Mid-April Update!

So the website is down for the moment, but it should re-awaken soon and is in the process of getting a bit of a face-lift! Yay!!! Many thanks to Theresa Sheridan for being such an awesome webmaster-person and assisting me in the intricacies of website upkeep. :D

As for the models, I am finally applying the white markings to a customer's long-awaited portrait of a lovely chestnut sabino(?) gelding on a gender-cm'd Strapless model. I "?" because he has a bald face, four white high-stockings which smatter out at the tops, and a white splotch on his underbelly, but that's it. And his tail and mane are solid... so he isn't tobiano... he could be a minimal white overo, I suppose... It appears I need to read up on classification of markings again! For shame! :/ Here's a picture of him, if anyone knows off the top of their head whether he's classified overo or sabino...













Also in the studio are a couple of commissions that have been patiently waiting for me to finish them! I feel so behind, it's embarrassing :( The International Blessed Broodmare Project has been so patient and kind to me as I start-and-stop and these fellas, and I want to thank them for that. The slightly CM'd Gaucho is finished, and the Cognac is what I will call 50% done... And then there's the TIBBP mare and foal plague that just needs a bit of minor detailing, and it will be complete as well!

I am also still diligently prepping a few pieces that will be up for sale, and a few that will be going into my personal collection. I'll post more as soon as these ladies and gents get a bit or color on them!

With Spring Break right around the corner, I hope to maintain this renewed pace in my studio, especially since most classes will end at noon from here on out, with just a few weeks of elective courses (mostly hands-on stuff) to occupy the afternoons (and hopefully end earlier than 5pm)!

I will be moving to a different abode in May, but I don't foresee this halting my progress, though it may slow it a tad. But with a new place comes a fresher outlook, and I should be steaming right along in no time!

With that in mind, I'd best get back to work!
Until next time!
~Sara

March Updates!

So! I've returned from a wonderful end-of-the-week in California at the UC-Davis California Dreamin' SAVMA Symposium for us veterinary students with a hankerin to get stuff done!

Unfortunately, tests still take priority... But I am making a commitment to blog and update my yahoo group at least twice a month... Starting now!

So, while I should be studying for my Cardiology exam in the morning, I am taking a little study-break to bust back into the blogging business :D

I have a Mini Ziryab (sculpted by Stacey Tumlinson) in a luscious dapple grey all ready to go to a new home! See her on MH$P here: http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/sales/view_details.asp?path=Gallery&id=839924

I am also working on a Rasha in a delicately insane (for me) rose grey that I can't WAIT to reveal to you guys!! I'm getting crazy with my painting!!! Watch out!

It's a good stress-relief and break from school, though... This wild-idea painting of mine.

I'm also still working on getting my previous and long-awaited commissions finished and sent out. Don't worry, ladies, I *am* working on your models! With Spring Break around the corner, I'm hoping to get some stuff done! And our elective classes start soon, too, which means I'll have a little more free time in the afternoons!

So! Don't give up on me yet! I'm making a real effort this time!

Until next week! Many happy trails to everyone!
~SB

MIA lately, trying to come back!

Hey blogger-followers...

School has been extremely distracting, but starting next week, this semester will officially be over and I will only have work to occupy my mind!

So!!
MODEL TIME!!!

I plan to update my YahooGroup (rockingship_studios) and then get cracking on finishing up all customer and donation projects that have been stewing for some time now.

Then I'll start cranking out any painted pretties that I can before school starts again in January! AND!! I have a sculpture in the works! More on that will be in my Yahoo Group (once I get it UTD, lol)

Short post today, but I'll try harder to be in contact with my model friends! :D

Cheers!
~Sara

In the Midst of School!

Hello all!

Well, LSU SVM has officially started, so that means that painting time is going to be a rare treat for me for a while. :(

However, the Gaucho I am working on for TIBBP is on the verge of completion! As is the Cognac!

I also have a few customer orders that are coming along quite nicely, and I hope to have them shipping out to their owners within a reasonable amount of time.

As far as sales pieces go, I may have a customized Ashley-to-mule-foal available soon, or a Breyer Traditional scale American Saddlebred stallion with a customized mane and tail... It will depend entirely on how much I can do how soon and which one inspires me first!

The Mini Ziryab to a light dapple possibly fleabitten grey is still in the works, as is her more heavily dappled friend, the AA Mini Striking Out Arabian.

I'll try to keep everyone posted as I finish them!

I hope everyone is doing well!
~Sara

Whew! What a Summer it's been!

Hey guys!

Sorry for such a long delay between this post and last. It's been a pretty hectic summer!

I've been organizing, packing, calling, and e-mailing all over the place as I get ready for my transition from a living-at-home-with-my-parents college undergraduate to a moving-out-on-my-own LSU Veterinary student!

Needless to say, it's been extra-special nuts!

On the live-horse front, Valentine is doing well, but we've sent two horses away this summer. Sasha has gone to live in Oregon to help with her COPD, and Cher, the sweet little pony, and daughter of the first equine I ever rode, was sent to the Greener Pastures this past weekend after a good fight with laminitis and age. We'll miss your attitude, your kisses, your need to constantly be beneath the hose, and the way you ruled your horses. Love you, Cher.

On the home front, besides the packing and organizing, I'm finally getting around to making my pony pouches! Yay! Just in time for storage... >.< *sigh* Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Then on the painting front, I've almost completed five more horses! Three commissions and two donations. I'll post here and to my Yahoo group when the donations go up for sale. They're both for TIBBP - The International Blessed Broodmare Project -- an organization filled with wonderful people who are simply trying to move mountains, one bucket at a time.

I also have some new customs in the works, as well as a few painted resins and an original sculpture in the works! I'm hoping to get most of them done before my semster begins mid-August! Wish me luck!

Anyway, that's pretty much it for the update!

Hope everyone is doing well!
~Sara

Spring Break!

Hello again!

:D

Well, amongst my apartment hunting and rabid (yes, rabid) spring cleaning, I'm attempting to get a little work done here in the studio!

I've heard from the wonderful lady who is building my website, and it is just about ready for launch! WOOHOO!

So! Once I get my room and the studio back in spacious order - I have a few bodies lined up for prepping, and a smattering of customs to drill and sand and carve and sculpt on, and then the usual body or two that is presentable enough to face the wrath of my brush! :D

The basic rundown of my week off from the endless plodding of schooldays is as follows (as far as resins and plastics go, that is... I'll spare you all from everything ELSE I'm working on! :D ):

1. Finish Sharon's Amber custom to mule and begin painting.
2. Finish the Ashley foal to a mule custom - will be offered as a commission-me or For Sale piece once it is completed.
3. Finish customizing the TIBBP Gaucho's mane and tail. Begin paintwork.
4. Begin paintwork on the to-be-appaloosa Cognac foal for TIBBP.
5. Finish customization work on the Breyer traditional ASB - offer as a commission-me piece.
6. Wrap up Jennifer's Taboo and mini mare.
7. Have Mini Ziryab, AA Striking Out Arabian mini, Sugar, Nashita, and my custom Valda prepped and ready for paint.
8. Get Kim's horses prepped, repaired, etc. and ready to be returned.

None of these are in any real particular order. More than likely, the customs will all be tackled at once, then the prepping insanity will commence!

Well, that's about it for now!

Off to finish the cleaning so tomorrow the model work can begin! :D

Hope everyone is having a grand week!
~Sara

And the Insanity Begins!

Welcome one and all to the inner workings of my mind!

..Not really... But it may seem that way every now and then, LOL!

If you stumbled upon this blog unintentionally, then I suppose it is best if I introduce myself.

My name is Sara Bercier, and I am a 20 year old (soon-to-be) veterinary student in the upcoming class for 2013 at LSU SVM. I have a three year old cat, Tete Fi, who runs the house, a two year old cocaktiel named Zuki who runs my room/studio, a Beta fish named Hikuro, a chocolate Labrador named Sam, and a five-year old Paint mare named Valentine.

This is her to the right... I think (still working out the blog...) :D

She's my pretty, stubborn, sweetheart, and I love her dearly.

You'll be hearing about them often, I imagine, if you stick around to see what's happening in my cluttered little world. :)

The main purpose of this blog, however, will be to keep you up-to-date with the happenings in my artistic stuio - dubbed "RockingShip Studio." .. If you are curious about the name, it is derived from my, rather eccentric, grandmother's belief that our last name of "Bercier" means "rocking ship" in some language... Not terribly sure I believe it, but it's an intriguing idea - and thus the name stuck. :P

Hopefully, I will be able to control my thoughts long enough to be straightforward and as unconfusing as possible so that I may update customers about commissions I have in the works, as well as other projects, customizations, originals, 2-D artwork, etc. that may be on my table.

Let's see... a little bit more about myself....

I learned to love horses at the tender age of 5, though *I* am convinced I was born thoroughly infatuated with horses and other animals in general. I learned to ride, after pestering my parents endlessly for months without any sign of stopping, when I was eleven. Horses have physically been part of my life ever since.

Model horses clutter my room with their attitude, charisma, and charm -- and I am the only one in my family who does not find it slightly creepy that hundreds of pairs of eyes, painted and blank, stare down at me from shadowed crevices in the night. :D

The typical Barbie horses and Wal-Mart brand Breyers were my first ponies, but it was only two years ago, in the summer of 2007, that I truly discovered the vastness of the model horse world... including the bane of my pocketbook, but the delight of my artistic soul: Artist Resins.

Thus the painting, customizing, and sculpting rushed through my mind, into my fingers, onto the unfortunate victims of plastic with their endless possibilities!

Other than the models -- I am an avid reader and writer and am currently working on a novel or two that I hope to have published before I am old and gray. :D But with the way my life works -- so much to do, so little time!!!! -- I am uncertain whether that will happen for me or not. I suppose we shall see, ne?

Well, I do believe that is enough of an introduction! (Sheesh!!! Ya think? LOL)

Allow me to personally thank you all, again, for your interest in me and my work - and welcome to my world! :D Enjoy your stay!