Spiraling to Know Where

Another cat hair necklace.

A fur and steel delight with brass spiral highlights.

One little, Two little, Three little kitty cat orbs, hang’n in a row

Spinning cat hair orbs — pendant and earrings.

This creation started elsewhere, sustained fits and starts, was given up as a lost cause, then, after being put aside, an epiphany — that was so spontaneous and in the moment, and who knows where those thoughts come from anyway —  allowed a rebirth to occur. Yes, the creative process is a funny and magical thing!

And earrings, I had previously made, that go well with the pendant.

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Kitty LUV

YES, I love my cat, I LOVE my cats. This neck sculpture expresses love!

I could not sleep one night recently because of Gaia. He has this BAD BOY but endearing habit of wanting to play at 3 am, when I should be in REM sleep. This does not happen every night, but this particular night he was more riled up than usual, and there wasn’t even a full moon! Anyway, even after a little play, a bit of food, and excommunicating him from the bedroom, I could not go back to sleep.

What to do? Use the time to visualized cat hair jewelry! My creative juices got going, resulting in this piece as well as a few others.

A most interesting idea came to mind, at this darkest time of night: bend the neck wire in half. Bending, what I normally keep round, would allow the caged cat hair pendant to hang asymmetrically. When I got to the studio, all was going as I envisioned, until I got to the point of caging the cat hair between the two pieces of chicken wire. As I was matting and felting the cat hair, my fingers began to form the hair from a mass into a heart.

A heart of cat hair! Of course! a symbol of pure love from a cat-aholic!

Gaia LUV

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L e O R B — The Metamorphosis Of Cat Hair

Or . . .  how the fluff of kitty cat hair got to be an earring.

Just cannot fit into that bed, but who cares!

We start with kitty cat. Here he is in all his glorious fluffiness, trying to stuff himself in a bed too small.

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The fluff

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A hand full of that soft fluff.

One orb.

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The fluff is felted by hand into a small ball of hair. . . . Or Le Orb.

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After wire wrappings with brass—the final creation. See below.

Count Down . . . 43 Days . . . until Must Love Cats on April 7th !

Finished!

The Grooming Session

Gaia enjoys being brushed. 

Not every cat takes to the brush. Some will swat the brush. With others, you cannot even come near with a brush, they see it and run. Or, you can brush the head, chest and back, BUT do not touch my underbelly and stay away from my HINEY!

Gaia, on the other hand, more than tolerates our grooming sessions. Maybe because he loves to groom himself. Or, could it be, he has what I refer to as “the Orange Gene,” a highly friendly and calm quality found in cats with orange hair?

Yet, every two weeks I brush out his undercoat and go on matt patrol. I love grooming Gaia. I do this on the bed, a favorite spot of his, where it is easy for him to lie on his back with legs spread, allowing me access to that soft belly hair. This is a mutual project. As I groom him, he grooms himself as well as grooms my hand, when it is near his raspy tongue.

And what wonderfully soft and silky hair! which is set aside for future jewelry projects.

Count Down . . . 51 Days . . . until Must Love Cats on  April 7th !

After the grooming session

A mound of wispy, soft hair

ADVERTISE that cat hair jewelry GIRL!

The buzz has definitely slowed on cat hair jewelry.

It has been over a year since my cat hair jewelry found its way to the internet. I have a steady stream of traffic to my Etsy site, not a lot, but more than previously.

So, what to do? … Try a little advertising! I chose Catsparella. I like the site, it is all about cats and the ad won’t put me in debt. First step—revamped my Etsy site to showcase just cat hair jewelry. Then, make the ad. That was the hard. I wanted a binky ad and I never made one before. After “googling” how to make an animated image, then fooling around in Photoshop — voila! — a few hours later, I had my ad!

And the traffic? it has picked up, still not a lot, but it is a beginning!

Count Down … 52 Days … until … Must Love Cats!

Snow Full Moon Arising!

February 7, a full moon arising… 

This event takes place each year in the dead of winter. The American Indians sanctified this moon as the moon of snow, the Celts, the moon of ice.

And what do you wear to that full moon celebration? My newest creation of course!

A cluster of snow-white orbs of Gaia’s hair, wire spiraled to keep them in place, then attached to a simple neck wire. The wire is stainless steel, and it shimmers and sparkles like snow on a wintry night, catching the reflective light of the full moon.

Silver Puffs cat hair necklace

Love Token no. 9

A pendant made using my cat’s hair. 

I love my cat, I love my cat, I love my cat… I remember a song from the 80s(?), and it went: I’m so happy my cat’s not dead. I can relate. I want my cats to live forever, but they don’t ! 

The Victorians, during 1800s in England, fashioned the human hair of their beloved into articles of jewelry. It was a way of having a cherished individual close to the heart.

For cat-aholics, who want a beloved feline presence closely felt, there is the cat hair pendant. I crafted this single, double spiraled orb, using brass and stainless steel wire, then attached it to leather strand. A hand full of Gaia’s hair is all it to took to create this three quarters of an inch orb.

Let’s do Earrings!

I have been asked many times: what about creating cat hair earrings?

OK, but how could I make them? I had no idea at first. Then, the solution presented itself. I had spiraled felted cat hair with wire and liked the way it contained and protected the hair. This technique added a wonderful visual interest to the hair orbs that were part of two necklaces I made.

The first pair. I made the earrings using two brass spiraled orbs of cat hair, connected them to each other, one on top of the other, and finally attached the orbs to a fish hook ear wire.  This pair was SOLD before Christmas, and went to a true cat-aholic!, one with SEVEN cats!

My first creation at making earrings with cat hair

The second pair.  I like the elegant simplicity of this one. It consists of a single orb using spiraled stainless steel wire, then attached to a fish hook ear wire.

Cat earrings number two, simple and elegant

A “Pearly White” Christmas Commission

A friend of mine, who also happens to be an excellent artist, commissioned a necklace using cat hair. What follows is the discussion I had with her before I proceeded with making the necklace.

Me: Do you want the cat hair necklace to include some leather/metal in the design?

Her: No. Just make one using cat hair as large white “pearls.”

Me: How about adding an asymmetrical focal point in the front?

Her: No. Just make it look like a string of white pearls.

Me: Can I ask why?

Her: I want people to think it is a pearl necklace, and then be surprised or shocked that they are not pearls but “pearls” made from cat hair.

A small basket of Gaia hair

HELP GAIA!!  I was going to need a lot of hair for this project, probably 28 “pearls”. I began three weeks before Thanksgiving. (She originally wanted to wear it while she was in New York for Thanksgiving.) That was out of the question! I got into grooming mode. Once a week I groomed Gaia, then rolled the hair into tight cat hair pearls.

Two months later… finally! I had enough of those “pearls” to wire a necklace!

Gaia guarding the “pearls”

And the finished necklace— packed up and ready to be worn on Christmas eve!