Jeff de Boer, an artist whose website is here, has an unusual form of art. He describes himself as:
a Calgary-based multi-media artist with an international reputation for producing some of the world’s most original and well-crafted works of art. With an emphasis on metal, he is best known for such bodies of work as suits of armour for cats and mice, armour ties and sword-handled briefcases, rocket lamps and pop culture ray guns, and exquisite high art, abstract works called exoforms.
The page with the cat and mouse armor is here; go have a look at these amazing constructions. I’ll show some of the cat armor and, to be fair to teh rodents, one set of mouse armor.
2008, nickel, aluminum, leather, brass, wood
2005, copper, brass, mixed media
2010, nickel, brass, leather, gemstones
The detail on de Boer’s work is incredible. Here’s the helmet from the outfit above:
2010, nickel, brass, leather, gemstone
2005, copper, brass, mixed media
An article at i09 gives more information:
De Boer was already experienced at making armor when he made his first suit of cat armor for a sculpture class. He decided to explore this idea in greater depth, taking real historical armor designs and adapting them for an animal form. Today, he has dozens of helmets and full suits of armor designed with cats and mice in mind. He says that he’s never outfitted a mouse in one of his armored suits, but he has tried to armor one of his cats and has “the scars to prove it.” He says that he’s far more interested in evoking an imaginative, narrative response from people who see his armor than explore the practical merits of putting mice in mail.
Mouse armor!
2006, silver, brass, wood
Be sure to browse the rest of de Boer’s galleries.
As special lagniappe for today, go have a look at the “business cat” memes (you can also make your own by clicking on any one and adding your own caption). Here are two:
h/t: Greg Mayer, Brian Switek
The art speaks for itself and the cats speak for themselves. 🙂
Tom and Jerry, the Medieval Years.
I demand equal protection for Sylvester and Tweety Bird!
That’s awesome craftsmanship and a creative application. I love it!
I want one of those.
Of all the mind-boggling tangents one sees artists go off on–this one is pretty cool. 🙂
This artwork immediately reminded me of the steampunk-armored, needle-felted polar bear I saw on etsy the other day:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/118161398/alpaca-needle-felted-steampunk?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=steampunk+polar+bear&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
Seems you could google any four random words nowdays and come up with some pretty interesting stuff!
As if I need more ways to kill time online. 😀
So critter armor is the latest fad I’ve missed…
Cool bear!
Medieval punk. I adore the princess helmet!
It’s not art until he actually manages to put a cat *in* one of those get-ups.
That would then be Performance Art.