Marketplace: Refrigerator Magnets and a Funny Studio Video

Yes, the refrigerator magnet bug bit me again after I’d decided I wasn’t going to make them anymore. I didn’t like the older ones I’d made from wooden discs and discs I’d made from polymer clay. I’ve been moving away from polymer clay because I feel it’s environmentally unsound, I don’t like handling it or baking it in the house, and it’s pretty expensive. The wooden discs are convenient, but most of what I could find are either too small or too big, and finding magnets to fit them was a challenge.

But then I got the idea to get back to a project I’d started and add a few things that I felt made them a better product, and here we are. I used larger discs so the images were larger, larger strong magnets on the bottom, and a cabochon, or piece of convex glass like the ones I used on my cabochon pendants, on the top, all sandwiched together.

And then I decided I wanted to follow through with another idea I’d had years ago and see what I could do with it. For years I’ve wanted to make “studio videos,” short videos of me in my studio with my art and handmade gifts. My studios aren’t pretty and really aren’t set up for presentations. My upstairs studio is pretty much devoted to painting now along with things that are printed on my laserjet printer, fabric transfers for garden flags, greeting cards, prints, and more. The basement has all the rest of the things. I have both my cell phone and my DSLR to take videos and taking the time to experiment I would at least find out if my ideas for setup and such would work.

I made a half dozen videos where I was trying to explain too many things about my space. That got all the extraneous explanations out of my system and I finally made the video about the refrigerator magnets. It’s not scripted, I just wing it, but it turned out okay. I ran out of space on my cell phone so I used my DSLR. I had no preview to look at while the camera was rolling, but it worked out okay.

I like my presentation, but I don’t like the way I look! The lighting just washes me out. But I thought I’d share it anyway, but not post it on YouTube, so I’m sharing it from my Dropbox folder. I have another video idea that I’ll be working on tomorrow. Let’s hope that comes out better.

Featuring some refrigerator magnets in a video

I’m sharing the video from my Dropbox folder so below you’ll see a black rectangle with an arrow in the middle of it. In the upper left it should say “Admin: Video OK”.

Click on the arrow, the video player will take a few seconds to begin, then it will start to play. The sound control is the dotted line in the lower right, the number of them in red showing the volume level. Click in the dotted line to increase or decrease the volume.

The full transcript is below the video. Please feel free to give me feedback!

Hello from my studio in the basement! I’ve been wanting to make some videos in my studio and just showing some of the new things I’ve made and talking about them, so here’s my first attempt at that.

And I chose something pretty easy to work with. I’ve had some projects that I started and couldn’t find the materials for and put on hold. So I’ve decided either finish them or…I usually end up finishing everything at some point anyway. But I had wanted to make new refrigerator magnets a little better than the ones I’ve made before. I don’t really care for the thin flexible magnets. I like a magnet on my refrigerator to be able to hold like a three-page recipe or a bunch of business cards or something so I like to use a stronger magnet. But I also wanted to make bigger refrigerator magnets than I had and larger magnets are a little difficult find.

So I had made out of some leftover wooden discs, like an inch and a quarter in diameter, looked like a nice size. I cutout some of the art that I’d used before, just a little bit larger, and adhered it to the wood with my heat press using fabric transfers. That makes the surface completely waterproof and actually very durable but I decided I didn’t like just that look either. So as I looked at magnets that were an inch and a quarter, they should have been 31mm, 34, 35, anyway everything was an odd size so I did find the magnets to work and I decided for the top I wanted to use glass cabochons. Those are the convex, thin convex pieces of glass that you would, say, put over top of a pendant on a necklace. So I did find ones the right size, and magnets the right size, about the right size, and I got those discs that I probably printed two years ago, put everything together.

When I came downstairs to my downstairs basement studio and found I needed to seriously clean off my workbench before I could get anything accomplished, this was one project that was there what a great way to clear off that spot. So, here we go.

Refrigerator magnets! Whole bunch of them, five wildflowers, five butterflies and probably 20 cats, I think maybe 20, maybe a little more than that, varous cats. Most of them are ones I’ve done before, but I did add a few new designs.

But here is what they actually look like. This is a simple design, it’s easy to see. This is Bella in Purples and from the side you see here’s the magnet, the space in here, the disc is a little bit smaller than these magnets and glass both but it’s sandwiched in there and on top of it is this convex piece of glass. So, it holds onto metal like it’s holding on for dear life and the glass on top protects it so I think it feels like a much more valuable thing. I think if I’m going to take all the time it takes to make a refrigerator magnet I should probably do this. So I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out. I still have to clean a little excess glue off the tops of them but…

Here’s another couple of examples. Little Mariposa, since she’s a fairly new addition to the household doesn’t have too many products with her picture on them, she is not happy about that. Of course, she has a wonderful painting that won an award and I put that painting on everything I possibly can like keepsake boxes and of course I make prints of it. Now she has a refrigerator magnet.

And remembering my boys this is Giuseppe and Jelly Bean in a wonderful sweet moment that I just happened to catch with my camera at one of the windows where they like to nap.

There is one of my favorite photos, a round-eyed Basil in his basket.

I wanted to have a ginger kitty so here is a ginger kitty whose portrait I did many years ago whose name is…Booger. I just think it’s so funny.

And then we have a tuxedo cat. We have my white cat Sally in her portrait. Butterflies. They are really holding onto this tray! Chicory and aster.

So anyway these will be available at some point. I may make some more before I add them to my website but I’m pretty happy with the way, after all the time it took, and all the time that passed, but find finding the right materials really paid off.

So, thank you for watching. It’s Bernadette from her studio in the basement. See you again sometime!

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Marketplace

Mimi is sleeping on the job on my worktable.

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”.

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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.

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

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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.

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