Vintage Suitcase Cat Bed

 As my husband said, "it's fitting for a traveling cat to sleep in a suitcase" when we first brought the vintage suitcase home from the thrift store and Ranita, our cat, immediately started sleeping in it (even before it was finished. Our cat certainly is a traveling cat, the poor thing has been dragged from Rome to Philly to New York to Richmond in just this past year, and all last year, in New York, she was sleeping on top of one of our suitcases.
 I first saw this vintage suitcase turned animal bed on Etsy and then again on Pinterest and then decided as soon as I could find an affordable suitcase I would make one for Ranita. How I did it-first I cut the fabric inside that covered the hinges then I took off the hinges, using a power drill and a flat head screw driver. I drilled a hole from the inside where the pins were and then I pried them off with the screw driver. After that I folded the fabric over and glued it in place. Then I made the pillow, I measured the inside of the suitcase and then cut and sewed some old fabric together, there are two different sides (which you can see above), then stuffed it with shredded foam. I left the side pouches in, and they make a great place to store toys (see above). The whole thing cost about 7.50 but would cost more if I had bought fabric for it and could end up costing more if I add wooden feet to it which I'm thinking of doing.

Feline Cutaneous Asthenia

This amazing embroidered wall hanging is by Jaclyn Rose of holidaytart. She free handed this on the sewing machine, amazing! This piece is called Feline Cutaneous Asthenia which means winged cat, it's a real thing. Here are some photos of cats with wings.




















I put two flying cats in one of my paintings before I knew it was possible for cats to have wings.

More Than a Month of Too Much To Do and No Time For Blogging

a mobile photo of a someone's window in Williamsburg.

Hi. I'm feeling bad that I haven't posted anything in over a month. I had plans to. I had plans to make Halloween costumes and post pictures of them. I had plans to celebrate Halloween even! But it's funny how things often don't go as we plan them. I was really excited about having my first Halloween in the States in 3 years, but unfortunately I moved into my new and 1st apartment in New York on Halloween. So this past month and more has been completely crazy. My husband and I moved from Rome to New York so we have been getting all our documents in order so we could leave Italy, packing up my life of 3 years and my husbands life of 29 years into 4 suitcases weighing 23 kilos each. Then in New York, finding an apartment and jobs and then trying to find other, better jobs and then moving into our new apartment and cleaning our apartment and our stuff (which got infested with moths while sitting untouched for 3 years at my mom's house). We still have so much more to do but for now at least I'm a little more unpacked and my esty shop is open again. Soon I will start making new stuff and exploring New York and you will see photos from that.

Il Gatto Selvatico Mascot II

I just finished embroidering these three necklaces and I'm so excited to show them off and give you a little sneak peak of what's to come.

Il Gatto Selvatico Mascot

I drew the designs for some new necklaces on muslin all ready for embroidering and I thought that it looked really beautiful like this so I thought I'd share it with you all. Oh, and my cat Ranita was there.

Aristocats

In college I made a series of photos featuring cat faces superimposed on top baroque paintings. Shown at the top are 3 of them, Marie Antoinette, a little girl holding a cat of her own and an Elizabethian woman.
I liked this idea so much that I decided to turn them into my own paintings. Shown above, Tabby Cat Countess and Cat Countess, 2007. Finally, after college, I decided to take it into the physical world and make them into costumes for Carnival. Shown above are the two costumes and the pannier hoop skirt that goes under the dress to make it puff out at the sides.
To see more artistic endeavors visit www.penelopereichley.wordpress.com

Theatre Music for Human Beings First Album

My husband, Simone Secci, who is the main brain and hands behind Theatre Music for Human Beings recently asked me to design the artwork for his first e.p. and he also asked me to make 5 rocket cat pins to give away with the first 5 copies.

Here are pictures of the wonderful result! Produced by Upside Down Records.













I designed and drew the outlines of the front and back covers.













Then Cristiano Carosi from Upside Down Records filled it in.













We wanted the album to look like a vintage illustrated children's book like this...