Special Pets: Wool Cats
Over the years, we've had a lot of rescue cats. Once you adopt a kitty, they really become part of the family, so we're always trying to come up with special little mementoes of our furry friends. What could be a better pet memorial than something made with their own furry fluff? We've stuffed little things with our cat's hair, saved it in keepsake boxes and carded it into wool to include in various needlework pieces. After enough experimentation, we wondered if it would be possible to make a small needle-felted cat using cat fluff, and Voila. While it is not possible to make any solid piece out of 100% cat fur, I've found that it does felt very well when added to wool. In order to make a felted kitty with real cat fluff, these little cats are needle felted out of wool roving. It is then possible to felt the cat fur onto the entire surface of the wool cat (covering up all traces of the wool inside), which makes the cat appear to be completely made of your cat's own fluff. They can be made as little "figures" to sit in a cabinet or as little ornaments to hang on a tree.
Photos below show some of these needle-felted cats beside a photo of the real cat whose fur was used on the piece. You cannot use the guard hair for these felted pet. You have to use the undercoat, and the only way to get that is by brushing your kitty and saving the fluff from the brush. A fast way is to use a Furminator — if you have one and your kitty likes it!
Click on the photos above to see full-size pictures.
Needle-felted cats will be the color of your cat's undercoat and not the color of their guard hair (the fur which you see when you look at it). Notice how the orange and white cat is actually a solid orangy-buff color, the Tortie looks rather pale grey with some faded orange hair here and there, and the black cat (who actually had one white spot on his chest) turned out a charcoal grey.
If you'd like to order a needle-felted cat like this, please e-mail me. You will need to mail a bag of your cat's fluff to me. If you'd like the small ornament size, I just need a snack-bag ziploc full. If you'd like a larger (3 or 3-1/2") size, then I will need a sandwich baggie pretty full of fluff. Please, only send clean fur (no lice or fleas, PLEASE). This will not work with dirty, dander-filled, dandruffy or oily fur. Also, depending on the length of your cat's name, we can also make a leather name tag to tie around the neck of the kitty. We'll go over all of these details with you again before sending an invoice, so just begin by letting us know which size you'd like.
Available in Three Sizes
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2" Cat Ornament: $95.00 + Shipping
3" Cat: $149.00 + Shipping
3-1/2" Cat: $195.00 + Shipping
As with all handmade items, each of these kitties is unique, so your felted cat will vary slightly from the photos. Please, ALLOW FOUR WEEKS for me to make each cat.
Click on the photos above to see full-size pictures.
