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

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.