Well vacation is over, and I'm back home now but man was it worth it!  It's still spitting snow here at home and the temperatures are up and down like usual!  I miss the sunshine already!  So being back home I had some serious work to do to catch up on the last of my backlog.  I finished up the "Feeniks" and "Ermine" sets, both ordered by Heli.  Actually all four sets pictured above are owned by Heli!  She has just been awesome to work with, all of these color themes and names ideas came from her, and I have to say I am beyond flattered of Heli's enthusiasm for my work.  Feathered sets are something that is still a fairly new concept to me, and that fact that she ordered four sets from me made me feel pretty good about my work!  So thanks again Heli!  I can't wait for you to see these in person soon!

So below we have the "Feeniks" set.  The idea behind this one was to demonstrate the flame-like colors of the mythical bird known as the Feeniks/Pheonix, it's spelled a few different ways for those that didn't know that!  I used "Fire Opals" for the main rhinestone here and the unique thing with these stones is that they give kind of  "flame" like colored effect actually making them perfect for this set.  If you look at Fire Opals up close they actually range in color from gold to orange to red naturally so they were made for this theme! The pictures below are of my new "Ra", a recent addition to my collection.  I actually ordered this one while I was on vacation (naughty naughty naughty!) but I've always wanted one, and I'm so glad I did!  This horse is so photogenic!

Here's "Feeniks" on my bay.  This set just might be meant for a bay by the looks of it!  If my camera was behaving I would have gotten more photos of the set on this one, but this photo is about where the camera started to die!  Might be time for a new one... *sigh*....

And here is the final set that Heli ordered called "Ermine".  The idea she had here was of those royal capes with the white fur and the black spots on them, so this one was to have kind of a royal effect to it.  She then chose a purply-pink or as I am fond of calling it Fuchsia to go with the black and white, and of course the color of royalty--gold!  On the edges of the collar I actually mimicked the "Ermine" effect with little jet black rhinestones.  I had wanted to carry this out into the headstall but since it is narrower decided to keep that simpler so it didn't get too crowded.  I also, while I was on vacation, got to visit a real craft store...Michaels (some of you may roll your eyes, but for me Michaels is a BIG deal for a girl stuck with JoAnn's and a rinky dinky Ben Franklin store).  So at Michaels I found some polka dot black and white feathers which I integrated into my design to further mimic that "Ermine" effect.  

Lastly I took a few extra photos of the "Peacock" set on Ra so we can see those feathers better.  I like the way they looked on Blackie but some of the details were absorbed in his dark color during those photos.  This one is probably my favorite set of the four...

And one more of the "Tiger's Eye" set on Brownie.  Can you tell I really need to name some of these horses?  The shame...and now I want an actual Brownie with some ice cream please!  Ta ta for now, off to raid the kitchen!