Marketplace: Tortie Girls Trays and More

I always feature my tortie girls prints in summer because their bright colors are summery! Then, just as quickly, they are autumnal! I didn’t have any tortie girls trays on hand so I made a couple of sets, then I’ve draw together all the tortie girls things I have in stock right now, which includes some framed prints, a tablecloth, and several t-shirts from a quantity I printed probably a decade ago. I also have some products in this post that I made in the past but did not make now and I’d love to know if you are interested in them.

Product and presentation videos!

I’ve been settling down to determining the best way to make videos presenting my art and gift items as you saw with the refrigerator magnets, and last weekend I gave that a try with my tortie girls things. I have a long way to go with making videos! The sound isn’t good because I was outdoors where the light was good but it was noisier than I realized, but you can turn on captions to watch it. I did manage to edit it down to about 10 minutes long, still too long.

But other than that I love to talk about my art and the things I make and I really enjoyed the experience. Practice makes purrfect, no matter what it is you’re doing! The video gives more information than I have in this article because I explain block printing and talk about Cookie and Kelly, things that you may have already read here, but someone who finds me on YouTube may not have.

So here is the video if you want to watch, and below it is all the information.

About the trays

The tortie girls designs are hand-tinted linoleum block prints designed after my two torties, Cookie and Kelly. Each is printed by me on paper or fabric to make each of the items. Often block prints are monochromatic, especially black on white, but my idea for these two designs was to hand-tint the tortie colors into the design. When they are on paper I use watercolors, and when they are on fabric I use concentrated fabric dyes as if they are watercolors and set them as I do any dye. All colors are permanent, and the washable fabric items can be washed quite a few times before they fade.

I usually print about a half-dozen of each block print in acrylic ink on rice paper, allow them to dry, and store them in an acid-free sketchbook. I hand color each one individually as I use them. I sign each print when the embellishment is complete and store them in an acid-free sketchbook for framing or whatever else I may use them. There’s more on the whole process and about each of the print designs below.

These are lightweight 11″ x 15″ pine wood trays, but each group I make might vary in size depending on what’s available. I give each tray a light sanding and paint each tray with acrylic paint, the inside bottom of the tray pure white, the sides pure black. Of course, I am carefully observed in this operation by my feline studio supervisors. Sometimes kitties add their marks to this process, as you see below.

I hand-tint and sign each block print of my tortie girls, “The Goddess” and “The Roundest Eyes,” and let dry. When both the tray and the print are dry I adhere the prints in the bottom, then give the inside and sides of the tray a coat of matte-finish clear varnish.

As for kitties helping me…First, Mariposa decides she wants to be a part of this, it always looks fun. You can see she looks just a little disappointed…and even after she leaves, Mimi continues to nap in my work space, so I need to work around her to paint the trays.

Then when Mimi wakes up she decides that moving to the freshly painted tray, which just looks like any other box to her, would be a great idea.

 

What do you use these trays for?

The trays are good for decoration on a tabletop or wall. You could use them as a serving tray to actually carry lightweight items but are not suitable as a hotpad or to carry heavy dishes or other items. If kept in direct sunlight the watercolors will fade in time but the inks and paints will not. They can be easily wiped down with mild detergent or diluted all-surface cleaner but not immersed in water.

The trays may vary slightly in size and shape. The artwork is about 8″ x 11″ so I’ll use a tray in size from 9″ x 12″ to 11″ x 15″ like these. You may see some paper wrinkling in the prints in the trays; the rice paper tends to pucker up when the ink dries with printing, then again when I watercolor them. I had originally wanted the prints to look as if they were printed on the trays themselves though that is impossible with the block printing technique, but I think the paper wrinkles adds an interesting element of texture to the trays.

All Tortie Girls Items

Below is a gallery of other items bearing the Tortie Girls’ images. The top four items are available on the Tortie Girls Linoleum Block Prints page on Portraits of Animals. The other six items are ones I’ve made in the past but materials for them increased to where I would have to charge $25 or more for each one or they were only moderately popular.

Available tortie girls items

Other tortie girls items made previously

From left to right: The prints in 11″ x 14″ frames would be $35.00 each (shipping included) to cover the cost of the frame and shipping increases. The wood blocks I always used for the wood mounted prints have doubled in price—the 9″ x 12″ blocks alone are $15.00 to $18.00 and that’s if I can buy them locally with no extra shipping cost, so each one really should be $35.00 each (shipping included) to cover cost of materials and shipping increases. In the past I purchased blank canvas placemats and printed on them, but this is one product I can revise to reduce costs, a little smaller, cutting my own fabric and blocking the edges to fringe on their own. I’m still up in the air about tote bags because purchasing them can be expensive and inconsistent, but making them myself is pretty time-consuming one bag at a time. People already seem to have enough tote bag options so for my other tote bags—Bella!, the all over kitty patterns, etc—I’m actually considering making different styles of bags that are more like purses than totes. (Note: I might find materials for less on Amazon but I don’t shop on Amazon for art materials. I have been disappointed to enraged with what I received nearly every time so I gave up. I purchase from art materials suppliers including local stores so that I can keep knowledgeable people, mostly creative people and art teachers, who love what they do employed.)

Purchase available tortie girls items

Find all the items available on the Tortie Girls Linoleum Block Prints page on Portraits of Animals.

About block printing and the Tortie Girls prints

I am unendingly inspired by my houseful of felines, especially those two tortoiseshell calicos, Cookie and Kelly. The framable prints, T-shirts and textiles are printed by hand by the artist from hand-cut linoleum block, then each individually is hand-tinted in bright tortie colors.

“The Goddess”

Well, everyone knows a fat cat who knows she’s beautiful, and Cookie would tell you that a woman with a round shape was once most desirable and an object of worship. That’s why I call her “The Goddess”.

“The Roundest Eyes”
Sometimes when I look at Kelly the only feature I can distinguish in all those tortie markings is her extremely round eyes.

Not everyone has the room for, or the use for, art on their wall, and I designed these block printed works to be versatile. I do offer them as prints on paper, but I’ve also printed them on sweatshirts, curtains, placemats, tote bags and so on—whatever will hold still long enough for the ink to dry. The black portion is printed in ink, then I go back into the prints and hand tint the shirts by painting ink into the design so that the color stays more durable through washing.

I sign and number each shirt, just as I would a print on paper.

Block printing is a technique wherein the artist carves the surface of a piece of linoleum, leaving raised areas which will become the image. Ink is rolled onto these raised areas, then a piece of paper is pressed against the block and when it’s lifted away the ink remains, leaving the image on the paper.

Because of the nature of the medium, each print is unique and ink coverage varies by the surface. Most artists consider this random activity to be part of the process of creating an individualized print, and along with the hand-painting makes a unique work of art.

Purchase available tortie girls items

Find all the items available on the Tortie Girls Linoleum Block Prints page on Portraits of Animals.

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Marketplace

Hand-coloring prints with lots of feline supervision from Mr. Sunshine and Mewsette.

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!

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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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Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

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