Valentine Kitten (b.6 January 2010)

The other day I found out that UK Handmade were planning a new gift guide for Valentine's Day. Now, some of you may remember that Wee Horses were featured in the UK Handmade Gift Guide, released just before Christmas, and I have been keen to repeat the experience because it was such a well-made publication.

And so I thought about what sort of Valentine's gift I could make, and Valentine Kitten was born!

Valentine Kitten has four paws, rather than the normal (for me) two paws. I think the precedent for this was set when I made Hurty Paw Cat, who had three paws on show and a very plaintive expression. I wanted to incorporate a heart in the Valentine design, and then it came to me - a wee kitten holding or offering a large heart!

I made the heart first by cutting a double thickness of red metallic clay with a heart cutter. Then I had to decide on what colour the cats should be, and I took my lead from Santa Cats - because of the red hat, more natural colours worked best, and I adopted the same principle with these Kittens.

As with all my wee creatures, I have used liquid polymer clay to fix the paws and the heart to the body, which creates a very strong bond. A coat of satin varnish really brings out the metallic sheen of the heart. He stands 4cm tall.

I'll be listing these on Folksy and Etsy soon for £5 ($8) plus postage - I'll let you know as soon as they're up there! And if you'd like to order any in the meantime, just drop me a line!

Anniversary Cats (b.22 November 2009)

Thanks to Julia for commission this sweet couple of cats for her anniversary on 27 November. I met her at the Made-It Craft Fair in Wetherby on 21 November, and she wanted something special and quirky to give to her husband. She came up with this design based on their relationship, and I had a lot of fun deciding how to do the hair.

I've been wanting to try out a cat with long hair for a while now - ever since I woke up thinking about doing a Mermaid Cat in fact! (Watch this space - this will happen one day!) I used a very thin extruded clay and applied long strands of it to the top of the head - I felt like a hairdresser. To keep the femine theme going, I didn't add on any 'chop dots' - small dots on the cheeks to signify whiskers.

(To digress briefly on this point, I am in two minds about chop dots. I think that not having them gives a softer more kitten-y impression, but that might just be me. Any thoughts on this? I'm going through a phase of not putting chop dots on my normal cats (I made up half a dozen last night after the craft fair) so I'm going to see what response I get next weekend at Castle Howard.)

The short spikey blond hair for the male cat was made by cutting very small lengths of yellow clay, applying liquid polymer clay to the end of each strand, and then placing it on the head. This has made the hair extremely strong and robust.

More commissions are coming in thick and fast - it's fantastic! It really gives me a chance to try new things, so please do get in touch if you have any particular requests!