Portraits of Animals

This glass votive is etched, embellished and painted by hand and patterned after one of my daily cat sketches, “Peaceful Nap”. It’s made from a repurposed jalapeño jar 3” round and 4″ tall and comes with an LED tea light. Price includes shipping.

On this jar I etched the entire outside of the jar to better diffuse the light from the candle, spattered the inside of the jar for the color patterned background, then painted the cat figure on the outside.

I used alcohol ink on the inside and I’ve found it can be easily wiped but not scrubbed, and I’m not sure how it would react to an actual flame. For this reason I am selling these with an LED tea light so you won’t need to worry about scrubbing off wax or blackening from the candle.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

“Peaceful Nap”, pastel, 5″ x 7″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I had this sketch idea in mind for some time, but this drawing was encouraged by art exhibits I saw at several galleries. What I had in mind was just a faintly colored backdrop with a fair amount of neutral, and a small black cat in the lower right corner doing something catlike. In my visualization, the cat was bathing. Here, she is curled to sleep but alert. It is actually Mimi on my lap.

Some of the alcohol inks would not mute down to pastel so I couldn’t quite use all the colors and ended up with just blue and green.

You can read more about the art and my daily sketches on The Creative Cat.

ABOUT MY HANDMADE REPURPOSED CONDIMENT, PICKLE AND PRESERVE JAR VOTIVES

I see things others might recycle or throw away as creative possibilities. I save jars and use a fair number around the house for storage and for projects in my studio and recycle the rest. For years I’ve considered ways to make votives with my artwork just like the ones I’ve received as gifts and began saving the more interesting small jars I had for a someday project, including jars from relish and mustard, jelly and preserves, olives, jalapeños and other pickled items, salsa and other sauces, and more. Each one has its own unique quality and inspiration for me.

When summer came along and I set up my deck with all my varied votives I knew I’d found the project for those jars. I knew I wanted to both etch the glass and paint a design on it somehow, and found alcohol inks, which adhere to glass. On some jars I etched the entire outside of the jar to better diffuse the light from the candle, painted the inside of the jar with the color patterned background, then painted a figure or design on the outside. On others I etched the inside and painted my design on the outside, and on some I’ve done a combination of both.

OTHER VOTIVES

Find other votives featuring cats, butterflies, flowers, nature and wildlife in my Handmade Gifts Gallery or search “votives”.

Don’t miss any new items or opportunities!

“Follow” the Portraits of Animals blog with the link in the upper left. Sign up to receive posts in email, or in your favorite reader using the links in the right-hand column.

Sign up for e-newsletters

You can also sign up for my monthly e-newsletters to receive special discounts and find out where I’ll be with my artwork.

Click here for the Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter, for feline and animal-specific products and information.

Click here for the Art & Merchandise E-newsletter, for landscapes, nature, urban scenes and more.

For art, photos and writing as I develop it, visit my blogs.

See feline art and photos as they happen on The Creative Cat, along with feline news, health, welfare, rescue stories and more.

See daily photos as I post them on Today.

Read poetry, short stories, essays and more on Paths I Have Walked.

. . . . . . .

© 2018 | www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

This glass votive is etched, embellished and painted by hand and patterned after one of my daily cat sketches, “The Daily Chase”. It’s made from a repurposed stuffed olive jar 2” round and 6″ tall and comes with an LED tea light. Price includes shipping.

The Daily Chase Feline Votive

On this jar I etched the entire outside of the jar to better diffuse the light from the candle, brushed the inside of the jar for the striped background, then painted the cat figures on the outside.

I used alcohol ink on the inside and I’ve found it can be easily wiped but not scrubbed, and I’m not sure how it would react to an actual flame. For this reason I am selling these with an LED tea light so you won’t need to worry about scrubbing off wax or blackening from the candle.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

“The Daily Chase”, pastel on textured paper, 5″ x 6″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

This is Basil and Bella in their daily chase around the house when they were still kittens. Working in my studio I heard the thundering of little black paws coming up the steps, saw two blurs run across the landing into the bathroom and thump around in the tub, then run across the landing to the bedroom and bounce on the bed, Bella in the lead at one point, Basil at the next. Not sure where the colors came from but that they are happy and I like them.

You can read more about the art and my daily sketches on The Creative Cat.

ABOUT MY HANDMADE REPURPOSED CONDIMENT, PICKLE AND PRESERVE JAR VOTIVES

I see things others might recycle or throw away as creative possibilities. I save jars and use a fair number around the house for storage and for projects in my studio and recycle the rest. For years I’ve considered ways to make votives with my artwork just like the ones I’ve received as gifts and began saving the more interesting small jars I had for a someday project, including jars from relish and mustard, jelly and preserves, olives, jalapeños and other pickled items, salsa and other sauces, and more. Each one has its own unique quality and inspiration for me.

When summer came along and I set up my deck with all my varied votives I knew I’d found the project for those jars. I knew I wanted to both etch the glass and paint a design on it somehow, and found alcohol inks, which adhere to glass. On some jars I etched the entire outside of the jar to better diffuse the light from the candle, painted the inside of the jar with the color patterned background, then painted a figure or design on the outside. On others I etched the inside and painted my design on the outside, and on some I’ve done a combination of both.

OTHER VOTIVES

Find other votives featuring cats, butterflies, flowers, nature and wildlife in my Handmade Gifts Gallery or search “votives”.

Don’t miss any new items or opportunities!

“Follow” the Portraits of Animals blog with the link in the upper left. Sign up to receive posts in email, or in your favorite reader using the links in the right-hand column.

Sign up for e-newsletters

You can also sign up for my monthly e-newsletters to receive special discounts and find out where I’ll be with my artwork.

Click here for the Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter, for feline and animal-specific products and information.

Click here for the Art & Merchandise E-newsletter, for landscapes, nature, urban scenes and more.

For art, photos and writing as I develop it, visit my blogs.

See feline art and photos as they happen on The Creative Cat, along with feline news, health, welfare, rescue stories and more.

See daily photos as I post them on Today.

Read poetry, short stories, essays and more on Paths I Have Walked.

. . . . . . .

© 2018 | www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.