Grain of Sands Studio

More Pictures and an Introduction

2010-03-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a light warmblood/Thoroughbred walking peacefully. His name is Jackson and he is proper micro size =)

Feathers

2010-02-28T10:37:00.000-08:00

This is what I finished working on last night. A one of a kind custom for myself. I think she looks good with wings =)
I also managed to throw the horse in the picture across the room and just for good measure my cat pounced on her and she's still, as you can see, in one piece. I'm feeling extremely klutzy but at least I know she's strong lol.

I do have three that are ready to be sold and will start contacting the people on my list to see if they want one.

The ants go marching

2010-02-26T14:48:00.001-08:00

The Nafres are being successfully cast! Here are some pictures of the little herd.
I think this picture makes it look like they're planning something =0

I do think I'm going to do things a little differently than I thought. The wire in the legs is an absolute pain to deal with and even though I've been fairly rough I've yet to break a single non-wired leg even with sanding, and testing some of them by pressing them with a fair amount of force.

(I also tested and she does bounce, even off linoleum, whooops lol)

Because of that I believe what I'll do is still offer casts with reinforced legs but charge $20 for them and $15 for the others. The one's I'm keeping for myself are the ones without the wire as their legs are just so much smoother and nicer without as much work =3

I have some cleaning to do of them but at this point I have about five casts that are just about ready to go.

The hoard cometh =)

2010-02-24T09:58:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've been working on. Keep in mind that this is my first ever attempt at mold making and casting and that I'm starting with a micro.

My first try at a mold was kind of a disaster. The first half went well but then, even though I did exactly what the mold release told me to do, it stuck like you wouldn't believe and I wasn't sure I'd even be able to free my original without damage. I decided to see what I could do with it and tried casting, cut an air channel and then tried again. I'm actually really glad I made the mistake first as I realized how important it was going to be to incorporate air channels for each of her legs, her nose and her jaw. It also gave me something to experiment on.

By pulling, tearing and doing some cutting I was finally able to extract my OS and the only damage was that she was missing her lower jaw. That was easily fixed and I soon had her back in the Play Doh.

This mold turned out fine and had pretty good results! The brown is a micro foal just for reference.But, what I'm most proud of is this next picture. The green showing through her legs is wire. I knew that resin legs this thin would break far too easily but I suspected that it would be possible to put wires in them and apparently it is =) Now I just have to practice getting them cleaned up and adding ear tips as it appears it will be impossible to have them fill in.

Another Hobby

2010-02-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

Tiny Tack Making =)
The bridle needs some work, the fenders are too big and I still need to make it a better saddle pad but I think it's pretty good for a first try =)

I may be crazy

2010-02-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

I finally decided that since recently I've been posting more about my sculpting and model horses than my real one I should create a separate blog for Grain of Sands Studio.

I am a 24 year old that has loved horses passionately since I can remember. When I was younger and couldn't have a real horse I lived my dream through models. During college I started more seriously collecting and switched from Breyers to Artist Resins. I've also always loved tiny things so when I discovered micro minis I was hooked. The only problem was that there just weren't that many different molds so I decided to try sculpting my own.

My first try resulted in Paris:

My second in Khepri:

My current project, Nafre:Both Paris and Khepri are for sale. Paris is $28 and Khepri is $32.50 both with shipping included.