Model Horse Madness: ROCK STAR OR MODEL HORSE?

Model Horse Madness: ROCK STAR OR MODEL HORSE?: It's 11:45 am and the line of people is starting to wrap around the corner of the building.  They peer through the windows trying to sneak a...

Model Horse Madness: Memories...

Model Horse Madness: Memories...: I've marveled often at those moments in life when out of no where you are transported to a memory long forgotten.  It can be as simple as a ...

Let Me Introduce You...

Elaine Stone

Peter Stone

There's someone you need to meet before we go any further!!  Let me introduce you to Peter Stone and his lovely wife and partner Elaine Stone! 



The Peter Stone Company was founded in 1996 and is located in the beautiful Indiana countryside village of Shipshewana, Indiana.

Stone Horses are finely finished and most are hand painted at this site. Artists travel great distances to work in this bucolic setting where oftentimes the lights in the painting studio burn into the wee hours. Fellowship among the artists and Stones are highlights as meals are shared, experimentation in technique apparent, and the whirls of horse color real and surreal typify each new creation.

"I always wanted it to be like this," says Peter Stone, President and founder along, with his wife Elaine, of their mutual effort.

Not only is Stone Horses the “Left Bank” of the model horse world, but also a place where live horses roam for riding pleasure and artistic study.

Peter comes by his connection to model horses in a most explicit way: His father, Sam Stone, was the founder of the first model horse company in 1950...Breyer. And for Peter who was ten at the time, model horses were the “stuff” of which dinner table talk was made.

Peter wanted to take his dad's dream back to it's beginnings...  He wanted to create the models by hand, and in the United States.  Stone horses are never mass produced, each piece if finely hand crafted. 

The Stone Horse legacy continues...

ROCK STAR OR MODEL HORSE?

It's 11:45 am and the line of people is starting to wrap around the corner of the building.  They peer through the windows trying to sneak a peek.  The excitement is palpable as they await the sound of the noon bell and the door opening to Country Fair 2012!! 

The Peter Stone Model Horse is the "Rock Star" of the model horse collecting world!  Each year crowds of collectors flock to Shipshewana Indiana, to the Peter Stone Company, to see and touch these horses in person.  It's not just a passion for these collectors...it's a way of life.

Caroline Boydston
http://www.whitehorsestudios.net

Adding to the excitement is guest artist Caroline Boydston, a rock star in her own right!  Caroline traveled all the way from her home in California to spend a couple of weeks, at Stone Horses, creating pieces for auction, and for direct sale, at Country Fair.  Caroline's pieces are highly sought after by model horse collectors from all over the world.  These pieces were no different.  In fact we went live, via the web, on a Wednesday evening with (15) Boydston horses.  It was our version of the Home Shopping Network, but our show was over within just an hour.  Each horse sold before Caroline could finish describing it.  It was a true feeding frenzy that only added to the fire that was continuing to build for the auction just days away! 

Caroline spending a moment with a collector
who had travelled all the way from Arizona!

"Fabulous", by Caroline Boydston

Caroline could be found plugged into her mp3 player as she painted.  Many of the collectors will remember her distinctive music choices...songs that inspired her horses, both in name and look!  Don't be surprised if one day we don't see a new collection from Caroline called "Horses in the Hood"!  (:

"Will I Am" by Caroline Boydston

Lead production artist Julie Keim with a collector.

Collectors were also invited to paint their own horses with Stone Horse production artists.  Sitting in the artist seat and creating their own Stone Horse was a dream come true for many! 

A mother/daughter moment!!

The weekend wrapped up with a live auction of One of a Kind models and a model horse competition.  Suffice to say it was a wonderful weekend for all in attendance.  Hope to see y'all back here again next year!

Memories...

I've marveled often at those moments in life when out of no where you are transported to a memory long forgotten.  It can be as simple as a smell, a taste, a sound, a touch, and suddenly you are traveling to another time and place.  There are those rare moments though when your past comes full circle to become part of your present.  I'm living one of those rare moments.

As a little girl growing up I didn't so much collect model horses as I used them to drive my passion for real horses.  I cannot remember a time when I wasn't thinking about horses.  I learned to ride before I walked.  Many years were spent showing, judging, training, and giving lessons.  But as the years have passed my passion has changed and life has taken a different road from the one I was on back then.  And yet fate has a way of getting you back on that road...the road home. 

My First Model Horse

My road happened to be the endless internet highway.  While perusing the job boards one day I came across a familiar name...Stone Horses.  I remembered reading an article, in the newspaper, a few years prior about this very company.  At the time I was so impressed to think that a company like this was located in little old Shipshewana Indiana.  We are not the mecca of art and culture in Shipshewana and yet this company has found it's way to an audience that encompasses this entire nation as well as abroad.   They create model horses, pieces of collectible art to most, toys to a few, show pieces to the "in-crowd".  To make a long story short I am now working for this company. 

I hope that in the coming months I can share with you the heart of Stone Horses...a view beyond the business.  I want you to know its spirit; those people that work each day to create these amazing model horses that ARE Stone Horse, and the reason this company is so special.