An Oldham woman is creating and selling personalised products to resemble beloved four-legged friends.
Marie Taylor, aged 32, runs the businesses out of her spare bedroom in Waterhead.
A born-and-bred Oldhamer, Marie works as a website designer full-time.
But in her free time, Marie makes personalised earrings, necklaces, keyrings, mugs, and more.
Demand for the gifts, personalised to look exactly like your four-legged friend, is high.
Waiting lists are currently at "around 12 weeks" for the "mini me" figures – each one taking about an hour to handcraft.
Having studied graphic design at Oldham Sixth Form College, Marie says she loves "all things artsy-fartsy".
A self-proclaimed animal lover, Marie uses polymer clay and even a dental tool to help create personalised products – with details specific to each animal.
Marie said: “We moved in about a year ago, the idea is to have a craft room downstairs but now I’m in the spare bedroom – I work from home, so just a little place to do it. Before I was doing it on kitchen tables and stuff, and it was a nightmare.
“It’s taken off, I’ve not seen many other people doing it – people do like personalised stuff.”
Marie started WonderPet Portraits after she sketched her dog Reuben and posted it on Facebook.
Marie added: “People were saying ‘can you do my dog’, so I started doing it for friends and then it snowballed a bit with other people asking.
“Then I started using coloured pencils and then it went on to paints and digital art.
“I’d never used polymer clay before but I’d heard about it, and I love all things artsy-fartsy so I gave it a go, and that’s where these guys have taken off.
“It’s just spiralled from there – I’ve been doing the clay keyrings for about two years now.”
Marie now sells the products for around £25 through her Facebook page, where people can send in photos of their beloved pets ready for Marie to sculpt.
“Being a huge animal lover it’s a great job – a great little side hustle to have, because I love getting everyone’s photos.
“People ask how many I need and I just tell them to send as many as they like, I love seeing them.”
After she sculpts each figure, Marie uses tools to create the texture in the fur, before curing them in a small oven in her spare room.
Keyrings take about 20 minutes to sculpt, 20 minutes to cure, and 20 minutes to paint – though different breeds are harder, especially tabby cats – according to Marie.
One of her designs – a mug with a Malamute – will even be visiting Crufts this year.
Marie said: “The lady who’s bought this, it’s for her friend and she’s going to Crufts, she said she’s going to hand out some leaflets for me which is really nice."
Marie explained how she crafts each item.
She said: “Normally I use acrylic paint, but I thought I’d try out pastels. You basically break up the pastel with a knife and then use a paintbrush and dab it on.
“It works great for German Shepherds, anything with brindle fur, because they’ve got so much depth to the fur and different colours – it just works really well, especially when you’ve gone over it with the texture tools to create the fur.
“I did actually purchase something I found on Facebook, a lady recommended a dental tool called a ‘gum stimulator’, which is great for creating fur as it’s got a rubber tip on the end rather than metal, so it doesn’t break the clay when you use it, it just strokes up against it – it’s a lot better to use. It takes a while but it’s worth it.”
WonderPet Portraits can be found on Facebook.
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