Agustina Woodgate’s Animal Skin Rugs Are Made from Stuffed Teddy Bears!

<a href="http://agustinawoodgate.com/">Agustina Woodgate</a> is well known for using unconventional materials in her <a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/art">art </a>-- <a href="http://inhabitat.com/artist-uses-human-hair-to-construct-a-castle-of-3000-bricks/">like this castle built from 3,000 bricks made of hair </a>-- but her latest creation turns a much less gag-worthy medium into plush rugs that burst with a kaleidoscope of color. In what she calls her <em>Skin Rugs</em> project, the artist has dissected dozens of stuffed animal toys and reconfigured them into murals with an aesthetic reminiscent of Rorschach inkblots.

The <em>Skin Rugs</em> series has taken Woodgate nearly two years to complete, and has involved a painstaking process that has her cutting up cuddly stuffed animals into various patterns, and stitching their synthetic, and often stubborn, fur into succinct designs. Woodgate used the "skin" of the stuffed animals the same way one would to create an actual bear skin rug. 

Even more surprising is that fact that the Woodgate had never sewn before taking on this project!

Each rug uses somewhere between 50 to 70 toys that were either donated to her, found, or purchased from Goodwill.

The incredible patterns depicted in each rug not only show her knack for choosing complimenting hues, but creating eye-catching designs on a large scale -- her smallest rug measure 7'x9'.

Woodgate admits the series was one of the more arduous undertakings of her career — from sourcing to sewing

Although she also<a href="http://www.sightunseen.com/2012/01/skin-rugs-by-agustina-woodgate-artist/"> tells Sight Unseen</a> this project is a personal favorite, and one she’ll continue to explore.

Woodgate's workshop and studio.