Greetings!
My name is Haley A. Ping and Poodle and Cat/Haley’s Handmades began as my brand of (mostly) poodle humor. I’ve run Haley’s Handmades since 2006 with the help of Sunny, my standard poodle and mascot, Mollie and Dashiell, my two cats, 2 goldfish, and 3 chickens. We started making hand colored greeting cards and branched out to other paper goods quickly.
As of November 2011, family life is changing with the addition of a little boy from Taiwan ROC and I will no longer have the endless amounts of time to devote to handmade creations. I’ve transitioned my “for sale” items to free downloads for personal use.
How did you choose your poodle theme?
I am frequently asked “why is your theme poodles in famous and popular works of art?” I believe it all began with my love of poodles as a young girl. When I was little my parents had 2 standard poodles and I thought they were the most wonderful dogs. It seemed to me that they would lay around just to be petted for hours and hours by me. A number of friends as I was growing up thought I was a bit odd for thinking that poodles were friendly and playful not prim and proper. But if I wasn’t a bit quirky, I wouldn’t have created this line of poodle drawings!
Years later during my senior year at Washington Univeristy in St. Louis, I had to decide on a theme for my Senior show. I tried a number of things first semester looking for something that would fun draw and make prints about. In the end I found that poodles were a natural theme for me and knew that it would give my serious classmates and professors a laugh to see my “prim and proper” poodles doing things like crossing the Delaware River, ballet dancing, and posing like in the painting American Gothic. It’s like creating a recorded history for poodles!
What else do you do?
I do other types of art. I don’t limit myself to only poodles. Occasionally you may see cows, cats, landscapes, and various other subjects. I also love to make books and journals, do calligraphy and illumination, spin yarn, and sew (hand quilting and embroidery).
Favorite Artists and Illustrators
My favorites are Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, Chris Van Allsburg, Tasha Tudor, William Blake, Mitsumasa Anno, Fred Marcellino.
Contact
If you have any questions or comments please send me an email! I’d love to hear from you. If you’re wondering where I make all my creations I work from home in my studio n the Texas Hill Country between Johnson City and Hye.