Kicking Ideas Around for New Dala Horse Designs

When I'm sure what I want to do I start with a page of outlines.

Today I'm working with gouache and a black marker for outlining.

This one was clearly a mistake. I could try again without the marker but I think I'll pass on the idea for a while.

I've always enjoyed flowers so this one is my favorite.

I'll be outlining the vines and flowers on this one next. I think of patchwork quilts when I design things like this.

This one will be used on my line of baby clothes on zazzle for starters and I'll try it on other products after that.

After all of that i figured I'd go back to drawing and do another horse in black and white.

 Unfortunately the drawing was too busy, and the lines too fine to make into a rubber stamp so I'm not quite sure hat to do at that point. I could just paint it in. Keep checking the blog to see what happens with it and to get more ideas.

I decided to try painting in the flowers by hand and will attempt a number of background colors before doing anything permanent with it.

The Christmas Dala Horse, Holly and Berries

I loved designing this dala horse. It's very traditional except for my use and placement of the holly and berries.

After we scanned it and put it on merchandise in my Zazzle Dala Horse store I decided to play with my painting and some stickers given to me by a friend
to turn into a handmade card that she would enjoy.

Designing Dala Horses for Valentine's Day with Heart

Many years ago I painted the pink Dala Horses in the photos so I thought I'd re visit the idea and see what else I could come up with.
This time I'd do it on paper.

I may still try these deigns on actual wooden horses to be sure they really work but for now, experimenting on paper saves me a lot of work. I this one I thought I'd add a bit of color to see how I'd like it.

On this one I went back to the all pink idea but added a bit of an all over pattern to kick it up a notch and I feel that I'm on to something here, what do you think?

Dala Horse Designs Inspired by Garden Photos

 One of those things that I want everyone to know and remember is that inspiration is eveywhere and the shape of a dala horse adapts itself to any design easily.

One of my favorite things so far is that I can use the flowers in my garden so that I can enjoy it all year.

When everything has stopped blooming I just work from the photos that I've taken over the summer.

Here are my two new horses. You'll find them used on all sorts of fun products in my zazzle store.

zazzle.com/dalahorse

This was the finished project page

The first thing I did was to cut the images apart.

Next I cut out around each item.

Then came the fun part as I made greeting cards out of them

 
I send the originals to friends and family and any design that we really like gets made into commercial printed cards on zazzle.com. as well.

 I like to draw on the envelopes to make matched sets with the cards.

Dala Horse Lamp

This project turned out to be a lot of fun. My Husband built a wooden lamp about half a century ago in junior high school but we never quite knew what to do with it so it spent most of it's time in and out of boxes, closets and basements.

It's just made out of little squares of scrap lumber but after all of the spindles I painted for my wheelchair ramp while working on ideas for designing Dala Horses it suddenly occurred to me that it would be a perfect way to show off those designs and maybe a horse as well.

What do you think of the results?

Here are some In progress photos too taken in better light.

If you look through older posts you'll be able to see the wheelchair ramp, lampshade and the dala horses that I've mentioned here.

It was fun to find a project that ties it all together.

New Uses for Dala Horse Designs

I've been drawing dala horses for years but it was mostly for design purposes and nothing except teaching classes was done with them.

Lately it occurred to me that If I make all of the lines heavier that I can make them into rubber stamps. I haven't sold very many of them but I love them and use mine often to decorate my mail.

There are several more of these heavier drawings for use as rubber stamps and patterns but I'm hoping you'll buy those on the How to post cards that I have available in my Dala Horse store on Zazzle.

Thanks, 

A girl's got to make a living,

Julia

Changing Your Dala Horses

I wish I'd taken pictures along the way put a Christmas Dala Horse I did years ago had become quite damaged. I first planned to just touch it up and then decided to change it to a year around design that I would get more use of.

BEFORE

AFTER

I sanded off the holly leaves in the saddle area and  the bit, bridle and reins so that I could make them thinner and brighter.

I also added more colors and design elements to brighten it up a bit.

I don't know what you think but I feel it was a vast improvement.

Don't be afraid to go back and make changes. You can always out it back the way it was if you want to.

After all it's just wood and paint, you can't really ruin anything. Just keep at it until you come up with something you're really happy with.

The Latest Finished Dala Horses by Julia

These were all hanging ornaments. I love to display them all year in various places but for most people they would be Christmas Ornaments.

 Here I wanted to see how similar designs would look in different colors. That's an easy way to expand the number of dala horse designs that you have.

 When I'm In the mood for something really different I just paint a lot of my favorite flowers.

 Other times I kick things up a notch by adding coma strokes in random locations to move the eye around and to accent colors

Back at Work Designing and Making Dala Horse Ornaments

  It's been nearly half a year since I've done much in the way of working on actual dala horses but they're never far from mind.

I'm often using my dala horse designs to create products for home and office on Zazzle.com/dalahorse*

I had a few last wooden blanks for ornaments so I thought I'd try some different color variations of some of my teaching (easy) designs. in case I ever get that instruction book written for you.

The more that I worked on these and considered the book. The more I came to the conclusion that what I will do is create a set of wipe clean laminated cards that can be carried along in your paintbox whether you are teaching a class, taking one or just want to work on your own.

Here are a few of the latest Horses in progress. 

This is where I go to spray clear coat on my ornaments.

Years ago I had plans for a nice studio and a professional spray booth but I was never able to afford it. The upside of that is being able to tell you that you really don't need them. And it's much nicer to spend the day out in the fresh air (as long as you can get to an area where you won't harm or bother anyone with the spray. I'm very careful to stay away from gardens, birds wildlife areas or people.)

Here I've stacked a small mesh patio table on top of a larger one so that there's room to hang ornaments as well as stand chunkier horses or lay ornaments flat. this arrangement has always worked well for me and I think you'll find it useful too.

Don't they make a happy sight? Seeing them always cheers me up.