use! The one I had originally set-up on my website is nice and all but harder for me to update and therefore I tend to avoid even using it as often as I could be. Hopefully I'll get more use out of this Blog set-up and then people that care to know, can and will know what's happening with me!

So, my most recent creation is this sage green and ruby red costume that I did for Tami Blankenship. She has it in hand and has told me she's very pleased with it and might even show it in April! So Congrats to Tami, and hope you enjoy!

I took a little vacation to Upper Michigan with my boyfriend to visit his family at the beginning of the month so that put me a little behind on things, but it was a well needed break for sure! We experienced a 42 degree rise in temperature just coming from northern Minnesota. It was 22 below zero when we left Minnesota and then 20 above when we made the 8 hour drive to Upper Michigan. We didn't wear coats the entire time we were there! And even though it wasn't by any means an oasis gettaway, it sure was nice to be able to spend some time outside. I get really tired of holing up all winter here at home, and that's mostly what I do. I hate the cold! :0)

So what's happening right now in my studio? I am currently working on a tripple tier (3 rows of tassles!)maroon, pink, and ivory costume for Pat McDonald. I have high hopes to wrap that up at the end of next week. Speaking of wrapping, that's exactly what I've been doing a lot this week so far, wrapping tassles. This one will have 386 tassles total. I got about 120 done today! Yep, I'm crazy, and I do have blisters forming on my fingertips...again! LOL!

I haven't found time to make many new sales pieces in that last few weeks due to being busy with my trip, but that's going to change soon. I got a very positive response to my new Swarovski Crystal Chain halter that I made toward the end of last month, so I plan to order supplies this week to make a decent sized batch of them to sell! Hopefully that group will be done and ready to be released by the first or second week of March. Hard to believe that's coming up already! So, that's about all that's happening with me right now! Stay tuned for more random information, and also progress pictures of Pat's new costume, as well as information on the release of this new batch from my new "Crystal Desert Signature Series" OooOOoh! LOL!