Studio Sommer

Before any model can be painted, first it must be prepped. Models in various stages of prepping. Prepping is the fine art of readying a resin or plastic model horse for painting.  Seems simple, but a poorly prepped horse could have a bad seam line, distracting from an otherwise good paint job.  Or even worse, a badly prepped model may have issues with paint not sticking to the horse itself! Because of these possible issues, and the time involved in prepping a horse correctly, many painters now ask for models to be prepped for them.  This has resulted in a nice side gig for "preppers" who work exclusively on readying models for custom painting.  The fee for prep of a model horse is usually very reasonable, considering the work involved.  Often, preppers only charge $30-$40 to prep a model.  However, the postage and insurance cost added in, going both ways, can make the total bill daunting, before an artist adds a drop of paint.  And then of course there is always the q

One of the "regular" projects that I do commercially is the annual "Beautiful Breeds" Ornaments.    The Holiday line is one of the often-overlooked areas of Breyer's product line to collectors.  I actually had no idea HOW overlooked until I began to look online for any information about it!  While it is covered wholly in Breyer printed collector's guides, (books) the online articles on Breyer's various holiday items are pretty sparse.  So, it might surprise you to find out that we are coming on to 10 years of my "Beautiful Breeds" ornaments line for Breyer! Breyer started their annual Christmas line in 1999.  As the line was getting established, they asked me if I had any ideas for products?  They already had the Stirrup ornament (features a mini version of their annual Holiday horse) and a lovely Carousel horse line that I believe, early on Kathleen Moody had some part in.  My only idea was pretty basic.  Well, how about just a horse?