Easy Stain/Glaze You Can Make

  I often can't find quite the shade of red that I want to use as a basecoat for my horses so this time I decided to make my own. I wanted a stain to highlight the grain of the wood and my carving so once I'd mixed the paint color that I wanted, I thinned it by water by somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2. How much water you need will vary with the types of acrylic paints you're using.

Colors Needed:    red

                               orange

                              brown

Blue Dala Horse

I probably got carried away on this horse. It seems to me that I've added too many layers of designs as I kept trying different brushes and practice my coma strokes.

Basic design elements worked out OK but I'm not happy with this shade of green.

The more I look at it, the more I begin to like it. If nothing else, this horse helped me decide which shade of blue I prefer to use for horses. This one is a Martha Stewart paint made by the Plaid company. The color is called "Wild Blueberry". It's a multi-surface satin acrylic craft paint.

Dala Designs around the Garden

In addition to the Dala Horse on my arbor I've used a lot of the horizontal laths on it to practice border designs that may appear on horses in the future.

Yes, this is pretty weatherd, It's been outdoors for a number of years. We have plans to tear down the arbor, repair and repaint it sometime soon and then the fun will start all over again.

I plan to save the dala horse and use it on another project.

Even when I'm not painting actual horses, I'm practicing brushstrokes and working on designs that can appear on just about anything around here.

These horse heads were actually wood scraps left over from cutting out the wood blanks for my horses. He wanted me to see if there was anything that I could do with them. I think it's kind of cute, what do you think? I made this one into a Christmas ornament.

Dala Dots

Every once in a while I like to play with dots and borders as I did with the chair design that I had in a magazine years ago. it looks very different here than it did when I was designing furniture but it still works and is easy enough for anyone to accomplish.

Red Roses Dala Horse

I've included 2 images of each side of the horse because I find scans much brighter and clearer than the photos.
This design is easy to accomplish with just a few easy brush strokes and just 4 colors.

Patchwork with Dots on new horse

Dala Horse with Roses

Each side of this horse is quite a bit different because I haven't really painted roses in quite a while so I kept trying different brushes and techniques.

As you can tell these photos were taken outside so it was hard to get the colors true because of all the sunlight bouncing off things. You'll have to take my word for the fact that it really looks much better in person...and when you're not shooting it with someone else's phone.

Also be sure to shoot the photos BEFORE you apply the finish coat. Polyurethane can reflect the flash back and spoil the picture.