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.

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.

New Horse Design Based On Tradition

I started out with a drawing that combines several different, traditional design elements to create a new horse.

 

Next I filled in the drawing with watercolors and acrylics.

Here is the completed drawing. My next step will be to paint 2 wooden horses.
One will be freestanding to see what it looks like in 3 dimensions and the other will be a Christmas ornament to see how it looks flat.

Here are all three finished horses. It made me laugh because laying the ornament down on the page and standing the other horse up looked almost like the new horse design was jumping off the page and becoming real.

From this photo it's difficult to tell which horse is paper and which one is wood. I may use both versions on merchandise in my zazzle store. Depending on what sort of look that I'm going for.

Here's a better view of the wooden Christmas Tree Ornament.

Here you see the freestanding dala horse both standing alone and joining the collection of other horses that I have designed and painted.

I think it fits in pretty well, don't you?

Rocking the Dala Horse

One of my sisters rescued this little rocking horse from a thrift store and the old wood finish just wasn't nice enough to keep.

As long as it needed painting I couldn't resist turning it into a dala Horse.

I was so excited to see how it would turn out that I totally forgot to take "before" pictures.

This will be a fun addition to anyone's collection, don't you think so?

Dala Horse Birdhouse Project

Painting all of those posts on the wheelchair ramp gave me a great idea for using this old birdhouse stand.

 Of course all of those painted posts reminded me of my horses so I decided to paint some of them on here too.

When finished I plan to use it as a sales and display unit for my Dala Horses. I'll even be adding some small hooks around the edge of the roof to hand ornaments on.

Dala Horse Collection

Swedish Dala Horse Women Fashion

by julia_art

I went through my Dala Horse store on Zazzle and gathered all of the women's clothing items in it with this traditional styled Dala Horse on it. It amuses me that you can wear it head to toe on tops, leggings shoes and more.

Dala Horse Dress

Dala Horse Ruffle Dress

by dalahorse

This one started with a drawing. The dress itself is cute and I'll be making a lot more of them with different horses on them.

Back to the Sketchbook

As the New Year begins I've gone back to my sketchbook and some of my previous work and have been thinking about what I'd like to be doing with Dala Horses this year.

I paint flowers a lot...on everything. I'm not sure whether I want to go down that road again.

There are a lot of other designs I could be working on. Other ideas I'm considering are designing a set of "how tos" that could be used as the basis for a book or a class sometime in the future.

Before attempting that I'll be doing a set of simple drawings that can be used on some rubber stamps in my zazzle store.

I 'm enjoying looking through my photos of horses that I've done in the last few years and may work some of them into a book.

Soooo many choices that choosing one may be a challenge. I'll keep you posted as I work.

I made this boxed set of ornaments about five years ago and it may be time to try a project like this again. My Designs have improved a lot since then and this time I can order a nice box from Zazzle with one of my horse  designs on a ceramic tile on the lid. I'm looking forward to seeing how that will turn out.

Yes, the possibilities really are endless and I can't wait to get started!

Yellow and Blue Dala Horse

My original idea was to design a horse in the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag but none of the blues I had on hand were right and I didn't feel like trying to mix it so I just decided to do a bit something else in blue and white.

When I do come up with the color I want all of the straps of any kind will be that blue,The mane will be much the same as it is, but in the other blue and I have yet to decide what I'll do with the saddle.

I think playing with variations in blue and yellow will be my signature style this season.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Iris Dala Horse

A round brush and a liner are all that are needed for this design. When using the round brush for the larger petals you just press at the outside if the petal then lift and pull to the center. Don't forget to turn a bit as you get close that inside edge to give them more shape or have them go at different angles.

As you can see the warmer weather has allowed me to go back to spraying clear finish over the Dala Horses to build some shine and protection over the paint.

Border patterns on Blue Backgrounds

I'm painting the spindles on my wheelchair ramp so I'm using the opportunity to experiment with different variations on simple designs.