Welcome to Black Cat Customs, your stop for custom paint and pinstriping!

Black Cat Customs is a freelance paint and pinstriping one woman show, located in Connecticut. Feel free to poke around the gallery of images, and make sure to to contact me when you are ready to bring your car, motorcycle, or bicycle to the next level. Use the links below to navigate the site.

Galleries:
Bikes
Accessories
Scratchpad

Information:
What is Pinstriping?
Policies
About Me
Contact me!

What is Pinstriping?

Pinstriping, also known as "line art" is the art of taking lines and weaving them into intricate designs to enhance the body lines of cars, motorcycles, bicycles and accessories. It was originally introduced in the early 20's, when the cars would come off the line with flare art and enhancing lines, gold leaf detail, and lettering. It was re-invented in the 50"s (give or take) to include very intricate designs. There are many styles of pinstriping today, ranging from simple to insane, the inclusion of "machine turning" gold leaf detail, and airbrushing.

Pinstripers typically use special brushes, paint, and a steady hand to create the designs that make your cars and bikes look incredible.

Von Dutch, Kafka, and others are the masters of pinstriping that I personally adore. Here is a video showing you what pinstriping is (Kafka showing off his products):



Back to Main Page

Policies

I am a commission-based artist, and my policies are as follows:

• All commissions require a written contract between myself and my client(s). The contract is binding.
• All commissions require a 10% non refundable down payment prior to the start of the commission. Should a client choose to withdraw his or her request after the contract has been drawn up and down payment made, the down payment will not be refunded. (This covers the cost of materials and time spent for designing).
• All commissions are of original work only. I create custom designs, and do not and will not repeat designs to the best of my ability. That means you get a one-off design that no one else will have. I do not and will not recreate the works of other pinstripers. I will recreate certain images such as military insignias, or general images under certain circumstances.
  
• All commissions will be delivered upon receipt of final payment. No payment, no product.
• Customer satisfaction is my priority, so I will work to the best of my ability to deliver a quality product that you will love. If you do not love it, I will work within reasonable boundaries to correct any mistakes or give partial refunds, where necessary. I require a fair amount of contact between myself and my clients to ensure satisfaction.
• I work in the currency of the customer. With the exception of the 10% down payment, I will accept cash or barter as payment. Accepting the type of payments however, will be at my discretion.
  

Back to Main Page

Bikes

Self explanatory, I suppose! I will add photos as I get them, always check back!




This is a 1983 sportster that we customized. The Mr fabricated the tank to sit up top Frisco style, and I did the body and paint work. (Except for the fender, the Mr bobbed it, but I only painted it). The idea behind this paint job was to beef up the look of the bike, since it's a slim sportster with a fat boy front end. I used chunky scalloping and thick thick stripes to offset them in an attempt to give the little bike some girth. I think it worked out loverly.

The paint is: Gloss black, Cherry red, white pinstriping, and about 6 coats of high gloss clear.



You can see here how slender the bike really is. The fender got a little attention with a chunky scallop/flame duo and similar striping as the tank.



Detail of the tank. He wanted some finer striping on the bike somewhere, so I added this design towards the seat. The design is freehanded, like most of my work. I still have to paint the oil tank, and gas cap come winter tear down.

Back to Main Page

Accessories

I paint more than just cars and bikes! Helmets, jackets, tool boxes - if it hasn't moved in 5 or so minutes, I will paint it. Photos will be added when I get them, so keep checking in to see what I've gotten my hands (and paint!) on.

Leather jacket. I had to paint around the studs on this one, black and white save for the red pinstriping at the bottom. This was done with simple brushes and fabric paint.



Jacket detail. I didn't have a pinstriping brush to do the bottom with, so it's just a regular brush.




Yet another jacket. Same deal as above.



Detail



Helmet. I had to paint around the sticker, and I'm not sure why this image is so fuzzy. It looked good when I shot it, though!



Close up of the helmet.

Back to Main Page

ScratchPad

This is a collection of my random designs and ideas. They are not perfect, far from it. It's just a stream of conscious notebook for me. They are mostly pencil, ink and paper. I work out designs as the idea strikes me, and often go back in to play with colors. If you see something you would like on your car, bike or accessories just let me know. I will add pictures as I get them, so check back often to see new and exciting ideas.
















Back to Main Page

About Me

I am Victoria "Vicsen" C. (It's pronounced vixen) and I am Black Cat Customs. I was a largely self taught artist until my early twenties, when I decided to ditch engineering and go to art school. I graduated from the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts* in 2004 with a bachelors in sculpture. (*Now the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts).

I picked up pinstriping quite by accident when my husband asked me to think of a design for him. With steady hands, and a background in classical art, tattoo designs, and random Celtic-knotwork-for-fun designs, I took to it like a fish to water. It wasn't long after that I was also being asked not only to design and stripe, but to do full paint jobs. But my experience with that goes even farther back than that - I started painting murals on cars in my early teens. Every car I owned had a painted theme of some sort, and I think I just never quite got it out of my system.

No wonder I love my job!

As of now I am a purely freelance pinstriper and classical artist, as well as a full time stay at home mother who homeschools.

The second half of Black Cat Customs is my husband. He does fabrication and customization of motorcycles, which I then paint for him. If you need custom work done on your motorcycle, you can contact him through me, on the contact page.

Back to Main Page

Contact Me

If you like what you see, and live in Connecticut, please contact me via e mail:

blackcatcustoms@yahoo.com

Please address the e mail with either:

"Pinstriping Request" or "Pinstriping Question" so I know it's not spam. Please include in the e mail your name, contact information, best time to call/contact, and a brief description of what you would like. If I cannot do the work you want done, I will try my best to help you find someone who can.

Back to Main Page