If you are a cat lover (or an Internet culture lover, or both, really) and haven’t started following Needle Felted Cats on Twitter yet, you should probably start.
横浜マラソンを応援するリアル猫ヘッド！
— 佐藤法雪needle felted cats (@freecatdoll) March 13, 2016
リアル猫ヘッドアートプロジェクトIN神奈川動物愛護フェア pic.twitter.com/KSYtF5wyei
Looks like a shopped photo, doesn’t it? It’s not. The head is real, and completely made of wool felt. It’s also not the only one.
黒猫ヘッド。リアル猫ヘッド4号バランス確認中。Black cat mask #リアル猫ヘッド pic.twitter.com/dFtE4iltgO
— 佐藤法雪needle felted cats (@freecatdoll) November 20, 2015
There’s two appropriate reactions at this point: Yell “DEAR GOD NO” and to run out of the room, or the cock your head sideways and mutter, “I have to get one of those.” If you’re in the second category, there’s a school in Japan where you can go to learn to make these yourself.
Japan School of Wool Art is located in central Tokyo in the Chūō ward, and offers lessons from three “feline” instructors that can teach you to needle-felt everything from your own giant cat head to kittens posting with clandestine charm.
Housetu Sato, the school’s resident needle-felting sensei, even has his own Facebook account if you want to keep up with the original cat head’s adventures.
ちよだ猫まつりの続きをフェイスブックのリアル猫ヘッドアートプロジェクトのページを更新しました。https://t.co/ktuoVE3Tcq画像が多くて載せるのも大変！＾＾ pic.twitter.com/8UXotGyeAx
— 佐藤法雪needle felted cats (@freecatdoll) March 19, 2016
ハロウィン 渋谷 pic.twitter.com/Mx6Cw0czZL
— 佐藤法雪needle felted cats (@freecatdoll) October 31, 2015
While the first cat head got a lot of attention in 2015, no one has talked about it much since, even though the school keeps making cat things that dangle their paws right over the edge of the uncanny valley. The newest head in the collection? An orange tabby, naturally.
新作の５号茶トラと６号サバトラ。このNEWリアル猫ヘッドは５月１日（日）の北鎌倉古民家ミュージアムのリアル猫ヘッドアートプロジェクトで被れます。詳細はブログ参照。https://t.co/FvlrvISZCO pic.twitter.com/iF8u3LQyMv
— 佐藤法雪needle felted cats (@freecatdoll) April 28, 2016
We’ll take 12, please.
