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?

Designs for a Red Background

As I'm working on these posts for the wheelchair ramp I'm also carving and sanding horses as I decide which designs that I would like to use on them. I'll be painting those next. 

 On this most recent one I did a different design on each side of the post.

 The blue flowers seemed to show up the best and I thought I'd use it on the saddle area of the horse.

 The dot and coma stroke designs will work well across the chest and the belly band.

I've got a firm idea of what the design will be now and will include pictures of it as soon as I have them.

Stroke Work Designs for a Yellow Background

Yes, I'm still combining my need to practice new brush stroke patterns with the practicality of getting my wheelchair ramp painted before another year of winter weather gets to it.

As always I'm thinking about the next dala horse that I want to paint and how I can combine different brushstrokes and patterns to keep the design fresh and different than other horses that I have done before.

I'm nearly halfway up one side of the ramp now and really looking forward to enjoying my handiwork over the long, cold winter. This is the end of it that I can see from my living room window so it will be nice to have something else to look at besides the snow until my flowers bloom again in the spring.

Lazy Way to sell Dala Horses

I had planned to be out in the yard painting anyway so I set up a few of the horses that I had for sale next to the street. I didn't make any sales but one gal did take a business card for my Dala Horse store on Zazzle so I may get some sales that way.

This time instead of setting everything up carefully I put everything in a shallow blue and white bowl so that the wind wouldn't be a problem.

Each side of my sign is different. I'm not sure it helps but I reverse it every time I set up so that people in the neighborhood wouldn't think it was the same old thing.

Today I painted one dala horse, one post for the wheelchair ramp and a little gnome for the garden.
I'm happy to see that today's horse is already sold as soon as I put a few coats of spray polyurethane on it.

wood blank, carving,shaping and sanding dala horses

This is the sort of wood blank that I start with. our senior center has a wood carving group and there are a couple of people there that will cut them out for me on the scroll saw. You may be able to find one in your area too.

Here are a few horses in different stages. The one on the left is the blank, the one in the center has some carving on it and the one on the right is shaped, finished and ready to paint.

I do the rough shaping with a carving knife and then shape things the way I want an assortment of sanders and sanding sponges. Sometimes I even use emery boards. 

Yesterday my husband clamped and orbital palm sander to a workbench so that I only had to move the horse instead of having to hang on to the sander and that made things a lot easier to work with. Keep experimenting until you find out what works best for you.