She Had Blue Eyes and a Face That Demanded to Be Remembered
When the message came in, the first photo stopped me.
She was a sphynx cat. Pink skin, enormous ears, and a pair of blue eyes that looked straight into the camera — and straight through it. Her name was WZ. Her owner wanted her carried everywhere.
I understood immediately.
Getting to know her
Before I touch the leather, I always spend time with the photos. Not sketching, not planning — just looking.
WZ had the kind of face that was easy to get wrong. Sphynx cats carry so much expression in their skin — the folds around the nose, the tension in the brow, the way the ears sit wide and alert like they're listening to something you can't hear. Get any of it slightly off, and it stops being her. It becomes just a cat.
I didn't want just a cat. I wanted WZ.
The work
I started with the face — always the face. The leather has to be wet to shape, soft enough to push and pull into the contours of a real creature. The nose came first, then the cheekbones, then those eyes.
Her eyes took the longest. Blue, clear, a little unnerving in the best way. I built the colour up in layers until they caught the light the way I needed them to.
Then the skin. A sphynx's wrinkles aren't random — they follow the muscle underneath, the same way a face does. I traced each fold slowly, not rushing.
When the face was done, I held it up and looked at it for a long time.
It was her.
The finishing
The portrait gets mounted into a circular leather frame, hand-stitched around the edge. On the back, I stamp the owner's initials — a small thing, but it matters to me. This piece belongs to someone. It should carry their mark.
A paw charm was added alongside — pink, like her paw pads.
A note
WZ's portrait now lives on a keychain. It goes wherever her person goes — into coffee shops, onto aeroplanes, through ordinary days that her person will one day look back on and be glad they had.
That's all I'm really making, every time.
