Marketplace: Hearts and Paws Saturday, June 14, 2025

June 12, 2025 Bernadette

A sample of new tiles I'll be selling at Hearts and Paws this Saturday. — A sample of new tiles I’ll be selling at Hearts and Paws this Saturday.

Hearts and Paws Pet Care and Adoption Fair
Saturday, June 14 2025
9:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Christ United Methodist Church
44 Highland Road, Bethel Park

I will have my full display of items including my animal portraits and Custom Pet Memorial Votives and all the cat gifts I can carry.

About those tiles

Above is a sampling of new styles of tiles I’ve been working on. I’d always made my tiles from polymer clay, nice because they’re virtually unbreakable, and I also used the versatile clay for my keepsake dishes and a few other things. But I always disliked the fact it was more plastic in the world and started moving away from it.

I like nothing better than upcycling something especially if it’s headed for a landfill. When the price of polymer clay went up again, doubling it since I’d started using it, I decided to work through the other alternatives I’d tried. These are made from unused ceramic wall tiles, which are highly fragile but with new and different finishes, label materials and cork for the bottom, they are quite lasting in day-to-day use—and it saves me a multi-part step when I don’t need to make the tiles myself. I’ll be working with plaster of paris, air-dry clay and other materials as well—when I’ve mentioned all the things I’ve been reconfiguring and moving and such in my studio, projects like this testing have been a good part of that.

About Hearts and Paws

I’ve attended this event for years and I always look forward to it and a vendor event and as a social event. I get to see many of the other cat rescuers I don’t see at other times and meet new friends who love animals, and have my work and gift items out in front of them.

I’ll have the votive lamps and keepsake boxes, dish towels and tote bags, garden flags and cat signs and suncatchers and greeting and note cards as well as my Custom Pet Memorial Votives, Garden Flags and Suncatchers, and Custom Commissioned Portraits.

This event is now fully indoors. Though I much prefer to be outdoors, with the unpredictable weather lately I’m happy enough not to take the chance I’ll lose everything in my display in a storm.

If I don’t see you this weekend, maybe I’ll see you at one of my other local events. Check my schedule for where I’ll be this spring and summer.

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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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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tortoiseshell cat on worktable

Sienna says get to work!

I have so much to do to prepare for this event! Sienna keeps me in line…until she sneaks back upstairs for an all-day nap on the bed.

Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.

Marketplace is a feature on The Creative Cat to share the latest coming out of my studio with my readers. Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop” .

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. I plan on plenty of events this coming summer in the Pittsburgh area.