Saturday, December 28, 2019

Holiday Creations Art Elements Blog Hop

About the time I learned the theme for this month's Art Elements blog hop: Holiday Creations, I was planning to make a set of kitty cat themed ornaments for a tree for our aging cat.  We have a new glassed in front porch and thought it would be a perfect way to decorate it for the Holidays.  And for ceramic ornaments, it would be safe from the elements.

For the last few years we have been having an outdoor tree instead on one inside.  We have it out on the deck and decorate it with brightly colored netted bird treats.  It is so fun watching the birds flutter around the tree and peck at these "home baked" goodies of birdseed and peanut butter.  So this year we have 2 Christmas trees.
For our kitty cat tree, I used cat shaped cutters to cut out the decorations.


They seemed quite large at first but my clay shrinks about 11 % so they looked much better once they were bisque fired.
I used two methods to bring my cat decorations to life.  For some I silk screened on cat drawings (Mayco silkscreens) bisqued them and then added color



 and for others I did some drawing into the clay.  They dried really quickly so by the time I got to them to scratch  in some lines, the incisions were not very deep.  To improve them I used a black underglaze and then wiped it off, bisque fired them



and then hand painted on glazes and fired those to cone 5 ( above 2100 degrees F)


Finally I decorated the tree.  





 My kitty cat Christmas Tree



Our cat who inspired me


Thank you for joining me on this Art Elements blog hop today.  I had such fun making these ornaments and decorating the tree.  We enjoy it each time we step onto our porch.
The list of blog hop participants is below.  I hope you will visit all of them and enjoy their Holiday Creations.

AE team: 

15 comments:

  1. I am a cat person so of course I adore your cat ornaments. Have a happy 2020.

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  2. Such a cute idea! And, I love the idea of making the one for the birds too. What a great way to share with our feathered friends this time of the year. Have a wonderful new year!

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  3. Mary, as a confirmed CAT LADY, of course I love your idea of a cat-themed tree! And also putting one outside for the birds and nature! I will do that next year for sure. Thanks for the inspiration. Happy New Year. Alysen

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  4. I love the idea of having an outdoor tree for the birds. But I really love the cat tree! What a great idea for us cat ladies.

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  5. Ohh...I love the idea of an outdoor tree. I am going to have to suggest that to mom because we can't have an indoor tree because of the cats (one year my one cat ate one of mom's German wooden Christmas ornament - mom was not happy).
    Your ornaments are amazing - I love the hand drawn ornaments, but all of the ornaments are gorgeous!

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  6. My studio buddies and I wholeheartedly approve of your ornament theme. Making edible ornaments for birds is one of those things I'd love to do if I had a yard. Maybe I can "ornament bomb" the trees in my neighborhood instead. LOL

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  7. I love cats and I love your kitty cat Christmas Tree. So cute ornaments! <3

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  8. A kitty cat Christmas tree - Ponder and Gundel wholeheartedly approve, and so do I! :-D

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  9. A porch tree for your feline companion! Genius. The decals are impressive! But I love the exuberance of your drawn cat face best. I clearly agree that cookie cutters are the way to go. ;-)

    Thanks for joining us! And a Happy New Year!

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  10. The cat ornaments are SO sweet. I love them! Happy 2020!

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  11. Mary I love your kitty cat tree! Especially the one way up top! And sweet little kitty you have!

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  13. Such sweet ornaments, my mom would love this tree! She loves cats for sure. Thanks for the neat idea.

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  14. Hi Dear, are you actually visiting this website daily, if so then you will without doubt get nice know-how.

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