The Buddy Collection was created and modeled to look like my dog Buddy. The pieces are playful and fun - symbolic of my darling, trusty dog Buddy.
The tale behind the inspiration begins after Boomer, my beloved dog of 15 and a half years, passed away. Truly one of the saddest days of my life when he left me and his brother Grover. Our hearts were broken and we missed him terribly. I adopted Boomer and Grover together as puppies from the same litter. Grover was so sad without Boomer that he did not want to play or eat or go for walks. Grover was downhearted and withdrawn from his loneliness.
I was so worried about him and I knew I had to find him a new buddy and friend. I found a dog at a shelter called Sunny Meadows in Memphis, Tennessee and I went there to adopt him. He was so cute and so smart. I named him Buddy.
Buddy came home to meet Grover and they liked each other right away.
Because of Buddy’s love and friendship - Grover was cheerful and spirited again, and so was I. They were inseparable. Grover lived to 17 years old and he loved Buddy as much as he loved his brother Boomer.
Buddy is a loving and dependable dog. Buddy has a special gift to make everyone happy. He is funny and he does silly things to make me laugh. I am so thankful to have such a nice dog and he makes every day special. I love Buddy so much. He is my best friend and he means everything to me.
One of the best things about Buddy is he that he always reminds me how important it is to be kind and to be a good, caring friend.
I decided to dedicate a collection of accessories modeled to look like Buddy, to stand for the important values of kindness and friendship that everyone should live by. It is my hope to instill this awareness to kids through The Buddy Collection.
When I started to design the Buddy Collection, I certainly was not lacking in reference materials with the thousands of pictures I have of Buddy. I take pictures of him constantly because he is always doing something funny and cute. One of the many adorable features of my dog is his wonderful, great big nose, his beautiful long eyelashes and his smile! My job was to capture and accentuate his look.
I began making the Buddy model with a clump of clay, which I had never worked with before so I didn’t know what to expect. First I constructed the head, then the body. I analyzed the characteristics for hours, days, weeks. After three months of re-making, re-tooling and re-shaping, it finally started to resemble Buddy. I made a collar with his name from my printer, cut it out, and glued it around the neck, then added a silver chain with a dangling “B” just like the one Buddy actually wears, then painted it with white nail polish and added the nose.
Next task was to make the Buddy ring. I bought a stuffed animal so I could use the fur for sewing. After countless tries, the shape of head and nose finally started looking right. I attached it to a ring band and I was so excited to wear it and show it off!
While creating the pieces, I stared at Buddy endlessly, trying to replicate every feature accurately. As an artist, developing this collection has been the most challenging, happy, fun, exciting and creative work I have done. Truly a labor of love, and luckily, the inspiration was always sitting right alongside me (sometimes sleeping.)
After the Buddy pieces were completed, it was time to start designing the logo for the Buddy Collection. I wanted to use an illustration of Buddy that really captured his sweetness and adorable features. My niece, Samantha Moy made the cutest “Happy Mother’s Day” card for her grandmother (my mom) and I thought it would be perfect for the logo. So I scanned the card and we refined the drawing.
Samantha, works for Ponytail Pals as a production artist and she spends alot of time with Buddy, as well as our other dogs, Chester and Jeff. Samantha is a very talented artist and we are really proud of the logo.
The Buddy Collection is playful and imaginative but more importantly, each piece symbolizes kindness and friendship providing awareness of these values to kids in an expressive way.
Collection pieces include a signature ring, bracelets, zipper pulls and messenger bag featuring Buddy and a “Be a Buddy, Kind is Cool” message.
Ponytail Pals® created the “Be a Buddy, Kind is Cool” campaign as a fun way for children to learn and share a powerful message of caring and acceptance.
As part of Ponytail Pals’ commitment to teaching kids about kindness, the company will donate 10% of all Buddy Collection sales from our website to PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center an organization which unites, engages and educates communities nationwide to address bullying through creative, relevant, and interactive resources.
Pieces from the Buddy Collection come with a special BUDDY PLEDGE CARD designed for kids to sign and display as a proud reminder of their commitment to being kind to others.
Designer Lisa Moy plans to add more pieces to the Buddy Collection in a continuing effort to support the “Be a Buddy, Kind is Cool” campaign. In addition, Moy is creating coloring books for kids so they can have fun as they learn.