Archive for the 'art' Category

Jenny & the Cat Club Ornaments

Thursday, November 29th, 2012



Ronin is cat obsessed. She dressed as a cat for halloween (Jiji from ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service‘)—in fact, she dresses near-daily in the cat outfit. She is also Christmas tree-obsessed, so every year we get the tree as soon as humanly possible. She then spends about all her time underneath and behind it, organizing the bottom tiers of ornaments into unusual collections and shoving her dolls and stuffed guys deep into the foliage.

Every year I make a handful of new ornaments and this year’s collection is based on her favorite cat books, Jenny and the Cat Club, by Esther Averill.

So far, I’ve managed to finish only four of the main characters. Ronin abandoned the project after about five minutes; winding the limp paper mache around the tiny figurines was absurdly tedious. She stood next to me instead and plotted out which character I was to make next.



Jenny Linsky! She’s around 3″ tall.



Checkers & his retrieving ball!



Edward Brandywine!



Pickles the fire cat! I need to make his little firecap.


I’m the featured seller on Etsy!

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

cheyenne weil

Probably most of you know that I’ve been selling my jewelry through Etsy and now I got picked as a ‘featured seller!’ It’s pretty damned exciting; I’m on the front page, they posted an interview, and I’ve been getting a zillion emails and messages asking about my jewelry, custom pieces, and just notes saying nice things about me and my work. It’s made my day.

One more thing – I should mention also that I got a couple of great write-ups on other blogs in the past few weeks: Emerald Green Weddings in Seattle, and earthfriendlywedding blog!


Lego dogs

Friday, April 16th, 2010

When we were in the Bay Area last month, we visited with Nina and Henrik from Bika, whom we met while anchored in Portobelo, Panama. They sailed Bika (the most adorable Contessa 26 you ever did see) through the Caribbean, up the east coast of the US, into the great lakes, down the Mississippi, over to Rockport, TX, then had the boat trucked to the Bay Area to continue their trip (they started in Norway in 2005). They are currently doing some work on the boat getting her ready to head south down the west coast and eventually across the Pacific. Anyway, they brought a gift for Ronin; it was a box of legos. She loves them and it didn’t take long to expand our collection; Grandpa Jeff bought a big pink box of supposed “girl” legos when he came to visit. One must have many legos. And actually the pink is really pretty.

Ronin’s favorite thing to make are dogs. Sometimes she makes big flatbed trucks to ferry the dogs around.

This one might be a bichon frise, except cuter.

Happy green eco-dog!

Can you see those brown ‘ear’ lego pieces? Well, Ronin has something of a potty humor and often likes to pretend they are dog poops. Making the lego dogs poop brown lego poops can keep her occupied for a good long while.

Super-duper long-necked giraffe dog!

Brown-headed double-collared poodle-dog

This is Otto, our friend Hans’ deaf and blind and dumb (I mean the dog is lacking in brain power; he is definitely not mute) wiener dog. Hans loves that animal better than anything on the entire planet. Ronin likes Otto too but only because he likes to eat poop.

Hmm. This appears to be some sort of shepherd with a pink and red collar.

Legos come in the most awesome colors these days. There is a bright chartreuse green that is really pretty, and we have three shades of pink! The set Nina and Henrik gave us had some lego guys with conventional brown hairdos; however, all hair has been replaced with more interesting pieces, such as this ornate floral headdress.

My spaceship. Flower power!

Joshua’s spaceship.


Bird ornaments

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Some of the bird ornaments I made for our tree (and for little christmas gifts). The black and white one was a pattern I got online. I doctored the original pattern to add interfacing to prevent stuffing lumps and I reinforced the tail. Essentially I turned a reasonably quick and easy pattern into a royal pain in the ass. My specialty!

All the other felt birds were ideas I ripped from making random google image searches. I made them out of wool felt and embroidery floss. I haven’t really ever embroidered before but there are a lot of online tutorials.

I took Ronin’s mobile apart temporarily to add raindrops to the tree.

I felt compelled to make a mustache ornament since they are ALL the rage this year. Mustaches, not specifically mustache ornaments, but I imagine they are out there.

Ronin loved the birds. I made several of the stuffed fabric ones and put them on the lower branches. Ronin had a field day rearranging them each morning.


New website

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

We interrupt the usual baby photos and poop stories to brag about my new website. I drew the pretty pictures and Joshua made it all happen. After much trial and setback and extensive persnickety requests from me, it is finally live and I think it looks lovely. I also put together an etsy shop if you are looking for an online shopping experience…


Cheyenne Weil, Joshua Coxwell