I find it always exciting to make a new product in this case – enamel pins. Even if I know how it should look like it might be surprising (and I am hoping for the good surprises). This is a collection of my pins:
Everyone’s favorite – white cat.
I am thinking of remaking this so the dogs are easier to recognize as the grey one now looks like a giant cloud.
You know, how every year one or another animal come into fashion? I mean, not a trend of one or another pet, but animal in design. I made this sketch in 2013 based on my own experience and tips from other people. Tried to do some research, but there is no any convenient information or statistics, so it is quite rough. In 80’s and early 90’s it would be dolphins and tigers, roaring lions and wolfs. Then came pandas, rabbits, foxes. From kids clothing to home wares – owls were everywhere. 2013 was all about pugs and french bulldogs. In 2014 we all were gone crazy for sloths. In 2015 every home ware shop still has a cockatoo lamp and you can get a print with this bird print in every artist market. And so on.
Animal trend comes and goes. One animal stays.
The Cat.
This is a new and more detailed take on the same topic. Feel free to comment if I missed something. For example I missed dolphins so popular in 90’s. Or elephants. Or do you have any ideas of the more recent trends? Like “Put a bird on it” 😀
And now Mr. Cat is available as an enamel pin.
When I was a child I found a tin box full of pins at home. My parents or grandparents collected them. They (pins) were magic! I still have few pins from that box. Seeing them in my accessories box I imagined making a pin of my own. And here it is. Cat, of course!
I am still working on a better packaging ant it would be great to tell the whole story about why it is called “Cat forever”, but meanwhile it comes like this.
Find the cat on my Etsy shop.
When I was little we had a set of traditional Russian nesting dolls – matryoshkas. It was something magic – a doll inside another, and then you open it and there is even smaller inside.
And now I got some blank ones. As I am working on some new ones, I post the older ones.
On the way from Australia to Lithuania we had to change the plane in Helsinki. We sat in an empty airport (early morning) and checked our emails. There was one email about Helsinki comics festival and some contest. But after a long flight I just was too tired and also excited to see my family and friends after a long time, so I didn’t care about it. And then, after a week or so I read it. What a nice contest. Just the deadline is in +-7 days! And I was leaving for a weekend in the countryside. But my friends took that idea as a fun – minimum 10 pages comic in 5 days, woohoo! It encouraged me. Also thanks to them for helping with the end of the story.
I didn’t had a proper work space, wasn’t used to small screened and not mine computer and old scanner and had quite a little time (considering that when you visit your home town you want to go out and meet people, not sit at home). I think all these details influenced the style very much.
After a while I received an email that my comic story won the second place! And I was visiting my sister in Oslo. So we went to Helsinki (these distances seem so funny short after distances in Australia), to the festival.
My elephant who’s traveling with me for more than 8 years.
With Elina, one of the winners of first place . Her blog (in Finnish): http://wunderwald.sarjakuvablogit.com/
Exchanging autographs with another winner Reetta.
Autographs and a tiny shot of a winner story. It was beautiful silent comic. Whole book was published in Finnish 🙂
I am on scene! Mama mia!
And there is a book with the cover by the third place winner. Everyone who takes this book in their hands ask me – was it suposed to be about cats? No. But you know – CATS RULE THE WORLD. We just don’t want to agree with that.
And my story. Cats cats cats.
