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.

On the wall

Isn't it funny how sometimes you can look at something and you just don't know what to do with it? I guess it happens to most if not all creative people.
And sometimes it takes years and years and years, then suddenly - boom.
I remember getting those moonstones, being intrigued by the different colors and the - for me - unusual shape. Unusual because I used round stones. The shape (and size), however, were a big problem for me as I couldn't come up with a way to incorporate it into one of my pieces.
Back then, I only did wire crocheting and knitting, and my only attempt of working with the moonstones was kind of okay, but definitely not okay enough. After having looked at the piece - it was a wire knit collar - again and again for some years, I finally ripped it up and the moonstones went back into the drawer.

The other day, however, I was looking for something in that drawer, taking out this and that, and when I held the baggie with moonstones in my hand, it was like an epiphany - a dry stone wall!
It was rather fitting that I had Midsomer Murders on for background entertainment. Rural England, here I come ;-)

Luck was on my side, the wall became straight. It just needed someone or something sitting on it. Wait, how about a cat?? That's of course a joke. A cat was the first choice, and with me having a black glass cab around in my "workbox" - mere coincidence actually - it clearly wanted to be black.
To enhance the 3D effect, I added more an extra layer of seed beads for the head and thighs and an additional layer of matte crystals for the tail. Also the cat got two rows of seed beads added around, so it wouldn't blend into the background.

I love the background. Those hexagon beads have some major sparkle which is increased by the random embroidering. You hardly notice the little "stars". It was so time consuming, but well worth it in my opinion.

While this is also a cat silhouette, it's not a HeatherCat, by the way. If it were, there would be a moon. Silhouette HeatherCats insist on a moon ;-)

Turning this into a pendant was more difficult than I had thought. Beaded ropes didn't work for me, the bails I tried weren't any better. In the end, I decided to get one of those faux silk chains and bead a tube bail for it.
Now I wish there were more moonstones left over because I am very tempted to make another dry stone wall. Didn't I have some Tila beads somewhere .....