After posting a few felted kitties on Instagram I was asked by my friend Wayno® (cartoonist for the nationally syndicated comic, Bizarro) to needle felt a couple cats for his wife’s birthday; two stylized versions of their rescue cats, Jackson and Foster. Wayno® and I discussed the project and decided realistic pet portraits weren’t what he was after — he’s a cartoonist, after all. So I was excited to get the chance to felt some cartoony kittehs!
I got some photos of Jackson and Foster and got started. Jackson is a little bigger than Foster and one of his eyes is a little cloudy (I’m told it doesn’t stop him from being a regular cat though). Foster is the orange and white tabby with big, bright eyes.
These kitties wear collars with tags in real life. I tried my hardest to felt the tags, but just couldn’t get results I was happy with because of their near-sub-atomic dimensions. Another cartoonist friend offered to draw and print the tags on a heavy paper (I know so many handy people). Anyway, they came out perfect! You can actually see the designs on the tags even at that microscopic size.
I had so much fun felting these little guys. And word from Wayno® is that his wife adores them. Mission accomplished!
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