Monday, March 18, 2024
Daily Featuremarketplacepet lossThursday

Marketplace: Custom Pet Memorial Votive

votive in ambient light
Custom votive in ambient light.

A gift for yourself to remember a beloved animal companion, or to send to a friend to show you remember their companion too, I create a custom votive using images you provide. If your votive is a gift, I can ship it directly to your friend with a customized sympathy card at no extra charge.

I make your Custom Pet Memorial Votive with love and sympathy on the loss of a precious companion, be it yours, or a friend’s or family member’s companion. I designed the memorial votives to focus on your companion’s face, and position their image so that the votive candle shines through their face, especially their eyes. During the day your votive captures ambient light even without the candle, but in the evening, when the candle is lit, the flickering light through your pet’s face in a darkened area is warm and intimate. Watch the video below as I place a lighted votive candle into Luna’s custom memorial votive.


About Custom Pet Memorial Votives

votive lit at night
Votive lit at night.

Above, a votive at night.

I designed the first of these memorial votives, as a gift to a friend who had rescued Oscar and had previously commissioned a portrait of him. Rather than using his entire portrait where he is sitting up, I designed it to focus on his face and positioned him so that the votive candle would alight his face, and especially his eyes. From its effect on me, and Oscar’s family’s reaction, I knew this was an idea that I could share with other animal lovers.

 

A custom memorial votive for Oscar.
A custom memorial votive for Oscar.

 

 

So I designed the memorial votives to focus on your companion’s face, and position their image so that the votive candle shines through their face, especially their eyes. During the day your votive captures ambient light even without the candle, but in the evening, when the candle is lit, the flickering light through your pet’s face in a darkened area is warm and intimate. Watch the video below as I place a lighted votive candle into Luna’s custom memorial votive.

How I make each votive

Henry
Henry

The sample votives you see here were ordered by one friend to give to another, and both parties gave me permission to share the images. I never use any image of a custom item without permission.

While I love to be creative with upcycled materials and make many votives using non-recyclable glass jars, I prefer these memorial votives to all be consistent and focus on the animal. I chose a square glass votive that I can easily purchase, and you can focus on the face of your beloved companion, not be distracted by the shape or see an image possibly distorted by the glass.

Working with your supplied photo or artwork, I use my decades of pet portraiture on paper and canvas and my photoshop skills to prepare the image to fit the votive. I remove background distractions and correct distortions if necessary, and add a color or gentle pattern that suits your pet, pulling ideas from the supplied photos.

I print that image on a frosted vinyl label that holds the image with clarity and diffuses the light of the candle, and wraps completely around the outside of the votive.

You can use a wax votive, but as much as I love real candles and flickering candlelight, with years of curious feline noses and waving tails I’ve been trained to use flameless candles. I provide an LED votive candle with each votive I make that has an inexpensive and easily purchased replaceable battery so that you don’t need to run out and find a brand new votive to continue remembering your pet when the original grows dim.

Each votive is packaged with a small care and use card and a message of sympathy from me, “May their light shine on you always”.

If your votive is a gift a sympathy card with your message is included

You may include a message to any recipient. I offer memorial note cards that are blank inside where I will write your message and include it, in an envelope, with the votive. There is no charge for this.

 


I prepare and print your photo or artwork of your pet onto a frosted vinyl label, then burnish it onto a cube-shaped glass vase 3.25″ in each dimension. A sympathy card and an LED tea light are included. The price includes shipping, whether to you or a friend.

If this votive is a gift…

I’ll be happy to ship it directly with a card at no extra charge.

  • Use the drop-down below to enter your choice of standard or other sympathy card.
  • Use the text box below to enter your message for the sympathy card and optional text for the back, if necessary.
  • If you’ve chosen a sympathy card from my collection, use the text box below to enter the design name.
  • Please enter the recipient’s address in the “Shipping Address” area of the shopping cart.

Whether the votive is for you or a gift for a recipient, the votive and card are carefully packed and shipped in a Priority Mail box.

Custom Votive Introductory Offer

$5.00 discount on your Custom Pet Memorial Votive.

Use coupon code CUSTOMVOTIVE5 in your shopping cart.

Offer good until March 7, 2021.


Click here to order a Custom Pet Memorial Votive

A few more sample votives



In some cases I can place two pets on the same votive. This family, unfortunately, lost both of their companions, unexpectedly, in the space of one month. In this case I was provided with several photos and I put them together, which was a small extra charge for the extra time of removing the background from both photos, then merging them together ensuring that Cody and Dakota were proportional to each other.


Examples of working with photos

Below are some examples of the work I’ve done with supplied photos.






Marketplace

Henry

Henry’s votive.

Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.

Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop”, whether that’s here on The Creative Cat, on my main website or even at one of the bricks and mortar shops that carry my work.

Read about creating custom items

Find out more about creating custom items for your own home using the images you see here. Visit the “Ordering Custom Art” page to see samples and read bout how to order.

Find out about events and festivals where you can find me and my work.

Sign up for my e-newsletter (below), check the widget on the sidebar on my home page, or sign up to receive posts on Portraits of Animals Marketplace.

It’s all done under the close and careful supervision of my studio cats!


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.


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© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

 
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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

2 thoughts on “Marketplace: Custom Pet Memorial Votive

  • Those really are beautiful and so touching.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Brian. These votives helped me feel I was helping my friends with grief when I gave these as gifts to friends, and I hope they do the same for others.

      Reply

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