How to (mount? set?) deceased cat's tuft of fur?
October 27, 2024 8:36 PM
My beloved cat Heidi died recently and I'd like to make a keepsake from her fur that I can touch. Does anybody have experience with trying to set or mount a tuft of fur to something (something adhesive? poked through something?) so that it can be touched and still remain in place?
I have a couple of tufts of fur from her that we shaved off of her before her body was taken to the crematorium. It's currently in a plastic bag. Most of it is still in the same relative positioning as it was when it was on her body, and I would love to be able to stroke it and be reminded of her. Thank you for any anecdotal experience or suggestions.
I have a couple of tufts of fur from her that we shaved off of her before her body was taken to the crematorium. It's currently in a plastic bag. Most of it is still in the same relative positioning as it was when it was on her body, and I would love to be able to stroke it and be reminded of her. Thank you for any anecdotal experience or suggestions.
I'm sorry for your loss. It's so hard.
I don't know what you would mount it into, but I imagine you could use a doll hair rooting tool. Maybe into a small silicone square?
posted by coldbabyshrimp at 9:29 PM on October 27
I don't know what you would mount it into, but I imagine you could use a doll hair rooting tool. Maybe into a small silicone square?
posted by coldbabyshrimp at 9:29 PM on October 27
People make paint brushes with animal fur. I wonder if using the same techniques hair can be gathered and you can have a little brush tuft, maybe velcroed to a frame with her picture in it.
There is also this at etsy.
posted by beccaj at 9:33 PM on October 27
There is also this at etsy.
posted by beccaj at 9:33 PM on October 27
Yes, I came to suggest paint brush making techniques - this delightful old school blog post has lots of good pictures and details. You could glue your prepared brush tip into a short puck that could be held in one hand, maybe, instead of a long handle.
For preservation of the fur, I think taxidermists will know best. Unfortunately I don’t know any taxidermy communities to recommend but I’m sure they’re out there.
For my cat’s extremely long and important whiskers, I placed them on a piece of black bookcloth in about their correct positions they would have been on his face (he had one adorable eyebrow whisker that I snipped before we said goodbye, and I’d been collecting his fallen ones around the house for a while before, so I had enough to kind of abstractly convey half a cat face) and sandwiched them inside a glass picture frame that had glass on the front and back. I didn’t feel the need to preserve his fur; it’s been almost year and a half and my house is still full of it! But if I had, I probably would have kept the fur and whiskers separate.
posted by Mizu at 9:50 PM on October 27
For preservation of the fur, I think taxidermists will know best. Unfortunately I don’t know any taxidermy communities to recommend but I’m sure they’re out there.
For my cat’s extremely long and important whiskers, I placed them on a piece of black bookcloth in about their correct positions they would have been on his face (he had one adorable eyebrow whisker that I snipped before we said goodbye, and I’d been collecting his fallen ones around the house for a while before, so I had enough to kind of abstractly convey half a cat face) and sandwiched them inside a glass picture frame that had glass on the front and back. I didn’t feel the need to preserve his fur; it’s been almost year and a half and my house is still full of it! But if I had, I probably would have kept the fur and whiskers separate.
posted by Mizu at 9:50 PM on October 27
I slid it carefully out of the plastic baggie and tied it into a bundle around the approximate center with some black embroidery floss. I'm a resin artist and will probably eventually make a memorial piece with some of her ashes and include a little vase or cup I can keep the fur in.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:31 AM on October 28
posted by Lyn Never at 9:31 AM on October 28
If preserving the fur as it is right now proves to be difficult, or yields an item you need to be really delicate with, you could make (or have someone make for you) a needle-felted sculpture that incorporates some of the fur into the wool. Stroking the sculpture would not feel like petting your cat, but you would still know that the fur was there, and it would be a tangible object you could hold and touch without damaging it.
posted by theotherdurassister at 10:16 AM on October 28
posted by theotherdurassister at 10:16 AM on October 28
I already have a bag of clumped up hair that I'd brushed out of her over the years that I have vague plans to have spun or made into something, it's the most recent coherent tufts that I'm most concerned about. Thanks everyone!
posted by coolname at 8:40 AM on October 29
posted by coolname at 8:40 AM on October 29
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posted by kate4914 at 8:52 PM on October 27