When a green lady came to the stable

I didn't photograph the first moments of the story, as it made itself, but we can see what happened when Asko had shown his arab mare to the new horse person. She fell in love with it (and rat boys, I think), and ignored how much Omar was scared of her giant pet rat.

That is about Cerys and how she came to the stable.


Not every day you see a naturally neon green rat. Yet less sure is to see one with a bright blue vest. Most less sure could be seeing that rat with another rat she holds with a chain.

Well, once it happened in Finland... Here where never (...?) happens anything.

Anyway, the girl said her name is Cerys, and she is older than Asko and Omar... Boys saw easily what they met, it's a crazy female. And it wanted to see horses. When Asko showed his arabian mare to her, Cerys fell for it and showed easily that she loves arab horses. "Is it nice?" she asked, and Asko said that of course it is. "I want to walk with her a bit!" she asked yet, and got a permission. That horse is so easy and trustable... And even small enough for that tiny lady! She clearly loved to meet her and smell her, while held another animal with her left paw.

Boys guessed what the animal is, Asko said it's clearly a rat. Omar didn't believe and thought that he's not going too close to it. "Rats aren't that big, it's better to be... What?"

What a happy rat lady looks like.

"Yeee, the dumbo dude was right, this horse is easy."

Without flash.

Then some posing... Really this was just size comparizing, as Cerys is so small.

But quickly after the comparison photos, Cerys wanted to test if she can ride a horse. Because of the unpredictability of the situation, there of course was nothing good to wear to keep things safe. But we can trust the arab mare, can't we, as she is known as the easiest horse Asko owns?

"Well, here it is."

Before allowing her to ride freely, Asko yet decided to keep the rope on.

No one seemingly cares what Omar gor forced to do. Cerys thought he is the right one to hold the chain she held while coming - but what is in the collar end, almost dropped Omar's eyes, as he never before had seen things like that. It's a giant black hooded rat! Yes, a rat, and a rex, and black hooded, but so big that he doesn't know how to be with it. Why it has a chain, doesn't that just tell about it's personality?

The huge rat wanted to go closer and closer, was not scared of the guys... But Omar wasn't ready to meet him, he tried to stay away as possible. But the rat won and met his shoes. 

And what thinks Cerys when she sees what her rat caused to Omar? "Oooo, Dan likes you!" It is really clear that Dan, as heard to be it's name, was fully harmless. But really, if anyone is scared of your animal, don't try to force them to be too closed, it doesn't help... Just gives a stupid image of the owner.

And now the girls also are ropeless.

See what guys think... Asko ponders that it's possible to be OK with Cerys, just let her be what she is. She is a good theme for humor... But Omar isn't pleased, he looks stressed and wants an own moment to vent his brains a bit.

But they still come well along, at the end. Others just need more time to settle to the new rider.


Artistic info:
Dan was made at 2014 among some of my first thumb rats, and he is yet my only one that big; thumbies are 5 cm long but Dan is maybe 10 cm. So he's really old, while his walker, Cerys, is from December 2016. Dan had originally a white rope as a leash, but I decided to change it to a chain because chains hang better than ropes. And the chain's handle was especially made to fit Cerys' hands, so that's why it didn't stay well in Omar's hand when I tried to attach it there for photos.

Cerys got her colors due to lack of possible good and matching colors in clay and leather.

Cerys

As my third homemade doll, and second rat in that way, I finished Cerys. She got finished already before Xmas, but I publish her only now because of things.

She's made from neon green foam clay and is my first female doll. For her skin, I used blue silk clay; and of course leather to everywhere else than face. I had no matching green in fabric or leather, but I decided to glue some dark green leather there (it's better than having visible wires).

Real reason for her colors was that I simply had no much enough colors what I could preferably use, but eh. 

I originally wanted her to be a punk rocker, and planned that I make her a mohawk, but I failed. Now it's just some kind of long brown hair, nothing mohawks; I am not good in glueing hairs, can't understand those who do it perfectly! I wish I had similar skill.

And no, I didn't capture any part of her progress, she got finished so quickly. I'm OK with that, because continuing to make some projects is often painfully difficult to me, no reason known why.

I just like her eyes, I painted them with copper colored acrylics, pupils black. Eye color matches nicely to her mane, and I just like brown... And when we mix green, brown and blue, we 'surprisingly' have typical colors of Finnish summer (forests, ground and lakes). But despite of looking like a summer rat, Cerys also fits winter.

Her mane is made from viscose, glued with the same I use for tackmaking. Position added with water (wet paintbrush), what also helps making it look less messy.

I in fact like how her mane "flutters", that's caused with a wet paintbrush.

Cerys has perfect hands for holding things.

As it's seen from these pics, Cerys has a giant rat, and she walks him with a chain. That rat, Dan, was made among first thumb rats at 2014, so he's nothing new really. Just got an owner after meeting Cerys, and I think she takes good enough care of him. Or then Dan just doesn't care at all who feeds him, most important thing is that he gets food.

Her light blue vest is made quickly, to hide her body and keep her better for photography. To avoid using red I cut (cutted? Which one is right?) a piece of dark green fabric for a scarf... Also added one useless green chain to her neck, because she looks like a lady who loves weird jewellery.

Ears got harmed because I dissected (what a word... Fits better my things that the word 'cut', or what) them with scissors when they were dry, not before. Normally I cut silk clay while sculpting (if I want), but the clay I used was unusually soft. That makes it too sticky and impossible to be dissected right after sculpting. Scars painted with acrylics.

I also really like taking so-called portraits and often headshots. Although this girl is green and I imagine her having a bit weird personality, she is photogenic and deserves to get captured several times. I also often fight to get right settings, and because it's less easy and almost every photo shows something wrongly, I rather take many different than just one or two; together they all show what I want to show. In second photos you find some with focus at nose, then focus at eyes, then somewhere else, etc. And not only below but everywhere in this post you see pics with different settings...

I see sense!

For my fun, Cerys is one of those dolls who I like to photograph again and again, so much that I try not to. Not all dolls or figurines look good when you just put it to stand on photography studio.

I also think, that if I see Cerys' eyes as I saw them right now, her "stupidness" could be just something less instead of being her whole personality. I see some sense there. Maybe it's just the first impression she gives to others what makes them (and me) think her being less smart? Another thing then is just sure: she is an extroverted personality. She needs others to be around her, they keep the green lady mentally alive; like I personally get just crazy if I am too long among people. Most rats are extroverts, naturally, but not all. (As an example of less social rat in my dolls is my newest from December 2016, that also gets her debut post later. I already photographed her and Cerys and thought some kind of photo story again. Let's see if I publish it.)

Photos of Cerys with horses I need to post later, they do exist. (I am also writing a page for my dolls, so there's quick info of them all in one place.)

A cat and a riding lesson

Quickly after finishing my first homemade doll, Juoru the black farm cat, I already photographed him in things we can easily see happeing in this country. He's a horse enthusiast, but he has no much experience and he needs to learn a lot, so what else he could do if not to go for a riding lesson?

In Finland, many people who have no horses but like them, ride in riding schools to learn everything possible and keep their skills up.

It's common.

My photos are horrific, but I took them for fun, not for artistic skill; I had the background cloth too small yet, although right now (when I publish this) it is already large enough. I have edited some photos to look better, but don't claim them to be perfect neither. I personally am ever pleased with my photos, especially now when I have no feelings to invest to (what comes to visual quality) my photography.

(Here starts the stoooooory:)

Because Asko gave a private riding lesson for the kitten, and he wants him to learn not only to ride well but also to handle horses rightly, he asked him to walk C to the pen. With bridles already on. Asko does not own any saddles yet, and he knows that without one is OK to ride too (although saddles are of course nice to have sometimes), so Juoru rides bareback. But hey, he's a cat, cats have excellent balance naturally and they are good at staying on large prey animals! Well, that's absurd; teaching a cat to ride a horse is almost forcing your horse to be OK with a beast around. (In fact same happens with people, we are beast species as well as cats.)

But this cat is not dangerous for horses, as domestic cats normally are not, simply because of their size (laugh). Now stop joking.

What about million of photos showing one and same moment?

Juoru needed no much instruction about how to hop to the back, but I think Asko helped him still to make sure the horse doesn't wonder too much. Cats have sharp nails, who stick out if the animal feels that a paw loses hold! And I haven't yet made any boots (they need to be removable, because of my perfectionism) for him.

You see, he holds reins quite badly. Juoru is a cat, but it doesn't mean he could automatically trust his own balance or the horse, so he tries to make sure he stays on with reins.

C still clearly doesn't mind although his mouth gets pulled, maybe he knows that the cat is just learning. (Horses really know.)

This photo looks less stupid in my opinion, when thinking the realism.

After watching few minutes of Juoru's riding, Asko decided to start pointing. For first he explains how reins should be held, and commands Juoru to loose them a lot. It's not good to have continuous pressure to anyone's mouth, no matter if the mouth is attached to a 50 kg heavy head and the rider is just a bit heavier...

Asko tells about reins.

My shelf is not large enough for good photo stories, and I don't feel good to take a huge army of photos with same theme in them, so let's see what happened at the end of Juoru's riding lesson. He learned the basics of good riding, so now he knows them, but his body needs all practice from this time still. Another trick is to teach him off from grabbing the horse's sides with his nails if he loses balance, it HURTS... But what else you imagine a cat doing? Everyone who had tried to hold a scared (or angry) cat knows how horrific it feels to get sharp nails through skin.

A riding lesson ends always to free loose-rein walk, and after that you thank the horse from the ride, pat it or whatever you do to tell it did a good job.

Pat pat.

At this time Asko yet explains things and tells why they are as they are, etc.

Loose reins are OK, but not TOO loose...

Then he should dismount from horseback. To make it safe, the dumbo guy decides to hold his horse while Juoru climbs down. Boys also discuss something, seemingly Juoru (luckily) got it just as it should when Asko commanded a lot at the start of the lesson. The cat is OK with that.

Whispering for a horse.

And when the cat is safely on the ground - of course he landed to his paws only - what else could a thankful rider do if not to give some sugar to the horse? While that he also grabbed his shoulder bag from the pen's gate... I guess he kept there the sugars. 

That horse wants to eat the camera more than sugar...

End of the story. I hope I can write a better one later, and show better pics too. These are so horrific that uhhuh, could they be even worse?


Artistic info:
Those sugar cubes are just suede/fake leather lace pieces! That's why they also are not really cubes, but what I think, not real sugar cuber are neither?

The tack seen there is older and worse in quality, lazily made, but they work. Material is some kind of suede/fake leather lace (same as the sugar cubes). The red thread keeps bits "in the mouth", but yea, it should be black... I must change it later. Those black reins seen in there are also really, really old, and stored badly, that's why they look stupid and don't lie down nicely.In some of the pics it can look better still, because, really a moving horse makes also reins wave. And I love illusions in miniatures.

I personally feel no good to see my homemade dolls with visible arms and legs, but that's something I can do nothing yet. I have no skill with doll cloth making. And with Juoru I didn't even try to sculpt him well enough, as he really was a test doll only. Then we suffer from lack of quality due to that.  Also the usef fabrics were a problem; I can't sew, but I can glue. I don't own any good fabrics to make fluffy animal dolls, so I used something I only had close enough. The future cat dolls need to get fluffy tails, to hide glue seams!

But I tried my best to make him look like a cat.

I'm not yet sure should I rename my Breyer traditionals or keep the real names for them... Just feels stupid to call them by real horses, but at the same time I don't feel right to create new personality for those. But when I create a personality for a model horse, it comes from feeling and what the model is for me... Not from who is shown in the portrait.  

And this post seems to be my first published photo story in 1:9 scale. Takin stories in shape of photos is nothing new to me, but making a blogtext with them is another job to learn...