The first Botticelli appeared at my place during the little bit junky shopping in October, and as you know, I had plans to renew it, but it occupied a further place in the schedule, so I placed it with other horses waiting for their time. Busy with other projects, I practically forgot about him. And suddenly there was an opportunity to adopt another Botticelli, seeing that he had original hair - I couldn't resist. And so in my herd appeared twins.
I think I'm going to break my record with this post! It will be very long, it took me almost a whole month to work on these horses.
Telling the truth, it was this second Bottie that inspired me to work on them. I decided that if I am going to work on one, I have to do both of them at the same time, otherwise Bottie the first will never get his reborn as I will postpone it forever.
History
A fairy tale horse
Time for Botticelli's story, he is the horse featured in the 2002 movie Barbie as Rapunzel. He is also called Rapunzel's horse, the problem is that he did not belong to Rapunzel at all, and in the original fairy tale he did not even exist. He was created by the creators of the movie Barbie as Rapunzel, probably because in every fairy tale with a princess there should be a prince and a horse. And so Botticelli appears as a royal horse carrying three little princesses - Catherine, Melody and Lorena. He also serves Prince Stephan. He is a large white horse with a golden blond mane and tail, with the length of his hair in the film being rather natural.
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| Barbie as Rapunzel, 2002 movie |
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| Barbie as Rapunzel, 2002 movie -source |
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| Barbie as Rapunzel, 2002 movie -source |
Now real horsemen can notice that while the bridle is quite accurate in this animation, the saddle is not so much. I don't know what these loops are for, since even the animated Stephan doesn't have his legs through them. The toy versions of this horse, on the other hand, have saddles with stirrups. I don't understand this inconsistency at Mattel at all. The horse in the movie only has pink nostrils and although it looks white/grey, it has a white marking on its head. Maybe it was supposed to be pearly, like perlino, not white. So why does it have black hooves? Nothing sticks here, but it's just an animated fairy tale.
An interesting fact is that in Disney's film adaptation there is also a horse, although it is called differently, because Maximus, it is kind of similar to the Botticelli from the Barbie movie - it is also white and also has a mane and tail in the color of blond.
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| A clever comparison of horses from two different adaptations - "Barbie as Rapunzel" 2002 and Disney's version - "Tangled" 2010 - source |
Toy horses
Rapunzel's horse and carriage set 1998 - before the film was made
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| Barbie Rapunzel's horse and carriage set 1998 (photo from eBay) |
Before the film was made, in 1998, the first set with Rapunzel's carriage appeared. The horse in this set was pearl (perlino) with a mane and tail in various shades of golden blond. As for the length of the mane and tail - they were quite long, but they were within the standard lengths of Barbie horses of the time.
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| Horse from the 1998 set (photo from eBay) |
Rapunzel's horse and carriage set - 2002
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| A set with a carriage from 2002 - photo: Mattel |
The first time this horse appears in the set with the carriage is in the year of the release of the film, i.e. 2002. The horse in this set has probably the longest hair of all Barbie horses. As you can see horse is pearl white with gold hooves.
Fantasy Tales / Fairy Tales / Princess Collection - 2003
My Botties are from 2003 and belong to the same series as Lila, i.e. Princess Collection, Fantasy Tales or Fairy Tales - because this series appeared under three names. These horses, in my opinion - by eye, have slightly shorter hair than the first Botticelli from 2002.
The original equipment included:
- women's saddle in purple pearl colour
- the top of the saddle pad was made of purple satin material, the bottom of the fleece fabric in a shade of purple with a tulle frill and silver tassels
- 8 plastic hair clips
Just like Lila - he had neither bridle nor reins.
Fairy Tales / Fantasy Tales / Princess Collection Tea Party 2004
To complete the topic of Botticelli's incarnations, I must also mention his version from 2004 from the Princess Collection / Fantasy Tales / Fairy Tales line, the Tea Party series appeared and he looked like this:
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| Botticelli from the 2004 Tea Party series (photo: eBay) |
Botticelli the First at the moment of arrival
In the photo on the left you can see how he presented himself in the advertisement. The person I bought it from must have given it a very low rating because he was added for free to other horses.
When he finally arrived to me, he looked like this:
The loss of paint on the hooves was significant and visible.
There was not much to undress, because he only had a saddle and without it he looked like this:
Defects in painting on the head - nostrils and eyes:
Botticelli the Second at the moment of arrival
The second Bottie came to me on February 28, 2023, it had traces of play, but it had its original hair! His original hairstyle was still visible, but the curls had turned into dreadlocks over time. They were visibly dirty. The paint was worn off in places, especially on the eyes and hooves, and his saddle was defective.
The second Bottie also had defects in the painting of eyes, nostrils and hooves.
After removing the saddle:
Together again, just before washing.
Washing
I started by washing both steeds. As for the hair of the second, I just washed it. I didn't try to untangle it in any way
In the photos you can't see much difference, but after washing the hair became lighter.
The tail is visibly lighter in colour after washing. The photos were taken while the hair was still wet.
Untangling Second Bottie's hair
I left Bottie the First to dry - he had no hair, so there was nothing to work with at this stage. I took care of Bottie the Second and his dreadlocks. I started with the tail - to warm up.
Untangling these dreadlocks required huge amounts of both hair and fabric conditioner. And also great patience and attention.
As I combed the hair, it became lighter in colour and all the dirt remained on the broken pieces of hair that were combed out.
At the top, the mane is waiting to be untangled, and at the bottom - it's in progress.
After 4 days of hard work on detangling the dreadlocks, they were finally gone.
Another problem appeared - the hair needed straightening.
Before I could start straightening, I had to get rid of the remnants of the hair and fabric conditioners. Bottie went into the bath for the second time.
Straightening the hair of Bottie the Second
After getting rid of the remnants of the conditioner, while the hair was still damp, I started separating small strands and after combing them, I pulled them through a hot hair crimper.
In the photos above, the tail is intact, while part of the mane is straightened for the first time. You can see exactly which part was straightened, the difference is really big.
In the next photos, the mane is after the first straightening, the tail is still before it.
Below you can see a lock of broken hair and those that fell out while combing. The tail is straightened one time, the mane is straightened two times.
There is a 4 day difference between the photos above and those below. As a result, I lost count of how many times I straightened both the tail and the mane, but I wouldn't lie if I said it was about five. It looked the same every time - I separated a small strand, moistened it with water and slowly pulled it through the hair crimper - once, twice, three times - until it was dry and relatively straight. I pushed the finished ones to the other side, separated the next one, moistened it with water and pulled it through the hot hair crimper again, several times. And so on until the very end. If the ends were still tangling, I started over again. Finally, the hair became slightly shiny, frizz-free and easy to comb. It was a really long and hard work. For the first time, combing Barbie's horse's hair took me so long and required so much work.
I wondered for a long time whether to recreate his original hairstyle because I was afraid that his hair would get tangled again. The next item on the agenda was paint corrections, the hair didn't make the work easier, something had to be done with it. I decided to wrap them in curlers - this will protect them from painting, make my work easier and perhaps recreate his hairstyle - at least for the photos.
Painting corrections
When I go shopping, I always visit craft stands and corners. So when I had to make Botties' painting corrections, I knew where to look for pearl and glitter acrylic paints. In addition, they were very cheap. I had to add pearl pink paint for the markings and purple for the hooves and eyes. It took a while, but it turned out quite well. After the hooves dried, I applied several solid layers of transparent paint with glitter. After drying thoroughly, I applied two or three coats of varnish to the hooves and eyes. At this stage I worked with both horses in turns.
Filling the gaps in paint on the hooves.
Fixing shading on legs and muzzle.
After applying the glitter paint, I protect the hooves with varnish.
Accessories
The original Botties had not special hair clips, but their saddle pads were very nice. Looking at photos on the Internet, I sketched the initial shape of the saddle pad for the pattern. Before I started cutting, one more idea came to my mind. One of the Barbie horse collectors recently offered to help me if I had any problem. I decided to ask her for a photo or scan of the saddle pad of one of these horses - they all have the same one. She chose Botticelli - she knew I was working on it. She sent me a photo on a mat with a ruler, so enlarging it to its original size was no problem at all! Oh, thank you Pingellienchen! I printed out a sample photo in the original size. I cut out a form from the latter. It turned out that the template I had made by eye matched the original perfectly. I could have done it even without this photo, but I wanted to be 100% sure that the size was correct.
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| Against the background of the prepared materials, I hold a template cut out from a photo |
I chose a purple satin fabric for the top and sparse white fur for the bottom. Additionally, for the first Bottie there is a tulle for a ruffle, and for the second one there is a less stiff mesh fabric, resembling tulle.
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| I traced the cut template and added a seam allowance - on both fabrics |
I placed both parts of the saddle pad - cut from both materials - with the right sides of the fabrics together and sewed them together along the drawn line, leaving a fragment unsewn for turning the saddle pad right side out. After turning it over, I sewed the remaining fragment and started sewing the tulle ruffle.
I planned to finish the whole thing with a white and silver string adding some sequins and beads for decoration. But then I got another idea - to add some lace.
Before I started finishing, I prepared ribbon straps that will be fastened with Velcro. This one layer of tulle looked quite poor, so I decided to sew on another, slightly shorter one. Then I sewed lace on it, masking the seam with string and decorating it with sequins and beads. Finally, I applied silver glitter glue to the tulle, which adds shine and makes the ruffle more visible.
In the same way, I sewed the second saddle pad for the second Bottie.
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| Finished saddle pad for the second Bottie |
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| Bottom side of the Bottie The Second saddle pad |
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| Upper side of the Bottie the First saddle pad |
While sewing the saddle pad, I drew two preliminary designs for the hair clips. I decided that the horses would have three hair clips - two for the mane and one for the tail, but they would be truly royal and unique. Even though the colors and materials will be the same, the accessories must be different.
The hair clips consist of tulle rosettes, lace, beads, rhinestones, ribbon and silver and white string. After sewing and gluing them, I also put drops of glitter glue on the tulle.
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| Applying glitter glue to the tulle of the hair clip (the photo is a frame from the movie) |
As you can see at the top of this photo, the clip consists of a tulle fan with glitter, lace with three rose-shaped beads on it, a bead with a heart-shaped rhinestone, a ribbon bow, and a silver pendant in the shape of the heart. The hanging ends of the string are finished with beads.
I've had only three heart charms and no alternatives for the second horse. I solved this problem by creating pendants from modeling clay. After hardening and cooling, I covered them with several layers of silver acrylic paint, which I secured with two layers of varnish.
Below you can see finished hair clips for the second Bottie, with hand made silver hearts:
Finished hair decorations for Bottie the First:
Due to the fact that one of the ready-made pendants was different and a bit smaller, I decided to add an additional bow to the clip, place a rhinestone heart in the middle and attach additional strings. It turned out really huge.
Saddle repair
One of the saddles was defective - it was missing pommels. Thanks to it, the doll can comfortably sit sideways on the horse. In the original, these pommels are very long and flexible - made of the same material as the saddle. Unfortunately, they have little in common with a real pommels from a women's saddle. However, I have several older ladies saddles in which the pommels resembles a real one - they are short and stiff. So I took out pomels from an old saddle and made similar one out of modeling clay. Then I hardened the modeling clay in the oven, and after it cooled down, I painted it with acrylic paint - it was a little too dark. Of course, I also applied a layer of varnish and after it dried, I attached the pommels to the saddle with a hot glue. I think that apart from the slightly too dark shade of paint - the new pommels are looking great. I have another such defective saddle, so I now I know how to repair it.
I dedicated the repaired saddle to Bottie the first.
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| By accident, my nails are the color of Botticelli's accessories |
Rehairing Bottie the First
The accessories are ready, the saddle is repaired, Bottie the second has already his hair combed and straightened, currently wrapped in curlers, the painting is repaired and secured... But poor Bottie the first still has his hair cut - so it's time to replace it.
At first I thought I could open it, but it was very resistant, so I gave up. I decided to replace the hair without opening the horse.
I pulled out the mane similarly to Wavy and Lucynka's - by spitiing the neck a bit and tearing out the remnants of the old mane. I also dismantled the tail in the same way as with walking fillies - by pulling it out piece by piece.
At the beginning, I planned to pass the tail through the bar inside the horse, as usual. Unfortunately, it was too complicated, I still had to fight with the mane, so I decided to use the way I rebuilt Elsa's tail. I tied the prepared hair with a tie in the middle, folded it in half and pushed it into the hole.
To protect it, I put another tie on the entire tail, squeezed it very tightly, and cut off the tip. I pressed the ring made of the tie into the hole. For additional security, I pressed hot glue into the center of the tail.
I combed the tail and immediately braided it. It is very long and I didn't want it to get tangled and matted right away.
The next was the mane. The procedure is the same as before - small knotted strands glued with hot glue, from which I created two segments.
In the final stage, I came to the conclusion that it would be better to combine these two sections I had created into one - which is what I did. Then I installed the mane on the horse, inserting the mane into the widened gap in the neck.
This horse has the longest hair of all my horses. I did not trim the installed hair, I left it at its original length - both in the tail and mane.
Hairstyles
I was afraid, but I decided to take the risk and recreate the hairstyles of both horses for a short time. Bottie the second had his hair wrapped in curlers for several days, so I assumed that there would be no problem with the hairstyle. However, Bottie's the first hair was straight and stiff. To give him beautiful spring curls, I reached for my curling iron.
First, Bottie the second:
Now Bottie the First and his new hair:
And together:
Talking about the hair, I must mention that Botticelli's original hair should probably have a color similar to the new hair color of my first Bottie - the one whose hair I replaced. One of my viewers on YT, in a comment on a video about Prince, put forward a theory, supported by the experience of people dealing with My Little Pony ponies, that as well as my Prince and all others that came from the factory under this name were supposed to have pink hair. Unfortunately, not in all cases the dye used to dye the hair stayed on the hair. That's why you can often see these horses with two hair colors. I think this is a valid theory because my Prince also had traces of pink in his hair. Back to Botticelli - looking at the back of the packaging, where there is a large photo of a horse with a spectacular hairstyle and promotional photos - the horses shown there have golden blonde hair with highlights. When I looked through various advertisements with these horses, mainly NIB (New In Box) or NRFB (Never Removed From Box) - i.e. originally packed at the factory - some of them had light yellow hair - like my original second Bottie, and most of them had hair such as in promotional photos. The series in which these horses appeared has three names - depending on the place of sale in the world - Fairy Tales, Fantasy Tales or Princess Collection - I've checked - the hair color does not depend on the name.
In all its glory
The accessories are ready, the hairstyles are ready, it's time to saddle up and decorate my twins.
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| Bottie the first accessories |
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| Bottie The Second accessories |
I'll start with Bottie the first, whose rebirth consisted of a thorough washing, paint corrections, hair replacement, saddle repair, sewing a saddle pad and making hair clips. At this stage, I must also admit that while I was finishing processing the photos I came up with the idea of the names for the twins. They have different hair colours, so I named the first one - Goldie.
The saddle pads of these horses can also be used for riding, without a saddle. It's just like Star Stepper's.
Now it's time for Bottie the second, I chose a name Blondie for him. Its rebirth required a thorough washing, untangling the dreadlocks, washing again, straightening the hair several times, painting corrections, sewing a saddle pad and making hair clips. Work on it took several weeks and many hours.
And both twins together - Botticelli II Blondie and Botticelli I Goldie
A session in the garden
When the first spring sunlight appeared, I took the twins to the garden.
Botticelli I Goldie
Botticelli II Blondie
Before and after
Botek I Goldie:
Goldie had very pale shading, the underside of his muzzle was virtually colorless.
Bottie II Blondie had visible glitter defects on the hooves, but this wasn't due to the paint abrasion, because the purple layer was intact. It looked more like a factory defect.
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