Orange Tabby Ginger Marmalade Tangerine Cat with Blue Morning Glory Collar Necklace

I just finished a new necklace featuring a light tangerine orange cat in a garden of blue Morning Glory flowers, leaves, buds and vines with ladybugs dancing on the leaves. As I was writing the listing and trying to figure out what color/breed to call the cat I started reading up on orange cats and the various names given to them. Who knew there were so many kinds and so many names for these gorgeous cats?

From what I've been able to figure out, it seems that the Orange Tabby cat can be any breed and has a coat that is considered reddish, yellowish or orangish. It's the tabby coat PATTERN of darker spots, blotches or stripes again light yellowish or orangish coat that causes them to be called Orange Tabby cats. They are most likely to be male, as there is average ratio of 80 males to 20 females. They are also known as Ginger cats or Marmalade cats, like the cat made famous in the Broadway show,  "Cats". Then there are also the sub-headings for the various specific patterns........but let's not go into that!

So, my cat isn't an Orange Tabby, Marmalade, OR a Ginger cat after all. Guess I'll just have to call her a rare Tangerine cat!

Edited: Sorry, she's currently sold out, but has lots of other friends available at MelodyODesigns at Etsy

Orange Cat Polymer Clay Pin Pendant Necklaces

 Orange Cat convertible pin pendant is my new ArtFire avatar.

 Introducing our colorful, cheerful, charming, polymer clay Mr. Orange  Cat who is proud to have been chosen as the avatar for our new ArtFire studio shop.  He and the other bright and cheerful cats in our Cat Collection  were created to celebrate the joys of being owned by a cat. Except for the realistic whiskers, all the components of the pieces were made using PREMO polymer clay. Cane slices were applied to the raw PC body before it was cured using Liquid PC. The whisker are from a "faux natural bristle" hair brush and were made by curing the face  with small wires in place (the relative diameter of the hair brush bristle). After curing, the wires were  removed and the bristle was glued in the tiny hole with a tiny dap of "Zap-A-Gap" cyanoacrylic glue. The cats eyes are made from a "brain cane" reduced to a very small size. They are made entirely from artist-quality polymer clay and have a clever finding on their backs that allows them to be converted from a pendant to a brooch by simply removing the silky rayon cord. Mr. Orange Cat will be hanging out  at ArtFire along with a bevy of other colorful feline sidekicks waiting to be adopted and is for Cat Collection. (EDITED: Mr Orange Cat and some of his friends now hang out at MelodyODesigns at Etsy)

Convertible pin to pendant shown from the back.

Monarch Butterfly with Blue Morning Glory Necklace from Polymer Clay

Monarch Butterfly and Blue Morning Glory Necklace is currently for sale at MelodyODesigns at Etsy 
(*October 27, 2015, SOLD OUT, Because of interest from customers I'm in the process of making a few new copies of this necklace to sell at my Etsy shop with the intention of having them finished and listed by the end of November, 2015. If you'd like to be notified when they are ready please send me an email. Contact info link located on main page "view my complete profile".)

I love Monarch butterflies and the blue Morning Glory is my very favorite flower in the morning garden. I wanted to make a necklace that would combine them both and capture the joy of my garden so that I could remember the beauty of my garden in the depths of Pennsylvania winters. The dancing ladybugs were added as a whimsical afterthought and have become my shop logo. The Morning Glories, Monarch butterflies, stems, buds, curliqued vining and ladybugs are all made from artist quality polymer clay.

The Monarch butterfly was made from thin slices of a polymer clay cane I constructed. Once cured, the butterfly wing slices were added to a body and applied to a thin aluminum backing allowing for the wings to be repositionable and making the butterfly seemed poised and ready for flight. Caning is a labor intensive construction technique borrowed from glassmaking similar to making jelly rolls, where colored rods of clay are laid horizontally forming a complex pattern from which a thin slice is cut allowing the pattern to be seen. 

           The raw un-reduced Monarch butterfly Cane

The flowers were tinted before curing with Sennelier artist's pastels made into powder by grating and pounding and were applied with a paintbrush. The veining on the leaves was made from molds I made from real leaves. The ladybugs were made with polymer clay, liquid polymer clay, and acrylic paint. The individual components are attached to a collar made from sewn macramé cording.

Please click to see a blog post of the Monarch Butterflies on an Autumn Leaf themed Necklace.                                            

Sunflower Pendant Necklace from Polymer Clay

The optimistic sunflower is one of my favorite flowers. This necklace was originally made as a gift for a friend who lost almost all her possessions when her house burned to the ground.  I wanted to make her something hopeful. It is handmade, entirely from PREMO polymer clay. 

 The pendant was constructed on a "sandwich" base made of two identical flat circular 1 1/4" diameter pieces of pieces of clay (a thickness of 5/64" or Atlas PM#4) containing portions of the broad ends of the three heart-shaped leafs to hold them in place.  A channel was formed formed horizontally between the two pieces near the top of the pendant to act as a channel for the stringing wire by curing the pendant base with a straight piece of 20 gauge wire that was coated with ArmorAll and to be removed after curing. The two pieces of the base "sandwich" were then "glued" together with liquid polyclay.

A petal shaped plug of golden yellow clay was hand-formed and then thin slices were cut off to create the petals. Once the raw petals were thinned at the tips, the characteristic sunflower veining was added by drawing them on with the tip of a piercing pin and the tips were pinched together they were added to the cured base.

Dozens of "Bulls-eye"canes were made of of browns and golden yellow and then reduced to tiny diameters. Once reduced, they were combined together making a round tubular cane to mimic the brown center of the sunflower which eventually becomes  the delicious sunflowers we love to eat. A thin slice of this “seed cane” was added to the center of the flower and the pendant was cured. The ladybugs were studio made with polymer clay and acrylic paint, dabbing on the tiny dots with a "used up" Micron .3 pen tip (and a 3X magnifier!)

 The handmade cobalt colored beads range in size from 4mm to 15mm. Some of them were appliqued with thin slices of a sunflower cane based on a design by Sue Heaser. The canes were meticulously smoothed onto the beads using a 1/4 inch acrylic rod. After curing, the beads were sanded through four grits of sandpaper, then two-part buffed and four coats of heat-set varnish were applied, all making for a shiny glass-like finish that mimics Italian Millefiori glass beads.

Copies of the newly re-designed necklace and matching earrings are available at my on-line shop, MelodyODesigns at ArtFire 

You might also enjoy viewing my Sunflower Collar Necklace.