Any Color Works

Sometimes I like to take a break from traditional colors and designs when painting Dala Horses. I've never heard of one that was purple and green, have you? Stretch your imagination and have some fun.

The hanging one has already been sold and Yes, the pink, green and yellow one is on it's way out of here too.

 I haven't finished with this one yet. I'm sure the polyurethane will change the color of the wood and I plan to enhance the designs with some outlining so I'll be adding one more photo to this post as soon as it's done.

Carving and selling Dala Horses

I put my Dala Horses for Sale sign up today and my finished horses on a table in the front yard while I sat and carved some blanks for new horses. Several people stopped and were interested but no one bought anything. I took that opportunity to make sure that everyone who wanted one got a business card. I'll let you know if any of them come back.

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.

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.

Brush Stroke Paractice for Dala Horses on a Wheelchair Ramp

What I love about doing this project is having lots of places to practice various color choices and brushstrokes in a way that's fun, interesting and useful.

I also hear it's becoming a bit of a landmark and a topic of discussion in the neighborhood.

It's fun to see the smile on people's faces as they walk by.

Fun Horse Designs

I never do the same thing twice, not even on the same horse as you can see by these photos of the north woods themed horse.

The other interesting thing about this horse was that I painted some of the wood grain because there was one dark streak on one side and I wanted a natural but more even look to it.

 If I do more horses like this one I'd use a lighter blue for the small flowers for better contrast. You never really know until you try and find out what you like. The more you paint the more confident you will be with your choices and the better your horses will look. Keep painting, it only gets better.

Folk Art Border Designs

What I love about painting the spindles on my wheelchair ramp is the opportunity to try 4 different designs on each one. It gives me lots of practice on my brushstrokes and a place to try variations of them to find which color combinations I like best. 

The other exciting thing about it is that the ramp gets painted while I'm working out new designs and patterns.

Who knows? It may even help people remember where "that Dala Horse Lady" lives when they're looking for classes or horses to buy.