Japanese Artist Creates Stunning Life-Like Cat Portraits With Felted Wool

Her mastery is astonishing

Kylin

• Published in Animals
• July 27, 2022

Art is an incredible thing. With time, patience, practice, and skill, a person can create almost anything.

An artist from Japan, who goes by Wakuneco, has taken to needle felting. She creates incredibly realistic busts of cats using needles, different colored wool, paint, and glass for their eyes.

These three-dimensional busts are made in the likeness of real cats, whose pictures are submitted by their owners. So each creation is not quite the same, as each commission is based on completely different breeds, colors, and sizes of cats.

The life-like form is created by repeatedly stabbing layers of wool with a needle until the loose wool fibers are tucked together and make a solid shape. Wakuneco uses the same basic guide for the base of all creations, then the different fur colors, patterns, eyes, and whiskers are added.

Once a portrait is completed, the finished bust is cut away from the base and placed into a wooden frame. Wakuneco documents and shares each painstaking step for every creation through her social media pages: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

We collected a handful of completed portraits alongside videos and pictures of her work in progress to share with you today. Keep scrolling to see her incredible work.

Her delicate workspace

Making cat eyes

Building up the face

Perfect little ears

Adding those tabby details

"This is a Trabee that boasts a nice face".

Yuzu-chan 2017

Kaede-Kun 2017

This work is "Cha-kun" created in 2018

My cat works have various expressions.

I made the header image of Ameba Wakuneko Noritama-kun

It's Chobi-kun IN Nyaa

This Teo-chan is the first order cat to commemorate

This is Kaede-kun, a tea tiger

This is Yuzu-chan, a calico cat

It's Mr. Knight

Mr. Apollo

I'm Elsa

This is Hiro-chan

Fuwa-chan

This is the first Wakuneco I made

You can watch her mesmerizing process in the video below:

And watch the equally mesmerizing video of her making eyes

She's even released a How-To Book!

She does take commissions but does so through Yahoo! Auctions, where interested buyers submit their applications, and one is chosen at random. While she currently only ships to Japan, she does plan to extend her shipping internationally for her next commission.

You can get more information on her website and follow her work on social media:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube

Hopefully, she'll have a version of her how-to book published in English in the coming months. But in the meantime, share this with your friends!

Kylin