Caturday felid: New weapons in the battle of cat vs. mouse, and bonus business cat

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.

Tournament Cat, 2008
2008, nickel, aluminum, leather, brass, wood

Samurai Siamese
2005, copper, brass, mixed media

Elven Princess
2010, nickel, brass, leather, gemstones

The detail on de Boer’s work is incredible. Here’s the helmet from the outfit above:

Elven Princess helmet
2010, nickel, brass, leather, gemstone

Samurai Siamese
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!

Tournament Mouse – View 2
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