As some of you may already know, I operated a ceramic arts studio for 15-16 years before turning to watercolor painting.
My mainstay during those many years was designing porcelain jewelry. I hand-crafted each piece from a rolled-out slab of porcelain clay, sometimes creating my own press-molds from plaster so that I could make multiple "blanks" of any particular design.
Once the porcelain pieces were dry, I hand-painted each one with various colorful underglazes, sealed them with a clear glaze, then trimmed each with 22K gold overglaze using a special fine line tool. This process required 3 separate firings in my electric kiln.
Toward the end of my ceramic arts career I created a line of cat lady brooches like those pictured here and sold them in galleries, boutiques and at art festivals. When I drew up these designs for the first time, I had no idea that I'd still be making "Cat Lady" art eight years later, selling it on the internet, and sending it off to exotic and faraway places around the world! Back then I didn't even know what a blog was and Etsy.com was but a gleam in Rob Kalin's eye. I've learned that it's a good thing for an old dog to learn some new tricks!!!
And guess what?
While packing for our recent move, I discovered close to 40 of these pins that have been stashed away since my last move six years ago. I've decided to offer them for sale in my Etsy shop.
Each is one-of-a kind and once they're gone, they're gone!
I am offering them for $22.00 each. They are artist-signed on the back, with a high quality safety-clasp pinback. The brooches measures approx. 2" x 1-1/2". Click on any image for more information, or click here to see the whole collection: Cat Lady Brooches.
