2013...the year so far

7th November 2013
Crikey, it's been a while since I last posted! This year has been absolutely manic, and looks set to continue that way until Christmas at least! It's been a year of change, new ideas, new directions, big learning curves - and above all, FUN!

And the winner is....

31st October 2012
I'd like to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who entered the competition to come up with a phrase to be printed on this Santa Teacup Mouse's placard. With nearly 100 brilliant entries, I was definitely spoiled for choice, but one suggestion pipped the others to the post with its originality, quirkiness and brevity (which was quite important given the size of the placard!) So, a big congratulations to SAM for coming up with the winning entry - "MERRY KISSMOUSE" :) This wee mouse will be heading off to live with you very soon!

There were several entries that deserve a mention too - there were so many wonderful suggestions, I was just blown away by your inventiveness and wit! Here are some of my favourites:

"Mousie mistletoe kisses £1.00" - Nina J.
"Keep Calm and Be Merry" - Courtney Y.
"Please stop here, Santa" - Pamela B.
"Santa's Little Helper" - Alisha M, Honey Daze
"Santa Paws: The Mouse Before Christmas" - Lemur Lady

Many thanks once again to everyone who took the time to enter - I had so much fun reading all your ideas, and the mice had a good chortle as well! I will be selling a limited number of these special Merry KissMouse Mice in the run up to Christmas, and if anyone wants to reserve one (price £23 plus shipping), just drop me a line.

Competition time!

8th October 2012
This Christmas, I will be doing a limited edition Santa Teacup Mouse! This wee mouse has a lovely Santa hat on and is perched in a festive green tea cup, but he just doesn't know what his placard should say! Can you help him?

Merry Christmas!

See you in the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Micicles!

2 December 2010
Some of you might have noticed that we've been having a bit of snow lately. Well, the mice haven't seen snow before, so here's the story of one Wee Santa Mouse, called Wee Mousie, who decided to brave the wintry weather and venture outside...

The Mouse Nativity Part 2 (23 November 2010)

25 November 2010
To follow up on my last post, I am delighted to show you the beautiful stable that a good friend of mine, Glenda, has made for the Mouse Nativity! It's just incredible - so much attention to detail, and so utterly perfect! She's going to make these as part of the Mouse Nativity set which will go on sale early next year, and will be sold a piece per month so you can collect the set in time for Christmas!

The Mouse Nativity (11/12 November 2010)

The Mouse Nativity

18 November 2010
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Ruth, a lovely lady I recently met on Flickr after being introduced by another lovely lady, Janet, who I met at the Saltaire Makers' Fair in September (don't you just love the internet?!) It turns out that Ruth is a great fan of my wee mice, and after some creative exchanges, I went off and came up with The Mouse Nativity!

Of Mice and Treats

4 November 2010
I've been busy with Wee Mice of late. I first made them back in May, which is scarily about six months ago. I'd been wanting to make Wee Mice for a while, and that was the time they decided to appear! These wee cuties are pretty small - the stargazing ones are about 2.5cm (1") tall, and the sugarmouse ones are about the same size in length. They come in all sorts of colours (white, gray, fawn, brown, dark brown), but what I have been enjoying most of all has been making up wee treats for them!

Barrister Cat and Anaesthetist Cat Tree Decorations (b.15 December 2009)

I received another commission this week from another former colleague of mine, who had seen Springbok Cat and wanted to know if I could make up a couple of tree decorations for her grown children based on their occupations. And I was delighted to do so!

This is the third Barrister Cat I've made up, and each one has had a very different demeanour - I love the different characters which show up each time! I have to say that I had certain misgivings about putting a screw eye top pin into his barrister's wig, but in the end, by using a tiny silver hook with white organza ribbon, I don't think it looks to intrusive. It just goes to show that any of my designs can be adapted to a tree decoration, as long as I'm willing to impale the head with a hook!

The second request was for an Anaesthetist Cat tree decoration. This was a little more challenging, but I based him on Surgeon Cat (as yet only seen on Facebook - I consider him as a bit of a work-in-progress).  However, I decided to go with blue scrubs this time, which I made up by mixing turquoise with white to get the right shade. I also decided to make more of the surgical mask, and I think that adding the piping to the edges does make it more realistic (or as realistic as a cat in surgical scrubs can be!) Having two sets of ties coming from the mask also helps to make it more realistic, although I used the thinnest setting on the clay gun which meant tying the knots at the back was rather fiddly!

I completed the look by making up double thickness white paws - I think they look rather like a pair of clogs. I'm pleased to report that my colleague was suitably delighted with both characters!

I'm going to develop both these character cats over Christmas. For the Barrister Cat, I'm going to include a brief (pile of papers) tied up in pink ribbon, and there's so much scope for a whole range of specialty medical profession cats!

Santa Cat Tree Decorations (b.23 November 2009)

The first of my Christmas tree decorations! I've been meaning to convert a few of my designs for a while now, and I was prompted into action by a commission request through Etsy from Sarah in California (many thanks, Sarah!)

Although I toyed with the idea of changing the shape of the Santa hat so that the ribbon could be fed through it, in the end, I opted to keep the standard shape and add a top pin (known as a screw eye peg). The hardest part was pushing the top pin into the Santa Cat - it just seemed so harsh! I added a small dab of liquid polymer clay to seal the pin in place, and after curing and varnishing, I added a generous length of thin red ribbon, loosely tied at the top so that the length can be adjusted as necessary.

I went on to make up another three Santa Cat Tree Decorations, and I'll be listing them online when I get the chance. In the meantime, if you want to order any, just get in touch.

I've also received a commission to make up Santa Piglings, so that's the next on my list, after some Wee Robin decorations!

Christmas Elf Cats (b.15 November 2009)

As part of the commission order from Mickey of The Green Apple eco-shop, I've made up a couple of different Christmas Elf Cats, experimenting with different techniques. The jury's out on which one I prefer - I think they're both very sweet!

And here's the line of up all the commissions I've made for Mickey...

Santa Cat with Beard & Ninja Cat (b.9 November 2009)

I'm having a great time making up a commission order from Mickey (check out her fantastic eco shop - The Green Apple), who is mad about cats! Here are the first couple of kitties made to her specification - this Santa Cat sports a fluffy white beard, and Ninja Cat is definitely ready for action!

More updates to follow - watch out for Christmas Elf Cat, Pirate Cat, and (I'm really looking forward to doing these!) AC/DC Cats in the shape of Brian Johnson and Angus Young!

Thanks are also due to Mickey for her fab idea to do a Christmas Kitten Nativity scene - work due to start on this shortly!

Santa Cats, Bobble Hat Cats and Rainbow Scarf Cats (b.4 November 2009)

I've been burning the midnight oil this past week getting more stock prepared for this weekend, and another three Santa Cats have materialised along the way! These are just so much fun to make - choosing the right colours of clay, and then mixing them until I'm happy with the resultant swirly patterns, which are always unpredictable! A coat of varnish really does help to bring out the pattern - it's like wetting a pebble on the beach, particularly with the darker clays like the centre cat here.

As well as Santa Cats, more Bobble Hat Cats and Rainbow Scarf Cats (twins no less!) have also joined the family:

One of the Rainbow Scarf Cats is winging its way to Blissknits as we speak!

Cozy Reindeer Cats (b.1 November 2009)

After the domestication of the first Reindeer Cat a few days ago, a herd has now started to gather. However, they are really feeling the cold in Leeds, as they're not used to this blustery weather, so they decided to wrap up warmly for the duration of their stay.

Tune in to watch the herd grows bigger as Christmas approaches...

Reindeer Cat (b.28 October 2009)

The extremely rare and eagerly awaited Reindeer Cat has now been sighted for the first time Pictured here in his natural habitat, the Reindeer Cat is an endearing cross between a kitten and Rudolph. Often, late at night, a red glow can sometimes be seen, but Reindeer Cat is rarely seen in daylight.

He stands 5.5cm tall to the tip of his antlers, and is 3cm wide. He'll be appearing at a number of craft fairs near you soon, and might even find his way into my Folksy shop. And now that he's been domesticated, I have no doubt that a herd of Reindeer Cats will be appearing soon...

Rainbow Scarf Cats and Bobble Hat Cats (b.25 October 2009)

As autumn is well and truly upon us, and the nights are getting so much darker now that the clocks have gone back, the kittens are definitely in need of some warmer gear. So here are the latest batch of winter woolly kittens - I feel toasty just looking at them!

Bobble Hat Cats (b.7 October 2009)

You may recall that I was toying with the idea of adding hats to the Rainbow Scarf Cats. Well, here are the results! It took quite a bit of trial and error to get the hat looking like a hat, and not just a piece of clay stuck on top!

In the end, for the small yellow cat, I used the santa hat template (essentially half a circle rolled into a cone), and then rolled up the eges to form the woolly rim, and cut off the point to flatten it. Having the ears poking through the hat completes the look.

For the tall cat, I cut out a full circle from thin clay and then smoothed it down to form a dome, I added a thin strip of matching clay around the rim, and indented it to look like a ribbed hat. The fact that the hat covers his eyes was a happy accident!

Santa Cats (b.6 October 2009)

Christmas is inevitably approaching, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I spent quite a lot of time working out how to do the hats properly - I tried a number of approaches, including making a baked cone template from scrap clay, but in the end (as often happens), the simplest answer was the best. I rolled out a very thin sheet of red clay and then cut out a small circle. I cut this in have, and then rolled each half into a cone. I folded over the tip, and then put a white pom-pom at the tip, using liquid polymer clay.

I had really wanted to use fluff for the white band, and I experimented with two different kinds of white wool. However, it proved to be too much of a faff, so I ended up cutting out a band of white clay and then patterning it with a pen lid to make it look more 'fluff-like'. I think the end result works pretty well.

After a dubious attempt using a dark green clay colour for the cat itself, I decided that using more natural 'cat' colours works best for the Santa Cats. It also opens up possibilities for accepting cat commissions!

I'm in two minds whether to bring them along to the craft fairs this weekend. I do feel quite strongly that the run-up to Christmas shouldn't start until November at the earliest, so I may keep them in reserve until then.

Rainbow Scarf Cats (b.6 October 2009)

I had such a good day today! I've been going all steam ahead making lots more stock for this weekend's craft fairs! I had so many ideas after the craft fair at The Treehouse Cafe, and this was the day for giving shape to those ideas.

After making the Pumpkin Cats and Owls, I wanted to try out Santa Cats (something else I had dreamed up the night before). But before I moved on to them, the idea came up to make Scarf Cats. And here they are! I think they look like carol singers, and I'm thinking I'll have to try them out with bobble hats too - the weather's certainly cold enough for that!

I decided to make these Cats in pastel colours, and to make the scarfs in contrasting bold colours and stripes. Again, the possibilities are endless and I will experiment with different kinds of scarfs - I could do a range of football scarfs (not for me, I hasten to add), and I'll try out some floral millefiori ones too. Any ideas or suggestions would be most welcome! (My favourite one is the green cat).