The great Pony Room Reorg - volume 1

As an aside from customizing...

What happens when you have 457 Ponies (not counting customs, plushies, Ponyville, or merchandise) and a very small pony room?

Chaos and destruction.  And a lot of dust.

Big pile of Ponies upstairs

This past July at the 2010 MLP Fair, my roommate and I were sitting at my booth.  I was lamenting that I didn't want to buy any playsets because I didn't have space to display them.  She was lamenting that her writing room (she's a published author) was dark and she didn't know what to do with all the space.

And then it slowly dawned on us that if we could switch rooms we'd both be that much happier.  And so it began.

First, we needed to put up some kind of a door on the writing room in the basement.  Kittens may be cute, but they have a taste for Ponies.  This was soon accomplished and then the move could begin.  We asked a couple of friends over to help move the heavier stuff and Roomy and I went up and down stairs for the better part of the morning carrying books up and ponies down.  The next day we whined a lot, because our legs really hurt.  But everything had been relocated.

Big pile of Ponies downstairs

Roomy's new writing room was pretty much set up in a couple of hours.  With the new Pony room I'm planning to have it all set up before Christmas.  Probably not much before, but I am planning to set up my usual Holiday Pony Scene this year (epic version.)

Regular updates to come.

Elf

MLP 's 25th Anniversary: Celebrate, Fete, & Jubilee

The MLP brand celebrated it's 25th anniversary in 2008.  Naturally, the custom contest theme for that year's MLP Fair was the same.  I created the Anniversary Trio, who took Second Place.

Celebrate is the G1 unicorn custom, who's symbol is a silver 25th with silver confetti.  Fete is the G2 earth pony custom, who's symbol is a silver 10th with silver confetti (I cheated a bit here, because the G2s came out in 1997, so really it was their 11th year.)  Jubilee is the G3 pegasus custom, who's symbol is a silver 5th with silver confetti.  I wanted to mark the anniversaries of all three generations of MLP with this set.  The G1 and 2 were fully repainted, while the G3 has her original body colour.  They all have blue eyes, and they all have rainbow hair, because the rainbow has always been such a major part of the MLP line.  I also wanted to use an earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus to represent the three major types of MLP.

Elf

Sculpting and Sewing and Symbols - Oh My!

Well by this time I had touched on all the major techniques that would, I hope, inform the rest of my customizing life.  From here on in it's all about refinement (well, of course I'm always open to learning about new materials and techniques, too.)  I hope that my customs keep getting better and better.

My first major sculpt was Lilgryphon, a hippogryph done for the Arena Persona Swap v.2 for, obviously, Lilgryphon.  I was still using sculpey at this point, which caused me some grief with cracking and breaking, but in the end she turned out pretty good.  But I was really thrilled to find Apoxie Clay and start using that.  It's so much easier to work with, so forgiving, and is air drying, so much safer for the ponies.

I've used Apoxie Clay for several customs now, mostly for smaller sculpts like symbols, horns, and pets to go with the ponies.  Annabelle Lee, who was done for Barbgirl1999 in the Arena Literary Swap, was my first attempt at full wings.  I just love how she turned out and I'm really itching to make some more wings now!  It was really difficult to box up this pony and send her away, but Barb loved her, so that made it worthwhile.  She is based on the poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

In the meantime, I was also working on some sewing projects, namely corsets.  Corsets and stockings were big on custom ponies at the time (still are, I suppose) and I loved the look.  A lot of people were sculpting them, but I wanted to try some sewing instead.  So I created a pattern and sewed a pony corset.  They are done with the ribbons stitched in place, but they can be removed using a snap closure at the bottom.

"Wicked" for Hindsight, MLPArena Halloween Swap v.1

I also realized that, when it comes to symbols, I have a tendency toward eye-straining tiny detail.  This wasn't a conscious decision so much as a natural development.  With my earliest customs I tried to mimic the style of G1 symbols, i.e., basic shapes repeated.  I don't know if it was the new, more elaborate style of symbol that Hasbro used on the G3s or just my own progression, but I found that I was thinking "outside the box" if you will when it came to symbol development.  As a result I was doing symbols with tiny detail more often than not.  This really helped me improve my technique for eye painting too.  Those tiny eyelashes can be tricky!

Elf

Genie -- The First Sculpt

As I half jokingly mentioned in an earlier post, back in the day when you were customizing a pony you worked with what you had.  I distinctly remember designing a custom unicorn to be made in the G1 Posy pose, then being terribly upset when it dawned on me that it was an Earth Pony pose, not a unicorn.  I don't believe I gave any serious thought to trying to create a horn myself.

Later, however, some more experienced customizers, Woosie foremost among them, began creating customs with the addition of sculpted parts.  It was amazing what she did with with clay.  Naturally, I eventually worked up the nerve to try some sculpting of my own.

Genie was my first attempt.  It's only a small sculpt, the genie's lamp symbol, but it's a start.  The symbol was made with Sculpey clay, which has to be heated to be cured.  Rather than risk melting the pony in the oven, I immersed the body into boiled water instead, which works just as well for small amounts of Sculpey.

Genie was made from a stained Blossomforth, fully repainted.  The painting on this pony was a bit of an issue.  Most of it went fine, but painting the lamp became a problem.  I was using Testors brand paint for the gold parts of the pony.  Although it adhered fine to the vinyl on her legs, it refused to adhere to the Sculpey and kept peeling off.  I finally had to give up and got some Reaper Master Series gold paint, which worked just fine (although by that time I'd lost some of the detail I'd sculpted into the lamp because it was clogged up with bits of gold Testors paint.  The hair is DH Black Magick and Sunlight.

Genie was made for Baginslover in the 2008 MLPArena Disney Custom swap.

Elf

Blue Sakura

Blue Sakura was an experiment with colour.  I wanted to try a custom done entirely in one colour (excluding the white and black used in her eyes.)  She was made from a G3 Dream Blue II (I think) so her body colour is original.  Her eyes and symbols were entirely repainted in Reaper Master Series acrylics.  The design for her symbol was inspired by the design on a tea cup (which was also done in blue, but only one colour.)  Her hair is DH Daiquari Ice, Mermaid, Water Nixie, Bobby Blue, Forget-Me-Not, After Midnight, and Arctic Frost.

Elf

Night Rose

Night Rose was my 47th completed custom.  Originally, she was made with the intention of selling her.  Although I had plenty of compliments on her, no one was of a mind to part with their money at that time.  I imagine that if I were to offer her for sale again I'd be able to move her, but instead I decided to "retire" her, so she's remained in my collection.

Night Rose was made from a bait TAF Milky Way.  Her body was fully repainted, as were her eyes.  Her symbols were painted freehand, using the design on a dinner plate as inspiration.  All the painting on her was done in Reaper Master Series acrylic paint.

Her hair is Dollyhair Black Magick, a blend of Sea Nymph and Poison Ivy and a blend of Heart Throb and Cherry Pie.

Elf

And Then There Were Ponyvilles

By this time, I had discovered that I had a talent for painting minute details and tiny symbols (and taking eye strain to the next level.)  The customizing community had discovered that Hasbro's new MLP line, Ponyville, could be customized.  Time to take it to the next step.

For those of you not in the know, the Ponyville line is made of hard plastic with molded hair and is about 4 cm tall.  They're actually a lot of fun to work with but they do require a steady hand, a tiny paintbrush, and a lot of patience, especially when working on the eyes and symbols.

Mostly I've done re-creations of full-sized Hasbro ponies, both G1 and G3.  I've done a few original creations as well, but I do find that working on such a small surface a bit limiting to creativity.  It's easier to copy a design smaller than to create a design on a 1 cm canvas.

Here are a few of my early Ponyville customs, known generally as "Chibis" in the community (chibi = the Japanese word for little.)  Enjoy. 

Elf