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Fern Daley Has Spent Fifteen Years Sculpting Cats in North Carolina. She’s Almost Done With This.
Fern Daley has a studio in Asheville where she makes small things, precisely. She’s been sculpting cats — in three poses, hand-painted, weighted with stone so they sit right on a shelf — for fifteen years. She’s 59 and shifting her practice toward larger ceramic work. This is one of her last runs of the figurines.
“I didn’t plan for the cats to become what they became,” she says, painting the outer line of a sleeper’s ear with a brush she’s had for eight years. “I made one for a friend’s birthday because she’d just lost her cat and I wanted to give her something that acknowledged that without being maudlin. And I sold forty-seven the next month.”
She sculpted the three poses — sleeping, sitting, stretching — from life. She has two cats. She had four. The poses in the figurines are poses she observed, not invented. The sleeper’s head angle, the way the sitting pose carries the tail, the exact geometry of the stretch — these are accurate. You can tell when you see them, if you know cats.
The set has been her best-selling piece for fifteen years because, Fern thinks, it works at the distance of a shelf. You can see what it is from across the room. It holds the space. It doesn’t demand attention; it rewards it when you come closer. “That’s the only test I use,” she says. “Does it earn the shelf?”
The Pose That Takes Three Months to Get Right
The sleeping pose is the hardest. Fern has remade it six times over fifteen years — adjusting the head angle twice, the paw placement once, the tail curve three times. The current version has been the same since 2019 and she doesn’t plan to touch it again. “I think I finally got it,” she says, and then is quiet for a moment. “I think the 2019 one is the one.”
“A shelf object should work at arm’s length and up close. Most don’t. They look good in the store and mean nothing on the shelf. These were made to earn the shelf.”
Each piece is hand-painted after it comes out of the kiln. Fern doesn’t use a template for the face. She paints each one from the same reference photographs she’s used since the first run — photos of her own cats, from the angles she knows best. The result is that each piece has small variations. No two sleepers are exactly alike. She considers this a feature.
The Set That Lives on the Right Shelf
Fern has shipped these figurines to collectors in 34 countries. The ones that come back to her in photos tend to live the same way — on a windowsill, on a small bookshelf, on a bedroom dresser. Next to a book or a candle or another small object. Not grouped with decorative things. Grouped with the real things on the shelf. That’s how she knows they’re working.
The stone-weighted bases are her non-negotiable. Early versions had hollow ceramic bases that tipped too easily. Fern switched to stone fill in 2011 and has never gone back. Each piece sits flat and doesn’t shift. “A thing that tips is a thing you stop trusting,” she says. “And then it stops being a shelf object. It becomes a problem.”
The glaze is matte. She chose matte because it ages better — no gloss bloom, no fingerprints showing, no yellowing under light over time. The surface in ten years will look like the surface today, maybe slightly better for having some dust settle into it. Fern thinks objects should get better with time, or at least not worse.
What Makes This Figurine Set Different
The sleeping, sitting, and stretching poses are not variations of one base sculpture. Each was sculpted independently, from life observation. The proportions and weight distribution are specific to each pose. They’re accurate in the way that only comes from watching the real thing.
Fern paints each face by hand using the same reference photographs she’s used for fifteen years. No two pieces are exactly alike. The variation is small — a slightly different eye angle, a whisker line that sits a touch differently — but it means each one is its own object.
Hollow ceramic bases tip too easily and become shelf liabilities rather than shelf objects. Fern switched to stone-fill bases in 2011. Each piece sits flat and stays put. The weight feels right when you pick it up.
Gloss glaze blooms and picks up fingerprints. Matte doesn’t. The surface Fern uses holds its look over years — no yellowing, no fading, no evidence of time except maybe a slight deepening of color that she’s found most people prefer.
Fern is shifting her studio practice toward larger ceramic work. She hasn’t announced a retirement date for the cats, but this run is one of the last. The next one isn’t planned. If you’ve been waiting for the right time, this is it.
The Studio After the Cats
Fern is moving toward larger ceramic work — pieces that take up more space, require more firing time, sell to a smaller audience. “I like the cats,” she says. “I’m not done with them entirely. But I want to make something I haven’t made yet.”
The figurines will outlast the studio phase that made them. They’re on shelves in houses she’ll never see, in rooms she can’t picture, holding the space alongside objects she doesn’t know. That’s what a good shelf object does, she thinks. It settles in. It stops being noticed as decoration. It becomes part of the room.
Three poses. Fifteen years. Stone-weighted, hand-painted, made from life. If your shelf has been waiting for the right small thing — or if someone you know needs an object that acknowledges what a cat means — this is the one.
One of Fern’s last runs — next batch not planned
Choose your set below. Ships from Asheville while supplies last. Free shipping over $75.
See Sets & Availability1 set · 2 sets · 3 sets
What People Are Saying
★★★★★
“I bought two sets — one for my desk and one for my sister who has three cats. The sleeper pose is so accurate it’s almost uncanny. You can tell these were made by someone who actually watched cats. The stone base means they don’t tip, which matters more than I expected.”
★★★★★
“Gift for a friend who recently lost her cat of 17 years. She put the sleeping one on the nightstand and said it helped. I wasn’t sure a figurine could do that. Apparently it can. The quality is real — hand-painted, well-weighted, nothing cheap about it.”
★★★★★
“I collect small ceramics and this set stands out. The matte glaze ages beautifully. Mine arrived with slightly different whisker lines than the photos — that’s the hand-painting, and I prefer it. Each one is its own object. You can feel that Fern wasn’t running a production line.”
A Few Questions Before You Choose
Can I give just one pose instead of the full set?
The figurines are sold as a set of three, but you can order multiple sets. Each set is the same three poses. If you want to give a single pose to someone, that’s not how Fern sells them — the three poses are the piece, not interchangeable parts. One set is the right place to start.
What is the base made from?
Ceramic body with stone fill. The stone fill sits inside the hollow base and gives each piece its weight and stability. They don’t tip. Fern switched to this construction in 2011 and considers it non-negotiable.
Is this really one of the last runs?
Yes. Fern is shifting her studio practice toward larger ceramic work and this run is one of the last planned runs of the figurine set. She hasn’t committed to never making them again, but the next run isn’t scheduled. If you’ve been considering it, now is the right time.
Three poses · hand-painted · stone-weighted
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See Sets & AvailabilityShips from Asheville while supplies last.