Catching up - Customs!

Well, my friend Beth gently reminded me that I have been completely ignoring this blog for the past four months. The shells that were featured as new listings in the last entries have already reached their four month limit on Etsy and have had to been renewed. Seriously, shame on me.

In fact I've been incredibly slow on painting in these months. Schoolwork has kept me occupied and miserable :P

I've had a couple of commissioned portraits to keep me busy though! So I'm gonna show them off :)


This is River and Coyote, two bi-black shelties. They are very, very handsome gentlemen. And they're tough little dogs too - River herds cattle! The photo doesn't really do the shell justice, because here the picture looks a bit warped due to the curvature of the shell, and the flash made the shading look very harsh. But it really came out quite nice.


This is Francesca, a graceful little Italian Greyhound girl. Iggy ears often go in wonky directions throughout the day (my boys can attest to this). But the dogs never seem to notice and continue with their godly attitude. Much like here - Francesca's ear went all funny but she kept a serious look on her face! Silly iggies...


Karen and Yoshi are two brindle greyhounds who are no longer with us. Yoshi was a sweet sensitive boy, and Karen was a bit of a prankster. Unfortunately the shell took a fall and broke. I was able to repair it pretty well, though. Thank you, Gale, for being so patient and understanding!


Now this sweet girl is Cheska, a retriever mix rescue. She has the most beautiful eyes and a lovely sable coat.


Look familiar? Its Cheska again. Her mum decided to get two portraits, showing two different sides of this pretty girl, one serious and one smiley :)

I've also got a pretty exciting custom portrait coming up that I'm just starting to work on. What's exciting about it? Well, it isn't a dog ;) I'll show you guys when its complete. And next I'll feature some shells that I have painted for my shop.

I'm Hearted!

It's official! My shop Shell Vergel has reached 200 hearts! I'm glad you like it guys :)

Cove, the Wii, and spots!

A quick mention of a custom portrait I made for Emily of Dreameyce. Meet Cove the catahoula leopard dog, and Kiwi the teeny pretty pit bull!


The shell has undergone some minor alterations to make Kiwi look a bit more like herself. This is a shot of the shell before it was finalized. But you get the idea. The shell looks even better in person, if i say so myself!
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Also, another new shell up in my shop! This is a Dalmatian on a soft shell clam.

I love how he came out. Soft shell clams are a great canvas - their texture is almost paper-like and they're so smooth, they take to paint really well. Alas they're brittle. I coat the back of the soft shell with varnish so that they have a little more strength to them. This guy is on a fairly large soft clam (their size range is different from my typical Atlantic clams, and this guy is one of the bigger ones I've painted).

The dalmatian is available in ShellVergel!

Three English Gentlemen

I finally got a little painting achieved! I've got a bit of a theme to them! I bring you three gentlemen from England - the English Springer Spaniel, the English Setter and the English Pointer!

Dogs from the British Isles dominate the sporting group, with the pointer, all of the setters, several spaniels and most of the retrievers. They come with boundless energy, loving temperaments and the loveliest, softest eyes :)


English Springer Spaniel.


English Setter.


English Pointer.

As always, you can find these shells and others on ShellVergel.
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Another reminder - if you are interested in getting a custom shell portrait for the holidays, please try to get your order in by Saturday, November 1st.

I miiiight be taking custom orders later in November depending on my school schedule. I will not be painting in December at all, due to preparation for finals, sorry.

So get any custom orders in ASAP please! It can take me up to two weeks to paint a custom portrait, so time counts!

'awesomeness' treasury

I made my first treasury! omg omg omg! I've always wanted to catch one and never had the chance. And someone in the help forum posted that the treasury would be clearing soon. So I checked in just in case and the list was at 335. And then the title thing showed up. So of course I typed in "awesomeness" cause i wasn't sure what i'd do with a treasury if i caught one. I was all excited so i hurried without thinking cause i didn't want to miss the chance :P

Of course it had to be dog stuff.

It turned out mostly into dog paintings and prints. I think i found a nice collection!



CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK!!

...sorry, got a little excited :P

Wearable dogs

Sorry guys, I've been MIA. I spent all of my spring break studying for an organic chemistry exam that i really really needed to pass. I spent so much time agonizing over it. Well I bombed that test. It was time I should have better spent hugging the dogs and painting shells. Matter of fact I've got a bunch of shells pencilled out that i juuuuust need to paint, and they've been sitting in limbo for two weeks now.

I'll get back to painting tomorrow. At least I'll try. For now I'm exhausted.

So lets talk about a subject I looooove - ways to represent your dog breed/love/ownership. By wearing dogs on yourself :P These are all from my hearted shops on Etsy!

I am absolutely in love with this pendant! Really i think that making origami out of silver is incrediby cool. And its a dog. Infinitely cool :P It is made by AllegroArts - I should have started with that part i guess :P Its available in his Etsy shop, and also comes in cat, bunny, and elephant varieties!

Now here is a pendant by Boneofart. This is a schnauzer pictured, but there are many many breeds! These are very simple in appearance and yet they capture the essence of the breeds. Less is more, its great. And really an extensive variety - at a glance i saw puli, tibetan terrier, schipperke, and lots of others. People with uncommon breeds are always on the hunt for paraphernalia displaying their breed. Chances are they've got your breed :P

Does your dog have "attitude"? Heheh, i love this clever little pendant. Its actually a collage. InaBit makes very creative designs, especially featuring labrador retrievers. Most of them portray little idiosyncrasies of every day dog life - things you don't even think about such the blessing of having an inground pool in the back yard and a fire hydrant to pee on in the front :)

If you prefer your worn imagery to come with text, you can get some awesome buttons (or in this case keychain) by Thedogcoatlady. There's a whole assortment of subjects, from promoting spay/neuter/adoption to dogs and politics to animal rights to puppy mills. And a bunch of others. They're amazingly afforadble, these pins, and many of them feature very important messages and realities that many may not be aware of (how many people never heard of puppy mills until Oprah, huh?). Do check these out :)

Back to the pendants - Kayannworks makes marvelous ones! These are incredibly detailed and colourful. And they're made on domino tiles - real ones. If you turn the pendant around, they have the dots and everything. But uhh the dog side is way nicer. There are many breeds available - some of them are pirates ;)

Now here's an entirely different type of pin - its a sculpture and a pin in one! Dreameyce makes these pins out of polymer clay, then they are painted and given a finish. This one is a cardigan welsh corgi, blue merle. They available in many breeds - and colour variations of those breeds! Emily is also very open to custom works. and from what i hear, as cute as they look in the picture, they are even awesomer in person! I'm anticipating a pin of my Perry and Marco - can't wait to see it! (hehe, yes Emily will get a pin of her cardi kids Galazy and Traum too - I've got them pencilled out, they just need paint).

Another teeny sculptured pendant, this one featuring a pittie, by Nanjodogz. Very cute and very detailed - they look very skillfully made! There are also many beads sculpted into dog heads and faces - so you can make your own special jewlery or decorations featuring your breed. They are just too damn cute, lol...

Lets finish this list with FrumsGlassMenagerie - dichroic glass pendants featuring dog silhouettes. As a fellow italian greyhound owner, Sue specializes in IGs and greyhounds - but there are many breeds available. Some are on dichroic glass - simple yet complicated due to the colours of the glass - and some of them are just glass pendants that she paints herself. They are really charming!

thus concludes my tour of awesome wearable dog stuff that i found in my "favorite shops" section. a pretty fun variety methinks. If only I was made of money - I'd own a couple more of these!

btw many of these artists are willing to make custom designs - so if you've got a particular favorite pet/breed/symbol that you want to portray to the world on your clavicles, i encourage you to ask them!

lets get started?

So uhhh I guess I should introduce myself and stuff. I'm Tatyana. up until high school I was called Tanya, but ever since I got a job and started college I've had to tell my name to so many people that saying "I'm Tatyana but you can call me Tanya because in Russian its the same name and its what everyone calls me" got tiring. So Tatyana it is.



that's me up there. With my wunnerful dog Perry.



There's actually two of them. Perry and Marco are Italian Greyhounds. They're brothers although everyone asks me if they're brother and sister. I've never understood the need of some people to get one of each gender. Is it for variation? To see what one of each is like? I always wonder who people assume is the girl. I bet its Perry. He's the sissy boy.



We're working on turning them into showdogs.



I also share residence with two kitties. That's Tim up there. He's my soulmate cat who lives for the joy of aggravating the boyfriend's allergies.



Anton... he's a little bit special. Like the Stephen Lynch song.

I just so happen to be a groomer for a living. See, proof:


Okay its more of a weekend job. In the sense that I only groom once a week. Although honestly, its enough drama to last me.

see here's where the "crazy dog person" descriptions starts to make sense, huh...

Anyway, the main reason I decided to start a blog thingy was Etsy. In late January I opened up a shop to try my hand at selling something I'd come up with...



I paint dog portraits on seashells. Clam shells, to be exact. Its something different. And a lot of fun to make. Each dog has its own "personality" that i try to find. Its also a great way to get to know different breeds. It's a lot of fun. I'm still learning the quirks of acrylic paint. I want to introduce custom dog portraits soon. For now, I've got a lot of nice shells up for sale at the shop, and I do take requests for particular breeds.

I also have a .com address. http://shellvergel.com/ - Although I really don't keep it as updated as i should. Mea culpa. It was a good $1o spent on hosting, but it winds up neglected. Some day I'll update it.

one more thing. Tea.



My absolute favorite is Lady Grey by Twinnings - exquisite stuff! Although not decaf. I am pretty immune to the caffeine amounts in tea.