A Whole Other Cat

This is a needle felted portrait bust of my cat Señor Stevie Nicks. He is part Maine Coon cat, so I have to shave him every summer so he doesn't overheat. It's a LOT of fur, and I always remark that we could make a whole other cat out of the fur we remove, so that is exactly what I did for this contest. 


This sculpture has a base sculpt made of sheep's wool, shaped with repeated puncturing with specialized barbed needles and it is topped with genuine cat fur, meticulously placed, section by section to create his unique fur pattern. His ears are wet felted using sheep's wool and mohair, which is a soft silky goat's wool.


I sculpted his nose from fimo clay, mounted it on a metal loop before curing it, painted it and it is sewn onto the base sculpture. He has glass eyes provided by Megan's Beaded Designs on Etsy which are similarly sewn in and felted around to create a realistic look. As a finishing touch, his whiskers are made from repurposed violin bow hair (aka horse hair) salvaged by my orchestra director friend, Shari.


He is mounted, specimen style, on an oval of upholstered red corduroy, edged with a cream colored braid, on a pine plaque. And of course, is finished with an adorable black bowtie with white polka dots, because every cat looks more debonaire when wearing a tie.

The entire piece took 22 hours to complete.
This journal entry details the steps to create the piece, with progress photos. www.deviantart.com/jodee/journ…