Three Cats for your Wednesday Pleasure....

Hey Beautiful People!

Bunny with a Toolbelt Headquarters has cats swarming the place so I'm here today to present our three newest Catabet characters! We'll start with Coco, who you met in the Kickstarter video:

 This was a rhyme that came pretty easily for me. The only thing I really changed from the drawing was having Coco hold a baguette rather than a French flag.  Coco, as you may have guessed, was named for one of the most famous fashion designers in the world, Coco Chanel.

 I guess I forgot to take some in-progress shots of Coco since I was pushing to get the Kickstarter video done, but here he is again in his completed state:

 Now for our S character.....

 S is for Stella,
who loved a yarn ball,
So she learned how to knit
and made her own shawl!

Stella is a Siamese breed, so I'll work that into the final text that follows this rhyme.

In my studio, I have a big trunk that has tons of wood parts that I acquired through years of perusing thrift stores and gifts from woodturning friends. 

Stella was made from a giant wood ball I've had in this trunk for years--so many, in fact, that I don't even recall the origin any longer. There was still a thick piece of rope inside from being threaded onto something, which was very easy to remove. I love how you can still see the evidence of the lathe on it--those grooves near the rope fluff are the indents from where it was clamped into the lathe, and the coarse cut marks on the sides. Turning a perfect ball on a lathe means you need to turn it a few times while you shape that form.

 This ball is perfect because it already had a flattened top and bottom, where my head and feet would go! I used another found object for the head--an old wood drawer pull.

 Stella is named for Stella McCartney, the fashion designer daughter of Sir Paul of Beatles Fame and lovely Linda who was a great photographer. 

 This was a fun piece to paint--figuring out how to do the knit pattern was a good challenge and I am happy with the results: 

 Here's a detail shot to show the knit and fringe details on this piece:

 Onward to our F! 

 Another challenging rhyme to work out, but I did it! 

F is for Fabrice
whose footie pajamas
were officially blessed
by Tibet's Dalai Lama.

F! A Foldex who Fashionably Catnaps!

Here's an image of what a Foldex Cat can look like. (They come in a lot of colors.) 

 Fabrice was named for Fabrice Simon, a designer from the 1980's who died from AIDS. 

I decided to make this kitty lying down, because he's a contender for the front cover where I need a more horizontal piece to fit in with the cover text. Here's how I pieced together the elements to make Fabrice: 

 And here he is, footie pajamas and all!

 Okay....I'm off to the studio and will return in a few days with three more of our cats. I may have mentioned before that I'm aiming to have ten of them done by our halfway point on the Kickstarter campaign, which will be next Monday!  As of this writing, I'm only $1665 away from being funded, so feel free to forward this to any of your Frenchie, Knitter, Buddhist, Nap, Fashion, Kitty-loving friends if you think they'd love Catabet too!

Thank you so much to everyone who has pledged so far. If you haven't become a part of the fun yet, here's the magic link! 

take care,
Hilary