Those of you who have been frequent visitors to this site know that it has been empty for some time. I've been carving for over twenty years but I decided to take a brief hiatus of two years. I would call it a mid-life crisis. My friend, Pamie, would say, "What mid-life crisis? Do you really expect to live to a hundred?" My husband, Steve, who is always supportive, would call it a mild case of burn out and a "brief hiatus." The truth is I lost my passion and for two years, I've been both searching for my old enthusiasm and in equal turns, feeling quite sorry for myself with out good reason. Then, quite unexpectedly, my passion reappeared in the form of a gorgeous and quite sweet, dapple gray mare named Mouse. She was a birthday gift from my husband. Quite possibly the most wonderful gift I've ever received. She stole my heart . My life has revolved around her since the first time I saw her and in that orbit, I rediscovered my enthusiasm for both life and creativity. Totally inspired by her is a new website that I just started called Gray Horse Designs. Gray Horse's main theme is equine but there will be other themes as well. It's main emphasis will be graphic design(mainly images of Mouse) which will be placed on various gift items and apparel for sale in my new store fronts(more info on those below), I will also be doing custom design where I will place your photo(with caption and cute framing)on the item of your choice, and lastly(but certainly not least) I'm indulging a long standing desire to get back where I started and paint. This time it will be in encaustics(pure pigment mixed with hot wax and applied to wood panels) a medium that I've wanted to try for a long time. So, for all those who shown concern over my absence and those also who shown such untiring patience, I'm back! Soon the carvings will be filling up these pages again and you can be certain there will be one or two or more gray mares in the bunch.

A little bit of everything else both wild and wonderful in the Whimsical Gallery. I'm updating and this gallery is currently unavailable.

Jolly old St Nick and a few friends. Click below to view the Santa Gallery

Other Galleries will be added soon.The Horse of course: an entire herd of gray mares in the Equine Gallery. Angels are a favorite of mine so there will be an Angel Gallery and even before the leaves begin to turn next Autumn, the witches, black cats, moons & lots of other spooky creatures will arrive. Please be patient and check back often because I have all sorts of wonderful new ideas and designs floating about in my head even though they haven't made it to this website yet.

I've also opened a new internet store front Gray Horse Designs where you can find posters, cards, clothing and other items which have both images of my folk art and photographs and digital art which I've created(mainly of my horse, Mouse-the gray horse)

You can find the site at :

http://www.cafepress.com/grayhorsedesign

All work is the copyrighted property of Sande Jones~Elkins © 1998~2006 Art - all rights reserved.