What's in a Name - Specials 2018 - 2020

The first year, there weren't any specials, but the next year I managed to get a little better organized and was able to produce a few. More recently I've managed one special release per month, excepting January & the Persie month.

Dream a Little Dream - Vintage Dream Ponies

Back in the early days of the brand, when Dream Pony and Magpie had a larger staff and more energy, it was possible to order custom painted models. These days, we have a staff of one - me - and the last custom order I took on just about drove myself and my family around the bend. 😄

One never knows what is going to pop up next in the Magpie Collectors Facebook Group; in July of 2022, a lovely little group of 1980s Custom Order Dream Ponies went up for silent auction.

What's in a Name - Personality Collection Fifteen (2022)

 The theme for this year was "flowers in songs from the 90s". I was listening to a lot of music while painting; I prefer audio books while I'm working, but when the air compressor for the airbrush kicks on, you end up losing whole paragraphs in a story, so music is better at that time.

Summertime - the Painting Season

 I work in our wash house which we converted into a painting studio for me. Though it's very well insulated, it's unheated, so I can only paint when the weather is warm enough and fairly dry. My painting season stretches from around May through September, and in this time I have to paint all the models to be sold throughout the year.

Wintertime - Shell Preparation

 In January I take a little break in the Specials schedule to recover from Xmas and deal with the winter birthdays. At the end of the month I start preparing the shells for the year's models. This process goes on through the spring!

Colour Gallery: Chestnuts

 The Magpie shell colours have come in a range of variations over the years. This is a collection of the Chestnuts in the Magpie Archive (plus a couple of models who were only passing through on their way to Australia)

Donation Models: 2017 - 2022

 When I started selling painted models in 2017, I decided to offer a limited number of models as donations to live shows around the UK. These are usually used as raffle models by the show, but there are no conditions placed on them other than they need to be used as some sort of prize to benefit the show.

When the donation model for the year is announced, show holders are asked to message me with the name and date of their show and the website or FB group if one is available. After I select the shows, the models are sent to the show holder, completely free of charge. 

Like our regular models, each donation model is numbered and comes with a certificate of registration.

Spring Foals: 2020-2021

One of my first plans, after we bought Magpie, was to pick up where Emma left off on making look-alike foals for the Persies and Specials. I made a spreadsheet of all the Magpies and started planning names and colours. Some foals I've skipped as they're too close to other ones already produced.

Each foal is as as close to its parent as I could manage, some are more successful than others depending on how good my reference pictures were and how well I remembered the colour while mixing paint. Some are closer than others, but I think they all turned out pretty cute.

Easter Eggs: 2018 - 2020

During the painting season, I create a small number of one-of-a-kind models. Most of these are testers for a particular colour or technique. Every so often one of these special, one of a kind models can be found hidden somewhere around our corner of the internet; the first one to find it may buy it. Like our other Magpies, an Easter Egg model is numbered and comes with a certificate of registration.

I was originally going to name the models after different dying techniques, but that quickly evolved into types of fabric.

Look Alikes - Mellow Cremellows

 There are some Magpies which are harder to tell apart than others. Today we present to you the vintage Cremello Arabians of Magpie.

 The first cremello was the Newsletter Special "Cremello Arab", which was available from March through June in 1991. According to a later newsletter, only 27 of these models ended up being made. 

Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of this model yet and have to rely on the description provided in the newsletter advert: "A pearly cream with flaxen mane and tail and blue eyes"