Lake District Julip Live 2019

While my dolls have definitely taken over as my main hobby, I still absolutely love going to Julip shows as they're always great fun and its one of the few times a year I get to hang out with groups of likeminded rubber pony people.

This year, Magda was off at a very inconveniently timed family wedding, so it was just Heather and I making the journey south to the Lake District. We'd booked the same guesthouse we stayed at last year in the seaside town of Morecambe, as it was really nice and very convenient in all respects. For a change we made it down without issue, not getting lost once, and managed to book in early so we had time to wander about Morecambe. Unfortunately our room was right at the very top so lugging multiple boxes of ponies upstairs wasn't exactly fun!

It was a glorious day, cool yet sunny - a far cry from the boiling hot experience of last year!

Newbies!

I meant to post this last week but er...you know the drill. XD

Anyway, I came away from the show with a handful of new arrivals and I honestly couldn't be happier with them!

First up is the gorgeous Sullivan, who'll probably be either a Connemara or another Highland for the growing herd. Her name popped into my head almost immediately, and it wasn't until I told Heather that it hit me - I'd accidentally named her after her mum's adorable black cat! 😂

Out of all the grey Julips I have, she's definitely the darkest and I've been after something similar for years, so to find it first time on my favourite mould was just perfect luck! She's had her head dropped a little too which gives her such personality!

Before she could officially join the rest of the herd however, she needed a little tweak...

The mohair Julip uses now is beautifully soft but can go insanely frizzy, as evident here once I got her home...

 

That just wouldn't do at all, so she went on a little trip to the grooming area in the Livery stables for a hose down and a thorough makeover.

Some VERY belated new ponies!

I've been a very bad Julip owner and haven't posted about this lot at all!

I got two spares at the official Julip Live last October (which I still haven't posted about! D:) as well as a couple of animals, and snagged yet another spare just before Christmas.

When I arrived at the live show, as ever, there was a huddle around the spares table so I dumped my bag and boxes by my table and raced over, and to my delight there were still plenty left. The first to catch my eye was this striking lad - a Sports Horse with dropped head and added feathering. I'm not normally a huge fan of the mould as it can be a bit awkward looking but the dropped head really makes a huge difference and I love him now. I named him Taliesin, not originally after the eponymous ancient Welsh poet who I hadn't heard of until recently, but Taliesin Jaffe, the voice actor who I first came to know of through watching Critical Role. I just thought it was a really unusual name!

I love his detailed mapping...

...and his really quirky interrupted blaze.

 I didn't intend to buy more than one spare but as so often happens at live shows, they call out to you and you find yourself powerless to resist their rubbery charms. This was indeed the case with Womble the donkey, who took so long to name it's literally been months since I got him, and is the main reason why it's taken me so long to post about them all!

I was very brave when I got home and very carefully cut a mane slot in his neck so I could hair him properly. As much as I love the donkey mould, I really don't like its baldness, so I added mohair to his neck as well as his tail. In hindsight I wish I'd given him more blonde than grey but never mind. His ears looked a little plain too so he got the painted ear floof treatment.

He's only my second donkey and it's really interesting to compare him to Lyra, who was made fairly early on in the mould's life.

I have to pose Lyra like this as her forelegs are different sizes and she doesn't stand stable any other way, so ignore that aspect. Womble looks somewhat bigger too, though that could just be an optical illusion because of their different stances.

Lyra is a lot rougher in texture everywhere, whereas Womble is considerably smoother, and the odd-sized legs are more even now. While I prefer the newer, sleeker donkey overall, I do prefer the more defined features of the older model. I'm not sure if its just down to mould wear or over-buffing, but that's the great thing about Julips, they're always different, even if they've come out of the mould one after the other!

I couldn't resist some more animals either, and the colour of this lovely cat immediately reminded me of Tristan, my friend's old cat who died last year. He was a big fluffy Birman so the model isn't a perfect portrait of him but the colour is spot on. He was affectionately known as Tristie (or whingy, as he meowed loudly all the time if you ignored him for more than a couple of minutes) so that's what I named his mini version.

Here he is making friends with siblings Alfie and Edie.

 I might repaint his eyes to match the real mog at one point as I hadn't noticed they weren't blue until now!

The bunnies I named Sandy and Frost, and they join the rest of the warren which is growing so quickly I've had to cobble together this handy name chart so I can remember which is which!

Just before Christmas, Laura announced that she'd be doing some spares, and everyone put forward some suggestions for colour and mould combinations they'd like. I've been after a fleabitten grey welshie for AGES, so when I got a message asking if I'd like first refusal on such a pony, I leapt on the opportunity!

I've always wanted a little grey pony I could inflict lots of pink and diamanté encrusted tack upon, as I think every riding school has that one pony that looks like the result of a unicorn exploding around them; all glitter and bling! I'm not a huge fan of pink myself, but the idea of making all the aforementioned bling really appeals to me so I'm really looking forward to it!

I called her Angel to fit with the 'perfect pony' theme and well, it was Christmas, so it seemed appropriate! XD 

She's the only one to have her own item of tack made so far!

Professor Lynkhart's Cabinet of Curiosities - Final Part!

Well, the time has come, you've seen all the work that went into it, so I'm now proud to reveal the final model in all its glory!