Chemotherapy vials basis for Summerlin resident’s dog-inspired artwork
Summerlin resident Hilarie Grey has found a way to mix her love of dogs, her previous work with cancer patients and her innate ability for cartooning. She crafts dog figurines known as Hounds of Hope.
She sells the hounds on etsy.com. They feature various breeds, but Grey also does custom orders for devoted pet owners.
With the orders come memorable stories.
“I had a lady write to me, who had a friend with a German shepherd,” Grey said. “And he was just in love with the dog, named Blu, and he was a soldier about to be deployed to Afghanistan. She wanted a figurine of Blu that he could take with him — Little Blu — to remind him of home. So I made it. … And when he came back, they took a picture of the dog and the figurine together and sent it to me.”
The effort is called Hounds of Hope because each figurine is based around a medical glass vial used for infusing chemotherapy for cancer patients. Grey takes the small, empty bottle, wraps it in polymer clay for the body of the dog, then adds the head and legs and distinguishing features. Sometimes the bottle shows, but most times, it doesn’t, although the intent at the heart of the effort is there.
It began when Grey was working as a communications director for a nonprofit cancer center. She was introduced to an empowering craft for patients — changing the vials from which they received their chemotherapy treatments into works of art. That program was called Bottles of Hope.
Grey took the basic idea, supercharged it with her love of dogs and turned it into a craft business.
“I have a perfectionist streak,” she said. “So, the most difficult thing about starting the shop was to stop fretting about being ‘ready’ and just put it out there.”
She works on the clay hounds during the evenings and weekends when she’s not tending to Vincent, her devoted sheepdog. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of Hounds of Hope goes to the Nevada SPCA for veterinary care of dogs with medical needs.
“Otherwise, these dogs wouldn’t get adopted,” she said.
Since starting the business two years ago, Grey has made about 300 figurines, two-thirds custom pieces. Orders have come from as far away as Australia and Italy. Some stories are sad: One dog had lost his original parents on one of the 9/11 planes. Other stories are happy: One woman used the figurine as the topper on her wedding cake.
Tammy Hardcastle, who lives in Mountain’s Edge, had Grey make figurines of all three of her dogs —Coco Chanel and Natasha, both Labradors, and Lolita, her 4-pound Chihuahua, whose figurine was dressed as a Las Vegas showgirl.
“She made them down to the collars on the dogs, the little tags that have their names on them,” Hardcastle said. “And it looks just like them.”
Many of Grey’s clients come from social media. She has 15,000 followers on Facebook, where she promotes the Etsy site and posts stories about dogs she encounters.
With each custom order comes a story, fodder for another story post, and insight into the character of the dog she’s sculpting.
“And I’m learning all these new breeds,” Grey said. “One person asked me for a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. I had to Google that one.”
Figurines cost about $30 to $55. For more information, visit etsy.com/shop/houndsofhope.
Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.
