It’s amazing to see the eyes of little girls light up when they find the pink cat safety reflector among all our other reflectors. We’ve seen it become an instant favorite so many times. Not surprising though, considering my own excitement as a toddler for the pink cats my mom appliquéd on my ceiling light. I have to admit that I’m not really a cat person, but cats are cute, cat videos are fun and the graceful pet is a wonderful source of inspiration for any designer and artist. And although different than the cats on my childhood ceiling light, our funflector cat safety reflector was inspired by the style I grew up with in Sweden in the 60’s and 70’s. We realize, not every cat lover likes pink, but luckily, the cat safety reflector looks just as good in other colors. Currently, it is also available in gray, orange and light brown.
Get Some Pink Cat Safety Reflector to Support Human Rights
The funflector team had had the cat shape on the drawing board for some time when our customers asked for a pink cat safety reflector around the first Women’s March in January of 2017. That triggered us to go ahead and invest in the tool, send some of our proceeds from the sales to Planned Parenthood and also launch our line of human rights reflectors. In 2020, with its critical November election in just 20 days (Go vote! 🗳), the proceeds from the 6-pack pink cat reflector will benefit the ACLU for their work fighting voter suppression and discrimination in the courts.
Scandinavian Design
Growing up in Sweden, I was exposed early to the 60’s bold design, especially on textiles, ceramics and decorative items. Gone were the soft pastels of the 50’s and ahead were the 70’s bright green, pink and orange in wild combinations.
My parents had just bought their first house and my mom used her artistic talent to decorate it in a fresh and functional style. Scandinavian Design was a term that became known all over the world, but it mostly applied to furniture. For us living in the middle of it, it was so much more – home textiles, kitchenware, children’s books, clothing and more.
The pink cat ceiling light is long gone, but a knee high iron candlestick in a form of a cat might still be hanging out in my parents’ living room. René & Monique at retrolivet.se came to the rescue and kindly let us use their photo of an identical cat. So much character with just some lines! (Pst, they have one and it’s for sale in their online shop!)
Cats in Scandinavian Folk Art
Cats have a long tradition in Scandinavian art and folk art, much more than dogs. Not too surprising considering the cats have kept rats and mice at bay at farms and grain storage for over 1000 years. For example, you are much more likely to find Christmas cards with a tomte (Swedish gnome) with a cat than a dog. We had to go back and check our post about the introvert tomte. Lo and behold, half the images of the tomte have a cat and there are no dogs. This was first pointed out to me by June Neumann, Norwegian owner of the Viking Treasures, a Scandinavian gift store in Long Grove, IL. She has an amazing collection of cats – cat jewelry, Nisse/Tomte and Trolls with cats, Royal Copenhagen porcelain cats, Lisa Larson ceramic cats, cats in glass, and frankly, way too much to list here.
Elisabeth