Hello all,  been absent from the forum for a couple of years, decided to fire up the forge again and using my new welder to make a horse head for a good friend of mine. The shoes are all used from her farm and each is tied to a current or past horse she has owned.  This is my first sculpture and I really enjoyed making it, I look forward to making more in the future.  The eye is copper sheet TIG welded into the steel frame and the ears are forged from pieces of a large circular saw blade.  I have already given it to her and she loves it, which is all I can ask.

That turned out really nice.

Absolutely beautiful work!  For a first sculpture? Wow.  your well on your way. Awesome work. Keep it up. And please share.  

Very nice. I especially like the way you did the mane.

Thanks everyone, my next one I will remove the flat bar that I used to shape the nose and part of the head. Maybe tack weld the shoes to it then cut it and remove it after the shoes are welded? The hair is 13 shoes cut in half, drawn out at the tip, twisted then bent over and welded to the "crest" of the neck.

That is quite nice, esp. for a first try.  Type of horse to keep no feeding, no cleaning up after!

Teebs, you've done a very nice job there. Thanks for sharing. I hope you will continue to share.

 

That is a very nice piece, with very appropriate use of materials. Those horse shoes are so handy ... and always easy metal to weld. I like the tangled mane and the way you have backed the 'eye shoe'. Well done!!

Thanks guys, we have 4 of the real thing and this is by far the cheapest type of horse to own! I'm working on a unicorn for my daughter right now, so far I have made the most important part out of a farriers rasp.

That's great! I can't wait to see it. Brilliant use of the rasp. 

Wow. Beautiful work.

Here is the start of the unicorn, the eye Is something different I tried, steel from a 45 gallon drum and the eye is actually the steel toe cap from my old work boots. That's what I call recycling!  I kind of like the contrast.  

Nice! How far are you going to go with it? 

I Love where your going with the drum steel and yes the steel toe work perfect for the eye. Horn looks great made from the farriers rasp. Looking good. Can't wait to see how this one ends up. 

I only planned to do the eye area with the steel sheet, but it kind of looks like a mask and I might cover the rest of the head or use this technique on another horse. Tomorrow I am going to do some more work on it, unfortunately life and work get in the way at times! Stay tuned for an update :-)

Always does. No worries. Update is as you can. 

This is a very cool piece, how many shoes did it take for this?

I had a few ideas using shoes but alas it isn't easy to turn up shoes around here

I think it was about 70 horseshoes to make it, any farriers you can contact in the local area to ask about used shoes?

I'll have to check around, most farms around here are produce and a few dairy cows but not very many horses. I'll just have to keep my eyes open when I'm out riding around!