As my part of the SpoiltPig Cat Swap I’d originally imagined a “cute kitten” photograph theme but none of my kitten photos jumped out as quite fitting my crafting ideas so I looked through my photo collection for a cat themed picture that would suit an elegant piece of jewellery as well as a rougher image transfer onto wood. The solution was a picture of a black panther taken at Edinburgh Zoo a few years ago that I’d never done anything with at the time.
So this is Mowgli, a black coloured Jaguar — “panther” is used for different types of big cat in various parts of the world. He would’ve been about two years old in the photo. Jaguars have larger set faces their big cat cousins the leopard – I think Mowgli shows this to be a strong and powerful feature rather than chubby!
The first item I made is an image transfer onto a wooden slate, this technique works best with photos with a strongly defined subject contrasted with a simple background. I included fixings to allow for wall hanging but I think the wood is quite pleasing as an object in itself so I often like these wooden slates as free-standing.
The second item is a glass tile pendant necklace. With the black panther photo set behind glass I think it makes for a rather elegant item compared with the rawness of the wood, I’m also pleased with how the almost black & white image has worked within the jewellery so I’ll definitely be trying similar in future!
To complete the trio I included a small & simple photo print mounted on a foamcore backing which I think shows Mowgli off at his most striking. Here’s all the items together — I can’t decide which is my favourite so leave a comment and let me know what you think!
To read about what Ali at Craft Matters sent me for the swap read my cat swap blog entry!
