Feline Friday : Cat hair crafts

Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat

Crafting with Cat Hair, the perfect book for Feline Friday When I saw this book, Crafting with Cat Hair, it made me laugh. The book is so perfect because now is Pinkie’s and Midnight’s shedding season with Arizona starting to heat up into the 80s (yesterday hit 83F/28.3C). I just had to share it with you on Feline Friday. The book is written by a Japanese woman Kaori Tsutaya and translated by Amy Hirschman.  I love how Kaori’s love for cats shine through.  The cat crafts and the cat photos are so cute. She creates them from the cat hair of her own and friends’ cats. (note on the scan.  The text is black, not rainbow, in the book.  I don’t know why my scanner is creating rainbow text.  Hope you can still read the table of contents page one below. note: on the book link.  I am an Amazon affiliate, see disclosure at page bottom.)

 

She wants to ensure cat hair is gathered in a kind, gentle and friendly way so she also gives instructions on brushing and how to gather cat hair.  I love her advice on brushing cats.  “Do not overbrush a cat who does not like to be brushed.  The cat will get angry and try to scratch you.”  and this one “Even if you usually forgive your cat for scratching you, you should still do your best not to get scratched in the first place.”

She teaches you how to felt the hair and then make these cute little cat figures that you can then sew onto book covers, totebags and other things that she tells you how to make.

 

Kaoru obviously worried someone might love making cat crafts toooo much so she warns you to not shave your cat but only collect the hair through “gentle brushing”. She also admonishes “Your cat’s hair is not for sale. Keep your beloved cat’s hair for your own personal use” and that these crafts are not appropriate for someone with cat allergies.

Kaoru’s chapter on craft care admits you have to be very careful or they won’t last very long.  She warns “Cat-hair felt is delicate.  It is subject to falling apart if too much friction is applied or if it gets washed too often, so handle it gently.”  In her washing instructions (gently by hand, of course), she warns not to wash it with anything else unless you like things covered in cat hair.

In the back of the book, she introduces the cats featured throughout who contributed their hair for the various projects. One adorable contributor is Yuki below who scratches the shoji screen so they patched it up with cat crafted figures from Yuki’s own hair.  Another cat, Gabi the camping cat, has his own blog which if you click here takes you to a 2015 entry. I think something happened to him because when I scrolled to 2019, it’s a different calico cat.  It’s still a cool blog even though I can’t understand a word — it’s all in Japanese! I like the cat photos.

It’s a fun book.  Don’t you think it would be fun to make cat crafts? Especially with the way they are starting to shed now that it is warming up.

Looks over at the cats.  Hmmmmm.  I have to teach Pinkie and Midnight to  enjoy being brushed so I can make my own cat crafts. Now why did that thought send them running?  Kaoru’s cats love being brushed.  Hey Pinkie! Hey Midnight!

Next I need one for human hair because the cats are not the only ones shedding, lol.

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