Animals are a favorite choice of subject among needle felters. And it’s no surprise since the craft itself creates a fuzzy effect the looks and feels like animal fur. Japanese needle felter Sachi, the creative behind Wakuneco (Japanese for ‘frame cats’) creates realistic cat portraits using felted wool. And you just need to see her creations to see how impressively lifelike they are.
Needle felting is a fun craft that transforms wool into 3D objects with the use of wool and a barbed needle. The process is typically done by using a needle to poke layers of wool on a felting surface. By poking into the wool straight up and down, the fibers bond together to form a solid fabric. Sachi discovered the craft in the spring of 2015 and immediately fell in love with it. Right at that moment, she only has one subject in mind – cats. A cat lover herself, she mastered the craft so she can create cats out of felted wool.
Japanese Artist Uses Felted Wool To Create Realistic Cat Portraits
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She began making full body felted wool kitties. But later on, she found herself more interested in crafting cat faces than other of its parts. She then focused solely on creating cat busts and that’s how her series of realistic cat portraits started.
Her Wakuneco creations, as the name implies, feature true-to-life feline faces mounted inside wooden frames. In addition to the lifelike fur, the glass eyes and naturalistic whiskers largely give the viewer the perception that they’re looking at a real kitty.
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Making realistic cat portraits out of felted wool started out just a hobby for Sachi. But when she posted her creations online, many people have been asking if she could make custom works for their cats. With overwhelming requests, she decided to turn the hobby into a career and started accepting custom requests in August 2016.
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If you live in Japan and want to make an order, you can contact her through her website. Anyone outside Japan can only hope that she would expand her service for the rest of the world in the near future. For the time being, we can just follow her on Instagram to see her amazing felted wool creations.
Watch how the artist create her felted wool masterpieces on the video below
Source: Instagram