Working with Clay

One of the things that Heavenly Paws offered as a service was to take an impression of My Jenny's paw before she was cremated.  We debated whether we should have them do it or not.  We ended up ordering two. 

They were some kind of a soft molding clay.  My Jenny's large paw barely fit in the round sphere.  I pulled out my stylus set for working with clay so that I could carve her name, birthdate and deathdate on the front by her paw.  There was very little space to work.

Normally, this would have been a very difficult task to do 10 days after loosing her.  But there was something therapeutic about engraving the information into the molding clay. 



Heavenly Paws took a paw print of My Jenny

I have to say that I was craving a large ball of clay.  I had a sudden urge to sculpt.  I may yet buy some clay and try my hand sculpting a Doberman.


My Jenny Memorial Paw Print

We weren't sure what we were going to do with the paw prints.  I put a hole in them so that we could tie a bow on them or a ribbon for them to hang onto.  Then the other day, a couple that had purchased a puppy from us this spring stopped by with their puppy.  They had made these beautiful memorial plaques for us.  I set the paw print on top of an open spot in the lower right hand corner of the print.  It was like the two were designed for each other.  I refer to that as "a God thing".  I need to figure out how to adhere the baked modeling clay to the glass.  

My Jenny Memorial

Below is the 8 month old boy that came with to drop off the gift.  His is already significantly bigger than his mother, Duchess.  Look at the markings on his chest.  As he leans over Grandpa in his, "I'm still your little puppy" hug, his tan marking looks like a heart.  That is very appropriate because he loves his Grandpa Dale.  When I greeted him, he immediately recognized my voice.  I invited him to stand up and he put his front paws on my shoulders and gave me a puppy kiss.  Yup, he is one very big puppy.

Onyx comforting Grandpa