Cat Inspiration !

Just before Christmas last year we adopted two very special cats from our local animal rescue center the Decorah Humane Society.

Orson & Emily

These gorgeous kitties are good friends, and are already providing me with so much entertainment, love and inspiration.

This is a new artwork of little Orson doing her favourite thing: chasing anything that moves. I imagine if she could swim, this is what she’d be doing 🙂

This delightful Cat and Koi artwork is available as a $10 print in my Online Shop.

I am currently working on a magical realism-style painting about Emily, who is named after our favourite poet Emily Dickinson and writer Emily Bronte.

She is such an enigmatic and beautiful cat, and is proving to be the perfect muse. She has a fascination for water and loves staring at this fountain…

This is a playful piece using Emily and photoshopped artwork of mine – I liked the pattern motif of Arts & Crafts / poppies with her stark black and white markings.

I’ll be posting more about the new painting soon ~ thanks for stopping by!

Twin Celtic Cats a creation in many forms

Wax carving with design sketch

Silver master casting

Signature on back

 

A few months ago I posted about a wax carving for my new jewellery design. You can read the post here.

The carving was cast into silver master copies; those were used to create a vulcanised rubber spin cast mold for centrifugal casting in lead-free pewter.

I have made these pewter castings into a range of adorable cat jewelry items and accessories.

Twin Cats KeyChain

 

Two Cats Statement Ring

 

The two little twin cats are sleeping with their tails entwined in a Celtic style knot. i was remembering how my two cats used to sleep together…. This is one of the smaller jewelry designs I have attempted – I like it’s simplicity and the fact that it can be translated into quite a few different designs.

 

Twin Cat earrings

 

Cats remain for me the most delightful animals to depict artistically ~ whether in paint, sculpture, jewelry or etching. Their enigmatic beauty is so peaceful, and being able to wear these totem animals as a piece of jewelry is something quite magical !

Two Cats Necklace Cat Pendant

 

Twin Cats Bracelet

 

 

Twin Cats Pin Two Cats Brooch

 

These would make beautifully special gifts for a cat lover, and you can purchase any of these on my website shop : LizaPaizis.com

 

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave any comments below !

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Two little Cats a wax carving for jewelry casting in pewter

Those of you who are familiar with my art and jewellery design know how much I love painting and designing anything to do with cats.

I have been working on a small wax carving for a new jewelry design, which will be cast into lead-free pewter, with spin casting, after the initial master copies have been cast in silver using Lost Wax casting.

 

The wax sculpture is nearing completion – it is rather detailed, and depicts two little sleeping cats entwined with their tails in a Celtic-style knot.

It measures 1 1/2 x 3/4 inches ( 3cm x 1.5 cm ) which is quite smaller than my last Cat jewellery design. This lovely delicate design will be made into brooches, pendants, chokers, keychains and even a bracelet.

Keep an eye on this blog for the finished product – you can subscribe to the left for updates !

Thanks for visiting 🙂

Miniature original watercolor paintings

For some time now I’ve been creating these cute little original miniature watercolor paintings, previously outlined in this post.

         Burmese Cat original miniature painting

 

     Little Cardinal  miniature painting               

Using pigment colored pencils and ink pens, tube watercolor (I use Rembrandt & Van Gogh watercolors) and a combination of beautiful handmade mulberry bark paper and rough textured watercolour paper, I create them with little to no preliminary sketching – it keeps the process spontaneous!

      Fairy Queen miniature painting

Each little painting measures 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 inches, and I put them in a little matt, perfect for gift giving! I love painting cats, flowers and owls especially, but have also done dragonflies, unicorns and fairies.

                       Unicorn original miniature painting

They are exclusively for sale at Outside the Lines Gallery in Dubuque, Iowa ~ a lovely gallery filled with very unique and local art. If you would like a custom order for any of my unique and original paintings, please contact me on my website contact page or check out my originals for sale here.

Thanks for visiting!

       Sleepy Owl miniature painting

Cat Dreaming : Stunning cat beaded necklace, with birds and fish

Today is National Cat Day !!

This is my “Cat Dreaming” necklace I made inspired by my love of Cats.

I have used a selection of gorgeous Czech glass beads, as well as Turquoise gemstones, to compliment the little silver tones bird and fish charms. I wonder what this cat is dreaming about….!?

I have also created some adorable little bird earrings to match with turquoise beads. I have been making a lot of very unique jewellery pieces lately for the local galleries here in Iowa and Wisconsin, along the beautiful Mississippi Valley where I live. These items feature my unique pewter original castings, from my hand carved designs. I carve the designs from a hard jeweller’s wax – you can read more about the process on my website here.

Both are available in my Etsy shop here.

I have been carving wax designs and casting these in lead-free pewter for about 10 years now. I am largely self taught, having gone to a 4 hour workshop at a music festival in Australia to learn the basics, I really took to it with a passion and developed my style from there – and I am still learning! It is a process I love and my original pieces of jewellery are becoming increasingly popular, as they are exclusive, hand made and entirely original. They include cats, a dragonfly, moth, lizard, butterfly, tree of life, pixie, owl and mermaid jewellery designs in lead-free semi precious pewter.

Tree Brooch

Dragonfly brooch

I get a master caster to create and cast the molds in South Africa, where pewter casting and design is very popular, from items such a cutlery, to jewellery and giftware…Below are some more creations I have been working on which feature my exclusive pewter designs and carvings, all of which you can find in my shop:

Cat face pin

Owl pendant

Lizard necklace

Art Deco Moth keychain

Pixie keychain

Owl Earrings with green glass eyes

Cat Face Ring

A Silver Cat picture, and a little Dog portrait

I have completed two new works for an exhibition titled “It’s Raining Cats, Dogs and Cows”

at my wonderful local art gallery The McGregor Marquette Centre for the Arts.

“Silver Cat”

This is Pewter Repousse or embossing, a lovely form of art which I learned in my home country of South Africa. It is a very popular craft there, and I immediately took to it, as I love working with pewter in any form. I have made many jewellery pieces  cast in pewter from my original wax carvings, it is considered a semi-precious metal, and it very mouldable, shiny and has a gorgeous feel to it.

This piece measures about 9 x 7 inches, and it’s basically a form of relief modelling with this soft metal, pushing out from the back as well as the front to give shape and detail.

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“Simon”

This is the completed Dachshund watercolor and ink painting shown in my earlier post. It is available for sale as an archival giclee print here.

I loved to use gentle line work in the sky reminiscent of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” , with naive art style motifs to match the gorgeous frame I found especially for it. Both of these original framed pieces are for sale – please contact me if you are interested!

Dachshund Painting, and other Animal Portraits

“Simon”

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I love to do portrait commissions.

I am currently working on this little painting of a Dachshund, done in a whimsical Folk art style, for an upcoming exhibition at my local art gallery. It is based on a wonderful dog my family owned called Simon, who loved to run outside and chase all sorts of creatures in his path. He was a very special pet, and this is my tribute to him.

I have done a few animal portraits in the past, and am always inspired to capture its spirit in a style that reflects its uniqueness. Here are some of them – and I do have a penchant for owls and cats! I do custom commissions for any kind of portrait, painting, tattoo design etc – please contact me if you are interested.

 

Watercolor portrait painting completed…

My portrait of Maggie is finished !  As described in my previous two posts, after sketching the initial outlines in pencil, I free-formed the rest of the composition, continuing to layer the watercolours, working around the dired pressed flowers,  adding more detail to the peony fairy and the hair, more flowers, and brushstrokes reminiscent of those of Vincent Van Gogh, whose artwork Maggie loves.

Below is a detailed excerpt of the painting – please click on it for a larger view – it is a blend of watercolor, dried flowers and s mall touch of Caran d’Ache colored pigment pencil for highlights. The paper is Stonehenge smooth textured paper. I mostly use Rembrandt or Van Gogh watercolors, with touches of Chinese white for highlights. I am looking forward to my next painting – please keep an eye on my blog for my next project. You can purchase a beautiful print of this painting from my shop here.

Thanks for visiting!

Gorgeous new fantasy Art Nouveau jewelry designs!

I have been hard at work creating some unique jewelry items, most from my own carvings which have then been cast in beautiful semi-precious lead free pewter using centrifugal casting. I have made brooches, pendants, choker necklaces, keyrings and earrings featuring an owl, fairies, a mermaid, flower girl, lizard, cats and even a little pixie.

A very talented metal caster here in Johannesburg casts these pieces for me, some of which were carved in wax, or in silver clay, and even in Pratley Putty! Centrifugal or spin casting uses centrifugal force to produce metal castings from a rubber mold and is able to capture a great deal of detail, which is very suited to my work.
Below are some examples of my new creations; some are also replicas of original Art Nouveau jewelry designs. All of these, and many more, are available in my shop here.

Cat Folk Art Painting Art Nouveau style with poppies, butterflies and ladybugs

This is my completed Art Nouveau style Cat painting. It is watercolor with gold and colored pigment ink and is inspired by folk art as well as the illustrations of the Art Nouveau period which had a wonderful flowing style and often incorporated natural elements within the diverse themes depicted.

It is for sale as a beautiful print in my online shop here and the original painting is for sale here – I have not come up with a name for it, so any suggestions are welcome!