Marketplace: “Big Nap” Decorative Dishes

May 10, 2018May 14, 2018 Bernadette

“Big Nap” decorative dishes, based on one of my brush pen sketches, each one handmade, hand painted and unique, reflect my influences from Japanese brush pen art, Theophile Steinlen, and Andy Warhol.

When I made my initial trinket dishes two years ago I developed a ton of ideas after working with both polymer and air-dry clay. The basis of one set of designs is my brush pen sketches integrated in several ways. Finally I made the time to work out the first of one of those styles, a little larger than the original 3″ trinket dishes, and using the outline of a sketch to shape the dish. Air-dry clay feels more like real clay but in earlier tests I found that worked this thin it would lose its strength, so I chose polymer clay.

The round shape of “The Big Nap” fit well to this idea. I didn’t really want to cut around all Bean’s legs so I added a little to the shape to fill in around his legs. Because the clay is baked and it works best if the object is held to the final shape while baking the size ended up being determined by the one dish I could use to form the gentle curve I wanted that could also be baked in the oven along with the clay. After it’s baked, I use the same brush pen to draw the sketch onto the clay that I used for the original sketch. The orange and blue combination with the black outline above is inspired by Andy Warhol.

The red and black with gold is an homage to Theophile Steinlen’s style when illustrating black cats with an accent color. He has been an inspiration since before I can remember, and while the black and white design was what inspired this particular dish, this design was the color version I envisioned before I knew I even wanted a color version.

This dish is 6.5″ wide x 5″ high, and about 1/2″ deep. Each one is handmade, hand-painted and unique.

"The Big Nap" trinket dish upright. — “The Big Nap” trinket dish upright.

"The Big Nap" trinket dish seen from the side. — “The Big Nap” trinket dish seen from the side.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

"Big Nap", brush pen, 8" x 6" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski — “Big Nap”, brush pen, 8″ x 6″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Jelly Bean’s roundness is a little exaggerated but it really was a big nap. Another one of the feline shapes I love.

Purchase a dish or two

PLEASE NOTE: These dishes are not to be used for food or water. They are for decorative purposes only.

More trinket and decorative dishes

Find them all in my Trinket and Decorative Dishes gallery on Portraits of Animals.

Marketplace

Mr. Sunshine wonders why I didn’t use him as a model, since he is purrfect.

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Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.