I'm one of those people who works to support my hobbies. Seriously. If I won the lottery and could retire tomorrow, I'd be so busy I'd exhaust myself. A full-time job is the only thing that keeps all my other interests from taking over my life.
In addition to sewing, reading, haunting secondhand stores, and squeezing in all-too-infrequent road trips, I collect animal figurines.
It all started pretty innocently: My parents got me five or six small plastic horses for Christmas in 1981. Little did they know that Breyers are like crack and Stablemates (the tiny ones) are the gateway drug. You can accumulate a lot of Stablemates before your friends and family realize you have a problem.
Then, you fill out the little form in the catalog that comes with each Breyer, and discover that there's a magazine (Just About Horses, affectionately known as "JAH"), and beyond that is a huge and highly-developed hobby community. There are shows. There are tiny saddles, bridles, and rider dolls. There are insanely talented people who re-sculpt and repaint ordinary models into mind-boggling works of art.
I started showing in 1989. I don't live show much any more, but I photo show regularly through a club. The photo at right is a Stablemate--she's about two inches tall--with a photograph used as a backdrop, taken for a photo show. I learned a lot about photography trying to take the most realistic photographs of very small horses.
Breyer makes animals other than horses, and there are other companies who make good horse figurines (Peter Stone and Hagen-Renaker are prime offenders). I'll post more on both non-equids and non-Breyers later.
In addition to sewing, reading, haunting secondhand stores, and squeezing in all-too-infrequent road trips, I collect animal figurines.
It all started pretty innocently: My parents got me five or six small plastic horses for Christmas in 1981. Little did they know that Breyers are like crack and Stablemates (the tiny ones) are the gateway drug. You can accumulate a lot of Stablemates before your friends and family realize you have a problem.
Then, you fill out the little form in the catalog that comes with each Breyer, and discover that there's a magazine (Just About Horses, affectionately known as "JAH"), and beyond that is a huge and highly-developed hobby community. There are shows. There are tiny saddles, bridles, and rider dolls. There are insanely talented people who re-sculpt and repaint ordinary models into mind-boggling works of art.
I started showing in 1989. I don't live show much any more, but I photo show regularly through a club. The photo at right is a Stablemate--she's about two inches tall--with a photograph used as a backdrop, taken for a photo show. I learned a lot about photography trying to take the most realistic photographs of very small horses.
Breyer makes animals other than horses, and there are other companies who make good horse figurines (Peter Stone and Hagen-Renaker are prime offenders). I'll post more on both non-equids and non-Breyers later.
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