Felting with Animal hair! Some thorough ‘how to’ advice.

You may be surprised to know that this is a question that comes up fairly often. Can you felt with pet hair? For pet lovers around the world the idea of using their beloved pets excess hair seems like a great way to make a little tribute to them, or even just use something that often goes to waste.

For others, if their pet has passed away, it’s an amazing keepsake or memento which some will often get an artist to make for them. So you may be approached by a customer wanting you to make something with their pet hair!

This article from TactileHobby.com gives you some great advice and know how to get you comfortable around working with this less utilised fibre. I’ll pop some examples here too of animals made from pet hair, you might be able to see the difference that this hair makes.

Myself I have used Persian cat hair and possum, both were easiest to use over a felted base, so I just did the top coat in these fibres. You can also blend the hair into the fibre before use, which works well if the colours and finish will enhance the project.

Westie Felted With Dog Hair Needle Felted Dog Miniature Custom | Etsy New Zealand — This picture is from an item on Etsy, a Westie felted with dog hair.

Needle #felted #heart with dog hair” by... — Something like this could make a special memento.

We Chat With Jessie Dockins About Her Needle-Felted Dogs – Dogster — You can kind of tell the fibre is hair rather than wool, it looks a little more wiry.

Cat hair can be a little easier to use, it is often finer depending on the breed. The same can be said for dog hair as well but our more common dogs aren’t often those with a cotton wool kind of coat. You can see that the cat hair in these photos gives a nice, merino like finish.