The Process

• 3 Comments

•

The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.A Lesson in "Things Are Not As They Seem"

Kreatrix likes horses, so I asked her if I could have one.

Voila!

The Chairman, whimsical cat doll, sits on a large plastic toy horse in a sunny back yard.

There's one problem. I can't make it move. Where's the button? I mean, I look cool and all but shouldn't this thing move forward?

So Kreatrix is taking this photo and, not wanting to give away my complete ignorance when it comes to horses, I quietly remarked

He's a bit lazy...doesn't seem up to going for a ride today.

Kreatrix gets this sweet look on her face like she feels just a little sorry for me. She says

Aww. Here, let me help.

She comes up behind me, wraps her hands under the horses belly, makes him levitate inches above the ground, and says in my ear

cloppity clop, clop, cloppity clop, clop...

She sets me down six feet further and takes this picture.

The Chairman on his toy horse not looking happy at all.

I exclaimed loudly

I wasn't born yesterday, ya know!!

Her sweet reply?

I know exactly when you were born. I made you.

But wait, there's more! She told me several weeks ago she was taking classes with someone named Shibori and is learning to Pole Dance and is going to die!

Well, well, well...I Googled Pole Dance and I was furious with her when she returned home. Not nice, Kreatrix. Very uncool.

Wait for it.

She gets that same darn sweet "so-sorry-for-you" expression and shows me this photograph.

Silk velvet fabric wrapped and scrunched on a large pole in preparation for Shibori method of dying fabric.

I did NOT calm down because I thought she was showing me what she wore while - you know - doing her dancey routine.

I. Am. So. Lame.

This is fabric she is learning to dye (not die) in a technique called Shibori that involves pole wrapping NOT pole dancing.

Here is what her "costume" looked like once she dyed it.

Shibori pole dyed silk velvet looks very much like an orange tabby cat.

The good news is, she's making my community out of this fabric!!! WOOT! Stay tuned for photos! That's silk velvet up there, folks. Very soft and cuddly.

Here's another style made by folding fabric and dying it.

Folded and clamped fabric ready to be put in a dye bath.

AND this, too!

More folded fabric ready to be dyed.

While nursing my wounded ego in the back yard with my lazy horse, I found this dude.

Whatcha think?

The Chairman is sitting on a large and colorful metal rooster.

The very nice lady who teaches Kreatrix how to do pole wrapping and dying (not die and not pole dance) can be found here and here. I am told she is a very wise and talented woman who has lived all over the world and imparts wisdom to students of all ages!

• 5 Comments

•

The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

Oh Look! It's a...It's a...

Colorful, explosive thingy.

Very colorful small rug made out of long chunks of yard. A very wild shag rug.

Kreatrix blew in the door over the weekend all excited over treasures she found for me from what appears to be her home planet. This time she said her planet is named planet Estate Sale.

A closeup of the colorful shag rug making it look like terrain on an alien planet.

Seriously. Does this not look like otherworldly terrain? Kreatrix was hyperventilating while taking photos saying things like

"...fall into a giant vat of colors...what a way to go...look at the explosion of the color wheel..."

Ewwwkay.

As if one wasn't enough, there are two.

Another extravagant small shag rug.

Up close of second shag rug making it look like alien terrain.

Bandit liked this one and hauled it off to his room.

Bandit, an adorable black and white soft sculptured cat doll sits on one of the shag rugs looking quite pleased with himself.

She swore you all would enjoy these photos so don't blame me.

HOWEVER. It is my job to figure out what to do with them.

Kreatrix suggested

"You all are a little uptight. You might want to try meditating on them."

Fine.

Two of the soft sculpture cat dolls are sitting on a rug trying to meditate. Their mouths have been altered in photoshop to show extreme concentration.

Bandit kept saying

"om, ooooommmm, auuummmm"

Which really annoyed me and got in the way of quieting my monkey mind.

Kreatrix looked at us and said

"Soft eyes, gentlemen! Don't stare so hard."

After 60 very long seconds of hearing Bandit's hum song and my eyes burning like heck I gave up.

And then the final straw snapped my little back when the Kreatrix handed me this.

The Chairman is pictured with a very colorful gourd covered in yarn. He is not smiling.

Are those reindeer? And if so, what the heck is the dude on the left doing to the one on the right?

Well, the reindeer do look like their sniffing each others rear ends kind of like dogs do in greeting each other.

The thing on top is kinda nice.

A colorful pom-pom sits on top of the gourd.

Okay. So I rather like this. I think I'll keep it. Kreatrix really loves it.

The colorful covered gourd sits on the shag rug. An explosion of color that is really quite lovely.

There is a certain familiarity to the crazy rug-type yarn things. They remind me of Kreatrix' hair and how it is never calm and sometimes she has to feed my curse jar when she looks in the mirror.

Kreatrix with very wild, out of control red hair. Can't really see her face. Too much hair!See what I mean?

• 7 Comments

•

Ginger has her own letterhead now! She is an adorable soft sculptured cat doll. Her letterhead features beautiful handwriting and a beauty shot of Ginger.

Updates From The Studio

Hello Sweet Peas! Ginger here, feline reporter extraordinaire! Lots to tell you so let's jump right in!

Remember this guy who appeared in our back seat and we decided to keep him but didn't tell the Kreatrix?

Ginger and The Chairman are driving in their World Dominationmobile. A large, but adorable Yoda head from Star Wars is peeking over the backseat.

Well...the Chairman had us practice posing like dolls with the funny looking dude quietly in the background. This way the Kreatrix won't notice anything unusual.

Check out my "dead-eye" doll stare we were all instructed to use by the Chairman. (EVE, YOU CHEATED! You look too alive!)

The dolls sit with eyes staring at the ceiling and Yoda sits calmly in the background. Eve is looking sweetly at the camera.

So far so good. Kreatrix hasn't said anything about the green guy (who is actually quite lovely and verrrry intelligent...talks weird, though).

More community members are coming!!! Lookey here! Body parts:

A close-up shot of various arms and legs for the dolls.

A photo of the Catberry Tails label sewn onto fabric and a button flower above it.

Eve helped pick out a fresh batch of eye balls. Ew!

Eve is adorably posed with her paws sifting through a large collection of green buttons used for the eyes.

Okay. Get ready. I have some really big news.

EVE 2.0 IS ATTENDING A HUGE COCKTAIL PARTY THIS WEEKEND!

Remember the big bash at the fancy estate coming up this weekend? The Stray Cat Alliance is having their yearly fundraising benefit for cats (yup, the same one Sherlock is helping raise money for) and Eve will be attending with the Kreatrix and the Prof!!!!

The humans have to wear cocktail attire. So -

Jewelry, people! Eve gets to wear a necklace for her cocktail attire!

Lovely costume jewelry spread out dramatically on a black velvet background.

Kreatrix presented some choices for us to see. Us girls helped Eve pick one out.

Three adorable soft sculpture cat dolls are huddled around the jewelry. Ginger is holding one across her paw.

Hopefully, yours truly will get to wear a necklace like one of these someday. Sigh.

Kreatrix has been so busy, Wally has taken to flopping on his back in a desperate bid for her attention.

Wally, the real life cat, is flopped on his back, belly up, in an adorable pose.

I'd feel sorry for him but she smothers him with so much love it's ridiculous. Usually when he does this she screams:

Kitty Belleh!

And drops to the ground to kiss his stomach. Hmmmm.

Stay tuned for more news from the World Domination Squad!

Toodles!

 

 

• 4 Comments

•

The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

So Don't Laugh

Meet one of our new members!

The Chairman poses with a tuxedo style cat doll.

Handsome chap, isn't he!

A closeup of the Chairman and the newest member.

Kreatrix made him out of a man's suit jacket. NOT THE PROF's. Whew! That would have provided major entertainment for us cats.

The Chairman showing us the new cat's spots on his back.

Cool spots!

Detail shot of the spots made out of men's suits.

Kreatrix made the spots so they look furry!

CAUTION: If you're squeamish, look the other way.

Here's his booty. Nifty, huh?

We see the bottom of the new cats booty and he has a flower button where his butt-hole would be.

I want a booty flower under my tail. I figure if Dude is gonna call me one of those I might as well own one.

Now don't laugh...until this handsome chap gets adopted and somebody gives him his forever name, he's decided his name is

Envoy

Yep. Kreatrix told him that he is part of a very special envoy for my community seeing as he's flying cross country for the fancy Zoo auction.

Here is Envoy in training for real-life cat interactions.

Envoy poses with real life cat Rudy.

Clearly Rudy is used to all of us.

And here is Envoy's first selfie -

Envoy takes a selfie.

Here I am chilling with Wally (and no I didn't kill him. He's sleeping).

Real life cat Wally is sleeping on his back while the Chairman lays on his back next to him.

Eve 2.0 and Ginger will introduce you to another member later this week!

• 3 Comments

•

A dear chaiman note saying this post will provide evidence as to why I couldn't help him with his community building. The dreaded clients are to blame.

Beautiful bird artwork for fancy bar soap packaging.

These attached exhibits are for, well, one of those who shall not be named. They look odd here because they are on their dielines (these are the guides that allow the printer to cut and mount the artwork on a bar soap box).

Very colorful damask designs for bar soap packaging.

Abstract and fun, colorful flora patterns for bar soap boxes.

And here is how the above designs had to be translated to liquid soap labels for a pretty glass bottle.

The pretty bird, floral and damask patterns as applied to a liquid soap glass jar.

BUT WAIT! There's more!

SOHO DOG shampoo labels made for the holiday 2014 market.

That's right...I'm sorry Chairman but the dogs have kept me busy AGAIN.

SOHO Dog Subway Tough hang tag for a dog toy to be displayed on a peg.

And this isn't even everything! There's the matter of the Walgreen's dieline I'm not even going to get into but is filled to the brim with high intrigue involving a cast of tens spanning from China to California to Illinois.

The closing statement saying further evidence will be presented in several days along with a better photo of Eve 2.0's booty.

• 3 Comments

•

A bright and vibrant digital painting of Wally, the real life cat.

Very much on the "to create" list here at Catberry Tails are fun and colorful ultra modern digital portraits of cats. This one is of Wally. The background is leftover from a digital textile collection of mine.

And the Chairman is NOT happy because of my massive deadlines that keep me from his community development.

The Chairman sits with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

The view of my computer screen as I juggle clients:

Photo of my iMac showing many colorful projects going on at once.

The Chairman is also not happy because we are expecting rain all weekend. He wanted to get his World Dominationmobile painted.

Perhaps I'll let him post his photos from the workshop he took on the art of using Bondo to repair his really beat up car. Poor little guy.

Stay tuned!

• 3 Comments

•

A great deal of experimentation goes into finding your path as an artist. Because I do have the good fortune of making money commercially as a designer, I always have a lot of scraps of various projects laying around. When I have the time, I make little mini pieces of art.

Catberry_Collage2

...not much thought goes into these...just slap it down and move on!! And yes, those are rolodex cards. Many artists gravitate towards the metal vintage rolodex to display their small pieces of art. These are small steps that I can take in a busy schedule.

Catberry_Collage_Group1

A favorite phrase of mine has been

"How hard can it be?"

Well. Sometimes pretty hard. This new direction for Catberry Tails has been a huge undertaking and it's important to remember that small steps add up. They can add up to BIG changes. Or as the Chairman says:

"You created me. And. I. Am. Awesome."

I pulled this artwork out to review because many of these experiments led to painting large on fabric and creating the Chairman and his community. Which is a big change for me!

A bright modern art painting with a flower loosley stitched on it. A quote is on it that reads "Nothing is wasted...it all adds up."

Repeat after me:

Small Steps Big Changes