Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Cat Collectibles

If you’re into cat collectibles – or if you want to give gifts to the cat lover in your life – you might consider some cat paws. Well, not real paws, but concrete stepping stones shaped like cat paws.

You can set them in your garden pathway or hang them up on the wall as decoration. You can also get round stones that are like a fat cat, or ones like a lion’s head.

They’re the creations of a general building contractor and nature and wildlife photographer John Pianavilla of Santa Cruz, California.

Pianavilla loves working with his hands and he says he’s always looking for new design ideas.

He thought selling these stepping stones would be a perfect fundraiser for an animal-related organization. He donates a portion of each sale to Project Purr, a Santa Cruz-based non-profit dedicated to decreasing the population of feral cats.

Pianavilla uses a special concrete mixture that he developed to produce stones with a very smooth surface and precise detail.

To add depth to the pieces, he sometimes adds a single color of concrete stain. He also adorns some with broken glass in the pique assiette technique.

The basic stepping stones range from $10 to $25, depending on size and design. The faux-granite stones and the pique assiette designs are based on the intricacy of the pieces.

Check them out at: http://www.pawsforacause.biz/

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great stepping stones!!! My cats love to sit on them. They make wonderful gifts, and a donation is made to a local cat care group for every one sold. How fabulous!

Cheryl Chow said...

Oh, I bet your cats look really cool sitting on them. Good too that a donation is made to a local cat care group.

Cheers,

Cheryl