Kristian's BCC entry

Shortly before I became ineligible to enter the BreyerFest Best Customs Contest, I put together a list of ideas for the Excellence in Performance division. Right at the top, was a biblioburro set up. As a lifelong lover of books and burros, that seemed like a perfect fit for me. Of course, now it will probably never happen, but I occasionally daydream about what might have been.

 Kristian Beverly - who is also a book lover and tack maker - had a similar idea for the this year's BCC Theme Class. Rather than a biblioburro, she created a horse drawn bookmobile. I literally squealed when I saw her entry. I love it so much.

This post was originally published in three parts on Kristian's blog and is shared here with her permission. Thank you, Kristian! 

Books + Horses = BCC

by Kristian Beverly

It’s the Best of Customs Contest season, aka the Oscars of model horse world. The contest highlights the artistry and creativity of the hobby.

It’s been a few years since I last entered. I’d planned on entering the Performance Excellence last year, but my custom Roxy just couldn’t come together in time.

Once the 2023 theme class was announced, Dress To Impress, I knew I had to do it.

This year’s theme is not for customized horses, but to showcase the skill of miniature tack makers!  Show us your best custom tack on any Original Finish Breyer model of any scale.

I had numerous types of tack to choose from. English? Western? Native American regalia? Medieval? I’d made all of those before and could have done it again, just taken up a notch. I decided to go big or go home and not do any of the aforementioned types of tack. I decided to make a harness and cart.

Books and horses have always been my favorite things, so I decided to combine them. I’m so happy with how it came out.

I think the last time I’d started and completed a harness was when I showed in the Breyerfest Childrens and Youth show. I hadn’t made the harness from scratch. I’d frankensteined together the Breyer Country Gig cart harness and added upgrades here and there. I don’t know where that harness is now, but it wasn’t great. It was more fragile than the cart, which is saying something because if I look at the cart wrong, even now, it falls apart.

A few years ago when I visited Pittsburgh, I’d checked out The Frick Museum. There was a whole exhibit about transformation that featured many carts.

I decided not to do any of those. I’d saved this cart years ago on Pinterest and decided to make it. It’s a circa 1920s Library bookmobile that’d been at the Canadian Exposition. I needed more than just that one angle, which meant going down a rabbit hole of the history of bookmobiles, over a decade old eBay listings, and vintage library photos. I learned so much during the time and told myself I couldn’t make the harness until I had the cart figured out.

After much researching, I figured out that there hadn’t been a standard bookmobile. The first one was an adapted Conestoga wagon. I pieced together various angles of the 1920s one, photos from others, and delivery wagons.

Next came pattern making. I approached it as I would making a new piece of tack. I drew out what I wanted and then broke it down. I couldn’t find the exact measurements and calculated by eye. I compared similar vehicles to get an idea of scale of size compared to a horse. I drew a dummy image for size and then contacted hobbyist and real horse driver, Kate Cabot. Thanks again Kate!

I made the real pattern using poster board before transferring it to wood.

I pulled out power tools and went at it. I’m very happy that no blood was spilled. I had a pile of pieces cut out and decided to work on the harness, but I’ll keep onward with the cart!

Dyeing the wood came next. I also began assembling the bookshelves. I own many books. I took a hardback, measured it, and scaled it down to 1/9th scale. I made a few dummy books to make sure they would fit on the shelves.

I started assembling the bones of the cart and shaped parts.

One of the hardest parts to make was the rounded top. I found out that you could boil wood to shape it. The deadline was coming so I forgot to take more photos! But I added the seat, underside.

I’d bought a wagon years ago with broken wheels and repurposed them for this. I cut out similar sized pieces of wood to fill in the missing parts.

I added the wheels and began decorating. Initially I was going to paint the back door with book spines, but I didn’t like the way it was coming out. I decided to add a quote to the back instead.

There's the finished cart.

Next came making the miniature books. I wanted a range, so I photographed the dust jackets of numerous books. Others I’d saved on Pinterest years ago and the model horse ones are from Desktop Stables!

Five years ago I had the notion to make a harness from scratch. I didn’t get far. Harnesses have so many pieces of lace, buckles, and keepers. So many keepers!

To finish off the bookmobile, I needed a harness. Luckily I have Pinterest and numerous books. I own many books, but these helped the most. I’m so glad I bought the Work Horse book!

To make the harness meant going down the rabbit hole of various types and styles. From looking at photos I realized I needed to make a collar. I bought the hardware and went to work. Here’s a pile of the saddle pieces before assembling!

From there I worked on the bridle. I decided to add an open book to the blinders.

I had so much fun making the tug straps. Sometimes simple pieces are the most fun.

The last part I needed to make was the collar. I looked at numerous photos and referenced Susan Bensema Young’s Guide as a launching point! It took a few tries to get it right. I used different types of leather and different methods of sewing and wrapping wire before I got the effect I wanted.

Finished! I used a Breyer Snowman to wear the harness. One of the funniest parts of the making of this entry was the horse. In the rules entries had to use an Original Finish model. Models had to be Original Finish, minus the sanding of the mane. This didn’t extend to primer. I realized on the day before it was due, I didn’t have an Original Finish model on the Snowman mold. Luckily I live close to Toys on the Square!

The finished harness!

The finished set.

Happy reading!

Congratulations, Kristian. I love everything about this, and I hope that even if they're not mine, they will be a library's worth of little books on the table at this year's Artisan's Gallery.