3/17/2026

The magic cat potion

Have you ever been offered a magic potion by a black cat on a Friday the 13th? No? Me neither.
I have no doubt, however, that this would be the perfect bottle for one if my little witch should ever need it.


In fact, this is one of two little gin bottles I got from a pal a few years ago.
Of course I couldn't throw them away when they were empty because I knew I'd want to bead around them eventually.
This time I felt I needed to pay homage to cats and I did so with silhouettes of some typical cat positions.


As you may remember, I hardly ever use someone else's pattern. I'm not a peyote expert, so I always struggle a little with patterns there, but the sitting ones came to me quite quickly, especially because the sitting up position is one I have also used with other techniques, like bead looming and bead embroidery.


The ones in motion were a bit more difficult. I knew I wanted four positions and two rows (the second row are mirrored images of the first one) and being restricted to a small bottle and about 2 inch of height of beading space didn't make it easier. In the end it worked out quite nicely, though, I think.


Another small problem was that this particular bottle isn't as straight as the ones I have used before. It gets narrower at the bottom which is fine, but it also gets a little wider at the top of the neck, so the rows are not as straight as I would have liked them.
I also struggled with the decreasing towards the neck this time because the size didn't give me a number of columns that I could divide easily. So to hide a few spots that didn't come out perfect, I added size 15 silver beads and then thought that would be a nice extra for the whole bottle to give it a bit of sparkle.

I'm really happy how it turned out - especially after it took me quite long, again, I'm not a peyote expert, also not at reading my own patterns - and if Gundel comes up with a potion, I'll be ready!

P.S. If you want to see all of my beaded bottles, you can find them here.

16 comments:

  1. It looks beautiful! I can imagine you're very happy with the result Cat. Now all you need is a potion!

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    1. Thank you! We'll have to order a cauldron for Gundel 😊

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  2. They’re really great! I think the sense of movement is very well achieved, so I guess you must draw well too. I’ve tried a few times myself and still end up putting the joints the wrong way around.
    That said, the rest of the little bottles are fantastic. The poison one really looks like Ponder has been caught in the act. The T-Rex and the Jaws ones, hahaha. And the rest, honestly. I also really like the festive ones. I like all of them.
    And since they’re original designs, they’re unique, and I’m sure each one has a fascinating story behind it.

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    1. Thank you so much, Mercè!
      I totally suck at drawing. I wish I could and even once signed for an animal drawing course ages ago which was cancelled for reasons I never found out.
      The picture of Ponder with the bottle is one of my favorites.

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  3. It's the perfect homage to cats - love it! I'm impressed that you designed the pattern as well. I'll bet Gundel is quite pleased and is working on a potion for her new potion bottle! :)

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    1. Thank you, Dawn! I'm sure she has plans already, but no idea in which direction she'll go with them.

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  4. These cats and their various movements/poses are just amazing! You have created such a work of art here. I honestly could never do that! Well, maybe if we were next door neighbors, and you taught me. But, let's face it, I don't think we'd get anything done other than jabbering away! I just love these! I love small bottles anyway, but a beaded small bottle adds another dimension!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    1. Thank you so much, Marsha!
      I'm sure we would be able to craft AND jabber away. Believe me, quite a few people didn't expect the things I can do and I was at the top of that group!

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  5. These are beautiful!!

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  6. You did an amazing job on the cats’ positions. No one would know you didn’t have a pattern. That’s incredible. And I love it!

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    1. I made my own patterns in BeadTool. I could play around there forever and to be honest, sometimes I have to before I'm happy.
      Thank you!

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