Marketplace: Some Signs, and Suggestions From My Supurrvisors

August 10, 2018August 10, 2018 Bernadette

Some of you may have seen these already if you signed up for my newsletter or follow me on Instagram or Facebook…

Just doodlin around in my studio with some nice weathered wood from my neighbor’s old stockade fence. I like the look of the stenciled wood signs that are popular right now and I’ve been planning on making a few. When my neighbor took out an older stockade fence I looked at that pile of weathered wood, just the perfect weight and color for little signs…I gave the wood and the paint and the designs a try and I am on my way. These are hand-painted, not stenciled.

Peace, Love & Cats

I painted signs years ago, before I bought my house, and before everyone went digital, big sheets of plywood for work sites, window banners, even a few trucks and buildings. I joke that’s how I saved the down payment for my house. And I still love to paint them. These signs are painted freehand with outlines I traced on the wood. The sign above is okay on this rough wood but the wood is too rough to freehand the kitty shapes and keep them uniform on the sign below so I’ll probably stencil those.

Potato Chips & Cats

The wood is 4″ wide so the signs aren’t terribly large. “Peace, Love & Cats” is 10.5″ wide and “Potato Chips & Cats” is 12″ wide. I have plenty of wood so I can even put two or three slats together to make larger signs.

I shared these two signs last weekend and hoped I’d have a few of them done ready to stock my website, but the thing that’s holding me back is a hanger, of all things. Because this was from a stockade fence, the wood is slightly concave on the back so I can’t use a simple picture hanger. Instead I’m browsing eye hooks and twine to string through to hooks on either end for a really rustic look. And I’ll have other designs too.

Soap dishes

A customer asked at my open house if my trinket and decorative dishes would make good soap dishes. In fact, yes, they would! Mimi is only modeling them, she is not for sale though she is in the display case.

Are you sure you want to do this?

I posted about my Kitty Love picture frames on Portraits of Animals and added that they were not only good for photos, but you could also use the heart-shaped opening to display a quote or other text. The frames aren’t sold with quotes in them, that’s only for display. Bella wants me to know that the quote in one of the frames does not have cats as the subject, and do I really want to do this? Bella is a creative thinker, but sometimes she is very literal.

Hamlet isn’t sure what to think and is suddenly shy.

More new things are in progress right now, so be sure to tune in next week for the next exciting episode!

Marketplace

They are helping me, they really are.

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.

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

Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork

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.