Hiné Mizushima is originally from Japan but later moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Her journey of making sea creatures needle-felted sculptures started when she made an animated music video using stop motion and gifted her creativity to her favourite band. Her work was highly admired by the band. This encouraged Hine to create more unique patterns using felt. After the success of her first animated music video “With the Dark,” she soon received her second offer of making another animated video “Secret Life of Six” by the same band.
Since then Hine began experimenting with felting wool fibres and fell in love with the process. Her work is inspired by biology, anatomy and the animal kingdom. She always finds unique designs for her new artwork. Her process starts with drawing in her sketchbook and cutting paper patterns to make handcrafted cute animals with felt. Her colour combinations are very attractive yet not necessarily realistic. You can see red, green and blue octopuses in her collection. The cute animals are often shown doing different jobs like an Octopus doing welding work, playing the guitar and other musical instruments, Sewing garments, and clicking photos. Her fucktopus was the most liked and sold work on Etsy. You can have a look at all her creations on Etsy.
Felt sculptures have become a signature of Hiné’s visual style. She also makes miniature collages for her Etsy shop. She receives a lot of commission projects which keeps her busy the whole day. She also manages to post the process of her work on Instagram and Behance. She runs her Instagram account by the name sheishine with more than 28k followers. She also owns a website for better connectivity with her fans all around the world.
#1 Oarfish sitting pretentiously
Ax wielding Octopus
Giant Flea
Giant Larva Sisters
Anatomical Kidney soft sculpture
Blue Octopus and Sea Catfish (2022) for an exhibition in Osaka, Japan.
punch needle mushroom brooches
Starfish brooch
Yellow fish
Pink Octopus
Today (Nov 30) is the last day for 15% off! All prints, postcard sets, and sticker sets are 15% off on my Etsy shop!
— Hiné Mizushima／水島ひね (@sheishine) December 1, 2022
今日がEtsyショップのポスター(ほぼA4)、ポストカードセット、ステッカーセットが15％オフになる最終日です。https://t.co/Yf0qc4cQin#hinemizushima #sale #etsy pic.twitter.com/iJAYQlsqrn