[Stencilbum]

Along with the clipping stencils I started making a few years ago, I have been working on stencils for painted quartermark designs for a little while now and I thought I'd share with you all.

I started out making reusable brush stencils with simple shapes cut as complex patterns don't really show in the coat.

Then I went to Badminton horse trials a couple of years ago and saw a lady eventing with a thistle design marked on her horse (which she had made herself) with temporary spray on hair colour, and was so impressed how well it showed up by comparison, so started experimenting myself.

They just spray on through the stencil, and are then fixed with hair spray which helps give them a bit of staying power and are then just sponged off at the end of the day.

Using paints allows me to design more intricate shapes which you couldn't really clip, and definitely not brush in to the coat with any degree of success.

These are becoming more popular in the UK now and I've sent a few to the states as well (with a possibility that a distributor in the States will be looking to supply to the local tack shops)

Anway, here are a few to go on with

Made from a custom letter design

This FEI design was my first experiment with the paints using a very fine plastic film and sponging the paint on (which caused a bit of blurring due to my sausage fingered attempt) , so I might revisit this with the heavy vinyl sheet I'm using now on the paint stencils to see how well the multi coloured designs can be made to work. I've also got a supplier of much better quality paints than used on these, for better colour depth and faster drying

 

[ShutUpJoe]

Wow those are really cool. Where did you get the spray on color?

 

[~*~anebel~*~]

I lol'd.

This is a great idea! In dressage for the freestyles we use to do the same thing with sparkles. But then we got fingers shaken at us so no one does it anymore.. It looks super cool though! I can definitely see there being a market for this.

 

[StormyBlues]

We did a spider web on one of the pony's for XC near holloween time, it was so cute!

 

[Stencilbum]

Wow those are really cool. Where did you get the spray on color?

After a lot of experimentation we settled on these. They are human party paints but work the best of all that we have used. I do sell them myself (a bit cheaper than this off my own website) but I can't ship by airmail due to the restrictions by the postal services :-( .
These are made in Germany under license for a company in the UK and marketed under the brand name 'ColourFX'.
I'm not sure if these are of similar quality, but they sell them off the Waldgreens website so may be a solution stateside.

 

[Kashmere]

My god that is fantastic!!
I LOVE it

 

[ShutUpJoe]

cool thanks : )

 

[Stencilbum]

I dragged ours out of the field to see these designs this afternoon in the new paints as I didn't have any examples using white.
Both are out of work at the moment so in full winter coats and in need of a good brush so excuse the mud.

Solid colours work best along with and can be given an additional dusting of one of the silver or gold glitter sprays before being fixed with hairspray as this works well under lights.

.

We share the yard with some friendly cows

Whoops, I forgot to wipe off the overspray on that one

This design took me an age to get right, but it is one of my favourites

 

[thunderhooves]

so how exactly do you do it? ya know, step-by-step?

 

[Stencilbum]

so how exactly do you do it? ya know, step-by-step?

• Find somewhere sheltered to apply these to keep the overspray down when applying the paint (back of trailer, lorry etc)
• Figure where you want it to go, and then hold the design flat against the side of your horse making sure your horse isn't 'slouching' as this can make a bulge which will allow the paint to 'bleed'
• After giving the paint can a good shake, spray evenly from about 4"-6" all the way around the design without stopping if you can until you are confident you have good even coverage
• Lift the stencil off and using a damp sponge or baby wipe, rub over the surrounding area to get rid of any overspray.
• Leave the paint to dry for a couple of minutes. Wash or wipe the stencil over with a baby wipe to clean it and keep it stored flat as some of them are fairly intricate and need to be treated with respect to preserve them.
• Give it a dusting of hairspray to fix it and off you go.
• At the end of the day sponge it off and that is that !

How does that sound

 

[thunderhooves]

good. what kind of hairspray? where do you get the stencils?

 

[Stencilbum]

good. what kind of hairspray? where do you get the stencils?

We use cheap and cheerful, but I guess you might consider using a 'high humidity' hair spray to make it a bit more resistant to sweat etc etc.

The stencils are my own designs - I cut them to order - see my profile for my website.