Dala Horse Christmas Ornaments

I'm working on a number of different styles and sizes of horses for the Christmas tree this year but thought I'd stick to red ones in some more or less traditional designs.

2 of these are ornaments and the larger wider horse is just free standing for a shelf or table. This time I decided to limit the colors used to just red, yellow green and white. I was pleased with the results and added them to my Christmas tree.

My tree will be all red horses but here's a picture of a tree done with other horses that I've done over the last 4 years that belongs to one of the people that collect them.

Inspiration, Junk Mail and Design Ideas

I discovered a plate that I liked in a cooking catalog and put the clipping in a little design notebook that I've started. The features that I liked best were the combination of colors and the idea of layering the flower shapes to fill a larger space.

I experimented with changes in both the flowers and leaves and decided that I liked the light blue the way it was in the catalog better. It was easy to add it inside the darker blue that I had painted and that seemed to improve it a bit.

The design on the plate was outlined which gives it quite a different look which I like but wouldn't find practical for the deck spindles I'm practicing on or to adapt and paint much smaller on Dala Horses.

I tried painting variations of some of the designs as I considered what I might use them for in the future but for now they just continue to make my house look interesting.