Memento

For my memento I wanted to communicate the feeling of comfort and soft, plush fur that dominates my memory of being young and laying on a rug on the floor in my house hugging my plump cat Hunter. I was really small for my age when I was younger and Hunter's splayed out cat body was about the size of 5-6 year old me; Hunter was essentially a warm, fluffy, living body pillow. 

I made the hand palm-sized fur pillow out of cat fur and thread. First I had to harvest cat fur from my boy Hunter. 

He really enjoyed this part of the project.

I then took the collected fur and rubbed it between my hands repeatedly while waiting on hold during a phone call to make airline reservations. My goal was to make a felted sheet of "fabric" to sew together as the pillow case. 

The fur-matting in progress.

I washed the matted fur sheet with shampoo.

Sewing together the pillow case.

I flipped the pillow case inside out and cut off the top to prep the case for stuffing.

Stuffing the pillow case with extra loose cat fur.

The finished product details: