On how my brain works

Most asked question I get is: how do you come up with this stuff? Well, here's a little peek inside my brain. This is how I came up with my latest stamp: cat + wool. 

It started a day or two ago, when I received an email from Dutch creative magazine Flow. They asked me if I wanted to be in their 'Saturday Market' item on the Flow website this Saturday. Of course I said YES! Are you crazy!? (more on this later). 

I already started thinking a little about the questions they might ask. The obvious 'tell me a little more about yourself' made me think about cats. The truth is I live by myself, no roommates, no pets. And I thought it would be nice to be able to say: "I have a cosy apartment in the middle of the city, where I live with Stoffer, my adorable cat." I just like the way that sounds.

I like cats, sometimes...I guess. I don't like the hairs and the scratches on my wallpaper, I don't want a litter box in my house. And honestly, I cannot be sure if I still like Mr. Stoffer as much when he grows out of being the cutest thing you've ever seen. I think I might be a little allergic too. And I like to travel. Little Stoffer would be miserable living with me. 

That's how I decided to make a cat stamp. I started sketching and cutting the lino. When it was finished and I should've just left it alone, I added something on the lower half. And that did not turn out well. You know how that goes. So I cut the bottom half off and I had a cat head. Ok. Not what I had in mind.

Then the next day I received my ordered balls of yarn in the mail. Colorful, beautiful balls of yarn. Cats like yarn. Hey! I could replace that lower half of the cat with some yarn. That makes sense. So I drew some balls of yarn and cut it out of the lino. 

I positioned the seperate parts to make the complete picture. Made some prints and decided how to glue them to a block of wood. Wood that I needed to cut first. That turned out to be more difficult than I wanted it to be, but eventually it worked. I smoothened the edges with sandpaper and glued the pieces on. Tadaaa: a brand new cat + wool stamp. 

And yes, you guessed right. It's for sale! Take a closer look at it here.