Beyond Wooden Horses

 I've been designing and painting Dala horses for about 10 years now and done somewhere around 4 or 5 hundred horses.

I sold a lot, kept a few and gave  many as gifts.

After all or that, what's next? I'm working on a book and some videos and have also worked with companies to have my horses put on merchandise sold in different stores.

Here are some examples:

The possibilities are endless!

Join the fun!

Horse Designs on Various Themes

I thought I'd start on a sewing and quilting theme.

Next I decided to re-visit the Iris theme based on some wooden horses that i designed, carved and painted several years ago.

The first thing I'll do with these is put them on rubber stamps in my zazzle store and then I'll explore the other design possibilities from there.

Don't forget Christmas, that has a lot of possibilities.

Getting Started Selling Your Dala Horse Designs

At the top of the page is a photo of a wooden horse I designed, carved and painted several years ago so I thought I'd design a few more loosely based on that design.

It might be fun to see how far I can take the idea. This one will be used on a line of baby clothes that I'm designing. Please respect that and don't compete with me using my design. Create your own and the skies the limit for you.

It's hard out there for those of us starting out. We need to help each other.

It's easy to start once you have your own designs there are many companies where you can put your designs on products for sale. I use zazzle and have tried cafe press, there are many other companies like that. You'd just need to search for them. Good Luck!

In the meantime my patchwork horses are appearing on baby products and other things in my zazzle stores.

Another fun subject that may sell well is Christmas designs.

This is the first time  in nearly 10 years that I've tried coming up with a new Christmas design. As you can see I've left a lot of space to keep designing until I come up with a horse that I really like. I suggest you do the same. Just Keep Trying.

Kicking Ideas Around for New Dala Horse Designs

When I'm sure what I want to do I start with a page of outlines.

Today I'm working with gouache and a black marker for outlining.

This one was clearly a mistake. I could try again without the marker but I think I'll pass on the idea for a while.

I've always enjoyed flowers so this one is my favorite.

I'll be outlining the vines and flowers on this one next. I think of patchwork quilts when I design things like this.

This one will be used on my line of baby clothes on zazzle for starters and I'll try it on other products after that.

After all of that i figured I'd go back to drawing and do another horse in black and white.

 Unfortunately the drawing was too busy, and the lines too fine to make into a rubber stamp so I'm not quite sure hat to do at that point. I could just paint it in. Keep checking the blog to see what happens with it and to get more ideas.

I decided to try painting in the flowers by hand and will attempt a number of background colors before doing anything permanent with it.

The Christmas Dala Horse, Holly and Berries

I loved designing this dala horse. It's very traditional except for my use and placement of the holly and berries.

After we scanned it and put it on merchandise in my Zazzle Dala Horse store I decided to play with my painting and some stickers given to me by a friend
to turn into a handmade card that she would enjoy.

Designing Dala Horses for Valentine's Day with Heart

Many years ago I painted the pink Dala Horses in the photos so I thought I'd re visit the idea and see what else I could come up with.
This time I'd do it on paper.

I may still try these deigns on actual wooden horses to be sure they really work but for now, experimenting on paper saves me a lot of work. I this one I thought I'd add a bit of color to see how I'd like it.

On this one I went back to the all pink idea but added a bit of an all over pattern to kick it up a notch and I feel that I'm on to something here, what do you think?

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.