Coco Chanel Cat (b.8 April 2011)

22 April 2011
After introducing Scott of the Antarctic Cat, I thought now would be a good time to shine the spotlight on Coco Chanel Cat. Requested by the same lovely person who commissioned Scott, I enjoyed the same process of researching a historical figure with a very striking and recognisable style.

Scott of the Antarctic Cat (b.18 February 2011)

25 March 2011

I thought I'd leap forward in time a little bit and take a look at a more recent creation. Scott of the Antarctic Cat is one of my favourites, and a big thank you to Liz for commissioning him for her sister's birthday.

Halloween Special

Three Witch Cats

24 October 2010
As it's not too long till Halloween, I thought it would be an appropriate time to take a look at my scary Halloween range of wee creatures. Actually, they're not scary at all - even the ones I tried to make a little bit scary still ended up looking pretty cute :)

Blossom Cats (b.5 June 2010)

Blossom Cats

It seems like an appropriate time to introduce the second bunch of Flower Cats I've made, rather than keep to the strict chronological order of birth of my wee creatures! These Blossom Cats were a very special commission for a very special person - Anna Stassen of Sakura Jewellery.

Flower Cats (b.11 May 2010)

Flower Cats

After I sold the original Daisy Cat at one of the Ilkley Arts Markets, I decided to make another one. Which led on to two, which turned into three!

I wasn't sure whether to keep the body colour the same as the flower centre this time, and so I decided to make them a little differently. Using green as the body colour helps to make them look more like flower cat sprites, than cats in fancy dress (at least, that's what I think!)

Sunflower Cat

For SunFlower Cat, I used a millefiori cane to create the speckled seed head effect for the flower centre, and then I cut out lots of petal shapes from a thin sheet of yellow clay and attached two layers of them, the top layer overlapping the bottom layer, to a thin collar of green clay. It was important to create enough strength in the petals because otherwise the petals would 'wilt' during the curing process.

Rose Cat

Rose Cat is my favourite Flower Cat - because of the shape of the petals, I had to make the head a little narrower than normal, which make her look very odd before I added the petals! I cut large oval petals shapes from a thin sheet of red clay, and then trimmed them at the bottom once they were added.There are three layers in total. Once the petals were on, I added the small leafs around the collar.

I'm keen to experiment with other types of Flower Cats - not quite sure how I'll do a Foxglove Cat, but I'm happy to give it a go!

Fireman Cat (b.10 May 2010)

I seem to be on a bit of an occupation theme here :) Fireman Cat came about when I was at the Ilkley Arts Market on 8 May. A lovely woman called Hilary asked if it would be possible for me to make a Fireman Cat for her friend, and straight away I could picture how he would look.


When I got back home, I did a bit of research as to what a fireman's outfit looks like these days. They've done away with the traditional outfit and now I think they look more like policemen with bigger helmets. So I decided to stick with Fireman Sam as my inspiration for the design.

For his axe, I used a millefiori cane to create the wood effect, and then made up the head using metallic red clay, with a silver tip.

I used silver clay blobs for the shiny buttons, and for his helmet badge. The important thing with making accessories for the cats, I've found, is not to skimp on proportions. Go large. I applied this principle to Police Mole, and now to Fireman Cat. As a result, their helmets actually do look as though they fit them properly, and aren't just a blob of clay balanced on top of their heads. It's a fine balance to achieve, but it's worth the extra effort, as it helps the design to gel together more and look more cohesive.

Another thing I've noticed looking back on these designs (I'm writing this in the middle of August) is how I've definitely become more enamoured of cats with arms. It's interesting how your tastes and style changes over time, even though the fundamental style is still undeniable Quernus :)

Paramedi-Cat (b.6 May 2010)

Who wouldn't want this handsome Paramedi-Cat to come and look after you?! Many thanks to Glenda for commissioning this wee guy. I think his white tee-shirt has a certain 'Levi ad' appeal, if you know what I mean ;)

The Happy Couple Part 2 (b.30 April 2010)

Hiking Cats

The second part of the commission for wedding cake toppers was for a pair of hillwalking cats, the bride and groom being keen hikers. And the exciting part of this was that these cats would be next to a tent created by one of the animators from Nick Park's team (he of the supremely wonderful Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, et al)! OK, so I wouldn't actually get to meet them, but at least my wee cats would be in close proximity to Greatness - to say I was chuffed was a slight understatement!

The brief here was for boy cat to be brown, and the girl cat to be white. I used glitter white for the latter, as it has a softer appearance than ordinary white clay. I had lots of fun coming up with the accessories for them - from woolly walking socks (made from slices of cane), to walking poles (cocktail sticks painted black with clay handles, discs and straps), to rucksacks! The leather boots even have laces :)

I wanted the rucksacks to be as realistic as possible, so I hauled our rucksack out of the cupboard for a guide. I'm particularly fond of the hand at the top, and the way the 'elasticated' pouch at the front isn't flush with the rest of the rucksack. The piping around the edges has helped to I imagine he's got a rather battered Mars Bar in there for when he gets peckish!

I love the girly rucksack - the white piping helps to give if that 'high street' look, and I get the impression that she's not really a serious hiker :) But then, with a Nick Park-designed tent, who am I to say?!

Living happily ever after in a Nick Park tent!!

The Happy Couple Part 1 (b.30 April 2010)

A former colleague of mine from work asked me a few months ago if I could make up a wedding cake topper for her son's wedding. In fact, she wanted two couples - one for the formal cake, and another couple for a second cake - more on that story later!

The brief was for flesh-coloured cats, an ivory dress and purple/lilac flowers and lilies for the bride, and a morning suit for the groom. Oh, and they had to be exactly 4.5cm tall. No more, no less. Well alrighty then!

I made the groom up first, and went for as much detail as possible. From the stripey trousers (don't you just love pasta machines?!) to his waistcoat buttons and a cute wee button hole. We had a bit of a 'hat-on-hat-off' dilemma, as the top hat took him a few millimetres above the required height, but I'm glad to say we managed to resolve that without too many tears.

I had so much fun making up the bride! From her wee ivory shoes, which have a purple seed bead as decoration, to the bouquet of white lilies and purple flowers. She also has a veil - I shaped some thick silver wire into a semi-circle and threaded on a small square of netting. I added some seed beads to either side, and then shaped the ends of the tiara to create a front decoration. It was fiddly work, but I love the effect! I secured the tiara and veil to the cat using liquid polymer clay.


For the back of the wedding dress, I created a confection of loops from a thin strip of ivory clay, and of course, the cats had to have their tails curling towards each other :)

Mr Sparkle the Gnome Cat (b.30 March 2010)

So, we have here Mr Sparkle the Gnome Cat. Mr Sparkle the Gnome Cat came about in an interesting way (as you would expect from such a character). I have Debbie Young to thank for this particular commission, and when thanking Debbie, I must also thank her cousin, Gemma, who made the introduction.

Gemma, you may recall, was the first person to ask if I could make cats wearing certain 'outfits'. This was back in October 2009, and first of all I was a bit alarmed by what she meant. Turns out she wanted a 'Pirates vs Ninja' theme, and I was glad to oblige! You can see the cats which started the ball rolling here.

Gemma then came back a few months later and commissioned the Wizard of Oz Cats - and so when I received an email from Debbie, saying that she loved the cats I had made up for Gemma, I didn't really know what to expect!

Debbie explained that she and her husband are cat lovers (being owned by four of them), and a little while ago she bought her husband a gnome. (Bear with me here.) However, after paying Mr Gnome less attention than he deserved, Debbie kidnapped it and sent him on his travels. A Facebook page was set up documenting Mr Gnome's adventures (current membership: 52) and fun was had by all as Mr Gnome went round the world.

Debbie's request was simple. Could I make a cat in a gnome hat as an homage to Mr Gnome? Of course, I cried (not literally). The cat model in question was Sparkle (see, it's all beginning to make sense now).

And so, in my own homage to The Fly, Mr Sparkle the Gnome Cat was born. However, I declined to perch him on a bicycle (realism isn't everything, you know). Mr Sparkle the Gnome Cat is, however, sporting a natty red gnomey hat, green coat with gold buttons, blue trousers and brown boots. And let's not forget that fine bushy beard. Now that gives me an idea for Brian Blessed Cat... ;)

Bedtime Kitten (b.21 March 2010)

I had so much fun with this wee kitten! She was one of those ideas which kept on building and building, and it all started from taking part in a Fashion Night in Ilkley on 26 March.

I had been contacted back in November by the organiser of this fashion night, asking if I wanted to have a stall at the event. It was an evening affair, and was being run for charity. So I was happy to give it a go and see how it went. Part of the arrangement was that stallholders were to donate a raffle prize for the evening.

The event was billed as a 'Girls' Night In', with an invited audience of women. So after toying with the idea of making a cat in full fashion gear, I decided to go with my idea of what girls wear when they're having a night in!

The cat on the left was the first one I did - there had to be a face mask, curlers, dressing gown and, of course, rabbit slippers. However, the face mask didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped (Zombie Cat, anyone?!), and so I made another cat without it. I love the terry towelling effect on the dressing gowns - I used a stiff wired brush to imprint the clay whilst it was still a thin sheet (the same brush I used to create Wee Ella's coat).

I donated both these cats to the charity event as the raffle prize, but couldn't resist going on to experiment further, and Bedtime Kitten was born! As well as the dressing gown and rabbit slippers (I have fond memories of those from my childhood), she had to have a tiny teddy bear and a hot water bottle.

The teddy bear was probably the most fiddly to make - bear in mind (no pun intended) that Bedtime Kitten only stands 5cm tall - but I was glad that I had tiny black beads for his eyes to keep with the Quernus look (by comparison, Bedtime Kitten had 3mm black onyx beads).

The hot water bottle was a little easier, and of course it had to be a furry one :) Bedtime Kitten was sold at the Ilkley Arts Market on 10 April, and I have to say I was a little sorry to see her go - she looks so cozy and snug, and there may just be a hint of self-portrait in her!

Duma (b.16 March 2010)

Quernus seems to have a bit of a fan base on the side of the Pond! I have some amazing friends over and they have been very kind about spreading word about my wee creatures. And as a result of that word-spreading, Wee Duma came into existence!

Michelle from Boston contacted me through the website saying that she'd just spent the last 30 minutes on my site, and could I please make her up some cats if she sent through pictures? So she sent through some pictures of her gorgeous cat, Duma.

Because of Duma's wonderful stripes, I tried out a new technique using a fur cane and pastels. I covered the clay core with thin slices taken from a fur cane I made up based on Duma's colouring, blended the slices, and then I made up the cat as usual. I baked the cat, and once cool, I brushed on stripes using powdered black pastels. I then varnished the pastels to seal them, and the end result turned out quite well.

However, I am still on the quest to perfect the fur technique for stripey cats - I am still very fond of making up the stripes by mixing up the appropriate colours, resulting in a swirly impression of stripes, rather than a realistic representation. Somehow, the cats seem to have a bit more charm with the swirls, but that could just be me :)

Scientist Cat (b.16 March 2010)

Scientist Cat was a special commission for Alison, who's daughter is graduating this summer with a science degree. Alison contacted me through the website, and when she outlined what she was looking for, my mind when into overdrive!

Jess and Cinnamon (b.14 March 2010)

Meet Wee Jess and Wee Cinnamon! Commissioned by Andy as a gift for his parents, Andy got in touch with me through the website, emailed me some pictures, and I got started!

Wee Jess is a gorgeous black and white cat, with a white bib and partially white nose. It was just a case of getting the markings in the right place. For the bib, I applied a thin sheet of white clay cut to shape, and then blended the edges out to create a fur effect.

Wee Cinnamon was a little more challenging as she has the most incredible markings on her back.

I had to imagine what Cinnamon's markings would look like from above so I could translate that into clay form. I sketched out the markings based on all the photos that Andy sent me (thanks Andy!), and then plotted those on an overhead view. It was like piecing together a jigsaw!

Bobble Hat Cat and Rainbow Scarf Cat (b.14 March 2010)

Do you know, it's been a while since I blogged about some of my more 'mainstream' designs - looking back, I've only tended to write about the commissions I've made (and granted, I've had a lot of those :) So I thought it would be fun to reintroduce a couple of old favourites (and when I say old, I first made this design back in October, so they're hardly about to draw their pension!)

I've recently discovered a new way of making stripy scarves that I'm rather pleased about. When I first started making Rainbow Scarf Cats, I took two thin logs of contrasting clay, twisted them tightly together and then rolled them sideways on through the pasta machine. Then I trimmed the two long edges and hey presto, the scarf was made. There were some limiting factors to this method, although on the whole it worked very well. Firstly, it was difficult to use more than two colours, and sometimes the resulting scarf wasn't wide enough after rolling the twisted log through the pasta machine.

I got the idea for the new stripy scarf from the wedding couple cats I made a few weeks ago in May (I'll be writing about them soon when I've caught up with the backlog!) I made up pinstripe trousers for the groom by layering black and grey sheets of clay together, cutting them in half, stacking the halves on top of each other, and reducing the cane down so the stripes were very thin. I applied this same technique for the stripy scarf using lots of different colours of clay, which resulted in lots of neater stripes of as many different colours as I wanted!

Rainbow Scarf Cats and Bobble Hat Cats are available for sale in my Folksy shop - click here to see the full range.

Luna and Maru (b.6 March 2010)

I'd like to introduce you to two beautiful Siamese cats, Luna and Maru. They belong to a dear friend, Anna, who not only designs and makes the most exquisite jewellery under the name of Sakura Jewelllery, but she is also the tireless editor of UK Handmade magazine.

This was the first time I'd made up Siamese cats, and I very much enjoyed the challenge. Luna has a slightly more rounded face than Maru, and Maru is a little bit smaller. I made the body shapes more streamlined than my usual cat shape, and then cut the face markings out of a thin sheet of dark brown clay. Because the cats have a lovely dusting of darker fur on their backs, I did this by applying a light covering of pastel dust, and then sealed it with varnish.

There are a few sad stories attached to these wee cats. When I first posted these cats off to Anna, by recorded delivery post, the parcel went missing. It still hasn't turned up. And the galling thing about this was that I had included a surprise extra gift of a Wee Shadow, a black Staffordshire terrier who belongs to one of Anna's good friends. So while I was able to replace Wee Luna and Wee Maru without too much trouble, Wee Shadow remains lost in transit, and the only evidence of him can be found here.

But the much sadder news is that in recent weeks, from the beginning of April, Maru has not been at all well. She has chronic renal failure with suspected pancreatitis, and so Anna and her husband have been doing their best to look after the wee mite. She's not out of the woods yet and is on special medication, but she's a fighter and hopefully she'll adapt to this new reality. You can read more about Maru's journey here.

Smudge and Boots (b.4 March 2010)

Another couple of custom kitties, this time courtesy of Donna of CuteDesigns. And we have NiftyKnits to thank for getting us together!

NiftyKnits posted a comment about my Wee Frog saying that she'd just seen another frog on CuteDesigns' blog (click here to see the frog in question - incredibly cute!) So I mosied on over to CuteDesigns' blog and discovered a world of cuteness! I 'hearted' her Etsy shop, which is filled with wonderful things, and then Donna got in touch with me to ask if I could make up a couple of custom kittens as a Mother's Day present! Ah, the wonders of the internet!

The Wizard of Oz Cats (b.27-28 February 2010)

The lovely Gemma, who started this whole character cat thang off with her request for Pirate and Ninja Cats, got in touch with me once more in January asking if I could make up four Wizard of Oz Cats, as this was her favourite film. And so the journey to creating Catothy Gale, Tin Cat, Scarekitty and Cat-ardly Lion was begun!

I started with Tin Cat, making him out of silver clay. I referred to stills from the original film to get the general ideal - the most obvious features of Tin Man were his raised collar, and the funnel on his head. I added rivets to the body by rolling tiny dots of silver clay and applying them to thin strips of clay.

The Scare-Cat was next, and I made him up in a number of different layers. Because he had brown trousers, I made up a body of brown clay. Next I added a green tunic which sits over the trousers, and then I finished off the look by adding a sheet of clay over the head - those aficionados of the film will be aware that the Scarecrow had a bag over his head, tied at the neck with string. So I extruded some rope-coloured clay and twisted two strands together to create the rope, which I then placed around the neck, the waist and around his floppy brown hat.

Dorothy Cat came next - she was similar in some respects to Princess Leia Cat in that I used a flesh-coloured clay for the body, and then 'dressed' her with a blue pinafore dress. Her ruby slippers were made from metallic red clay shaped to a point. I made the hair from extruded clay which I then loosely gathered into sections to create a more realistic style. Wee Toto is only 2cm high and made from black clay - next time I'll put him in a basket!

Last, but certainly not least, came the Cowardly Lion. It seemed a bit daft to make up a lion to look like a cat, and so I decided to use my existing Lion design, with a few modications of course!

The most important change was giving the Cowardly Lion some paws so that he could hold his tail in a rather cowardly way. I also made his mane more curly, as the Cowardly Lion in the film had definite ringlets (which I always thought was a little bit suspect). He also had a red bow in his hair (which did nothing to alter my opinion), and a couple of well-placed flicks of the scalpel gave a rather scared expression to his face.

I so enjoyed making up these cats, I can't wait to start making up some more - and I particularly enjoy making up character sets, like these ones, and the Star Wars Cats. I have plans to make Dr Who Cats (with Tom Baker (of course) as the Doctor, K-9 and a Dalek Cat) and Robin Hood Cats (with Robin Hood, Maid Marian and Friar Tuck). And that's not to mention the Cat-ivity Scene I plan to make up closer to Christmas! Oh, so many ideas, so little time - and once again, many thanks to Gemma, who makes beautiful jewellery under the name of Cosmiceden, for setting my feet upon this path.