4 July, 1963
Woman Carves Model Horses From Redwood
Horses are her hobby. Not for riding or training, but just for looking.
Mrs. J. F. Redmon of Candler, N. C., also known as Beni la Spalding, prefers the lifelife models which she carves from redwood.
Mrs. Redmon has been doing her sculptures of horses for the benefit of the public for about a year, but has been carving and perfecting her technique, entirely by the trial and error method, for some 16 years.
The process isn’ t what you’ d call a simple one. She begins with a live horse— she does only models of individual horses at the request of the owners.
She observes the animals, taking down body measurements and other notations, and takes color photographs from all angles. In order to get the coloring perfect, she cuts hair of every color on the animal and even takes her paint along and mixes it on the spot.
The actual carving of the redwood is the next step. The slender legs are then reinforced with dacron tape, cut on the bias, and painted with wood glue. This makes them unbreakable.
The muscles of the body are rounded out with papiermache and glue. The entire body is painted with three coats of wood glue.
The ears are made of leather, the eyes are glass, and nylon threads are used for the mane and tail. The eyelashes are of unborn calf skin.
The process is completed when the horse is painted with artist’ s oils and mounted on redwood molding. This lakes about five weeks. Mrs. Redmon also does oil paintings of horses occasionally, but prefers to work with her sculptures. Mrs. Redmon and her son, David,
4i / 2 reside with her parents, Mr. & Mrs. Arthur W. Spalding at Spalding Greenhouse on Monte Vista road in Candler.
Mrs. Redmon, who lias had no formal art training, plans a trip in the near future to the Potomac Horse Center in Washington, D. C., where she will receive advice on her work.
Mrs. Redmon will be in Shelbyville during the Celebration and she will bringa model of son of old“ Gold Bond”. This model will be on exhibition in the Voice Office, 1110 So. Brittain Street.
VOICE
Ben A. Green........................................................................................................ Publisher-Editor
Mrs. Ben A. Green................................................................................................................. Secretary
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