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Cat Designs
Publisher's Review

One has to wonder how such apparently simple cat designs, many with less than 30 pieces, convey such lifelike attitude and elegance. Tessa McOnie’s cats have a variety of oh so familiar postures caught in time by her simple fluid lines. “Where’s my dinner?” is clearly a cat anticipating his food while “Why did you stop scratching me?” is in no mood to be ignored. “Ellie Gantz” parades and struts her stuff as the resident glamour puss and “The Don” is clearly not to be trifled with. But perhaps it’s the subtle expression she creates on their faces that make them so endearing that you can’t help but feel a certain affection for each of them. There’s sure to be a cat just like one you know, which of course makes any project with it even more fun.

Although primarily designed for and shown as stained glass pieces, each full colour example provides an inspirational colour guide for a variety of other crafts. The line drawing for each design is on the other side of the page for easy reference and a few technical tips are included for stained glass construction.

But this is not a ‘how to’ book, rather a collection of over 30 beautiful original patterns from a West Australian artist. Crafters with basic skills through to those more experienced wanting a quick but stunning result can enlarge or reduce each pattern to suit such crafts as embroidery, appliqué, quilting, mosaics, card making, ceramics and painting on glass, silk or porcelain. Customising projects is a breeze because of the clean lines and the variety of postures and orientations. Primary school teachers will find this a great resource book too and, with glossy full colour throughout, cat lovers whether crafty or not will be delighted just pawing through these pages.