Here Kitty, Kitty

The Colonel and I, with Yam's assistance, created three replicas of the Key Marco Cat. Two replicas will be used in educational programs by the Boca Grande Historical Society on Gasparilla Island. The third replica is Yam's.

The Key Marco Cat was discovered in 1896 by anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing. It is a six-inch figure carved from Florida Buttonwood, using shark's teeth and shells as scrapers. It is a half human and half panther figure and may have been a spiritual icon of the Calusa Indians. It may have been carved between 500 to 1,500 years ago. The Calusa were Native American people who lived on Florida's southwest coast before and during first European contact of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Colonel and I have portrayed Calusa Indians in past educational programs.

The real Key Marco Cat is on display at the Marco Island Historical Museum on Marco Island, FL. The Colonel and I saw it there about 3 years ago. This is a photograph of the real one.

Photo credit: Dept. of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institute (A240915)

Yam printed the replicas with our 3-D printer. 

It was then up to me to paint them, hopefully making them look much like the original figurine. The Colonel and I had gone to Michael's earlier, looking for paint we hoped would be a good match.

I used my museum giftshop replica (I had purchased it several years ago) as a guide for my paintjobs. 

The brown paint The Colonel and I chose was pert nigh (uh-oh, my Hoosier is showing) a perfect match. I first used black paint to outline some of the figurine's features and then painted the rest with the brown.  They were turning out much better than I had anticipated. They looked very nearly like they were made from Florida Buttonwood.

When I finished painting them and they were dry, The Colonel sprayed them with a clear sealant. The two smaller figures are the 3-D printed ones and the larger one is my museum giftshop purchase. The third printed/painted figure (Yam's) was completed a day or so later.

When Yam saw the completed 3-D figures, she jokingly said they looked so good that I could make more and sell them on the black market as the real thing. Ha!