My dear friend Michiko sent me a link last year and for the first 5 minutes I thought I was looking at real animals. Then I realized they were all little handmade felt creatures – made by Midori Nakayama and her dedicated team in Japan. Midori has been around since 2008 producing miniature animals. I was so thrilled by the idea that my friend sent me a great little book with pictures of Midori’s artistic team a few month later.

I’m still amazed at how precise and cute these dogs and cats look, sewn of wool felt – but after all, the Japanese people are celebrated for their accuracy, fine arts and patience. I tried to figure out Midori’s website – all in Japanese – there was no way I could read that and even Google translator had its problems. I asked Michiko to contact them to do an interview, but due to the fact that they are overwhelmed by orders, and tremendous media attention, we received no response.

Michiko's first felt French Bulldog - The first steps

Midori gives classes and workshops and they are booked for the next 2 years; I think that’s an indicator of their popularity, right? It’s cute that they say: “Please fill out the order form and then wait for awhile”, haha. I found some other similar artists, but none is like the real Midori. Fortunately, Michiko started her own series of felt animals and was kind enough to share her pictures and working process with me. As I mentioned, we tried to contact them to get their permission to publish some photos of the dogs and cats, but we couldn’t get any response. I just took pictures of my book’s pages and I hope you can see the beauties well. Check out what you can do with felt and a needle – and be amazed!

PackPeople shop: We sell felt monsters here.

[Gallery not found]

- Check out Etsy and do it yourself

- Check out Midori’s website for better pictures:)

- Check out http://www.chushka.com for black/white and grey felted animals