If you’re looking for someone to make a realistic, three-dimensional portrait of your pet cat using felt wool, you’ll have a tough time finding someone better than Wakuneco. Just have a look at what she can do with a needle and wool thread.

Looking at some of the feline portraits created by the talented Japanese artist, it’s hard to believe they are made of felted wool and not taxidermy masterpieces. To achieve this level o realism, Wakuneco – which translates as “frame cat” – spends hours on end poking at wool with a needle to create solid layers that mimic cat fur, applying realistic glass eyes and finally adding the whiskers. After everything is just as she wants it, the 3D portrait is framed and sent to the owner who commissioned it.

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Creating hyper-realistic animal portraits with a paintbrush or pencil is a difficult skill that only the world’s most talented artists can master, but doing it with just a needle and wool felt sounds downright impossible. That only makes “wool painter” Dani Ives’ work that much more impressive.

Looking at Dani Ives’ impressive portfolio of “wool paintings” it’s hard to believe that she only uses a barbed felting needle to manipulate colored strands of wool on a basic foam pad, in order to achieve such impressive results. The self-taught artist apparently developed her own technique, which involves pushing the colored wool through the base before pulling it back through, which helped her push the boundaries of this centuries-old art form.

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