Made to order · painted from your photographs
A planter with your dog painted on it
Send Ru a few photographs and she paints them by hand onto the set — the same face on the bowl and on the pot, the way you know it. Some are for a dog who is asleep in the next room. Some are for one who isn’t, and she takes those just as gladly.
PipLong-haired dachshund · clover scatter TedJack russell · plain cream Otto & RueTwo dachshunds · striped shirts, by request The Bramble BrothersThree dachshunds · line drawing NelliePainted from a photograph taken in 2019
How it works
Five steps, and you see the drawing before any paint goes near the concrete. Around four to five weeks from your first message to the parcel leaving, six in November and December.
- One
You send photographs
Two or three pictures and a few words about them. She will tell you honestly if she needs a better shot of the face.
Reply within a day
- Two
She sketches
A pencil drawing of how they will sit on the bowl and the pot, sent to you as a photo.
Within the first week
- Three
You approve it
Change the pose, the background, anything. Nothing is painted until you say yes.
Whenever you are ready
- Four
She paints
Freehand, in thin layers, one commission at a time so it gets a full afternoon.
One to two weeks
- Five
Sealed, wrapped, posted
Matte sealer, a photograph of the finished set sent to you, then double-boxed and tracked.
Four to five weeks all up
What it costs
Prices in NZD. Nothing is charged on this website — once the sketch is approved she’ll send bank details, half to begin and half before it posts.
- The full setBowl and pot, the same dog on both$240
- Bowl onlyThe low wide one, 21 cm across$150
- Pot onlyThe taller cylinder, 12 cm tall$120
- A second pet on the same setBoth painted, together or one on each piece+$45
Postage: $12 anywhere in New Zealand, $34 to Australia, quoted for anywhere further. Sent tracked and double-boxed.
Included in every commission
- Their portrait painted by hand on every piece in the set, from your own photographs.
- A pencil sketch to approve first, and as many changes to it as you need.
- Their name written on the underside, unless you would rather it wasn’t there.
- Clovers, leaves or a plain cream background — your choice at the sketch stage.
- Matte sealer over the paint, so the set can be handled and planted.
- Photographs of the finished piece before it is wrapped, and wrapping suitable for giving.
Tell her about your dog
Four short parts. Nothing is charged and nothing is committed — this only starts the conversation.
- 1The pet
- 2Photographs
- 3The piece
- 4You
Questions people ask
- Can she paint two pets on one set?
- Yes — two is comfortable, either side by side on the bowl or one on each piece. It is $45 for the second. Three is possible as a line drawing rather than full portraits.
- Cats?
- Yes, and rabbits, and one very patient chicken so far. Cats need a good photograph of the eyes more than dogs do.
- What about a pet who has died?
- Many of these are. Say so in the form and she will take particular care with your photographs. She can work from an older or slightly blurred picture, and if you would like it, she will paint them somewhere quiet in the design rather than centre-front. Nothing in the parcel will announce what it is.
- I need it sooner than five weeks.
- Tell her the date. She keeps one slot most months for something urgent, and she will say plainly whether she can do it well in the time rather than promise and rush it.
- Do you ship to Australia?
- Yes — $34, tracked, usually seven to ten days once it is posted. Double-boxed with the bowl inside the pot’s carton.
- Anywhere else?
- She will quote it. Concrete is heavy, so further afield can cost as much as the piece itself; she will tell you the number before you decide.
- How does paying work?
- In conversation, not on this website. Once you approve the sketch she sends bank details — half to start, half before it posts. No deposit is taken just to enquire, and if the sketch is not right and you walk away, nothing is owed.