Mindful Artist

 
Pipe cleaner artist

These are the mind-bending sculptures that take up to 40 hours to create - as they're made entirely from pipe cleaners.

The fuzzy flexible figures are made entirely from the tobacco cleaning tools - which are now more commonly found strewn across nurseries and art classrooms - to construct the incredible life-like animals.

California-based artist Lauren Ryan meticulously curls, bends, shapes and weaves the pipe cleaners into positions, using the fluffy texture to mimic the fur of polar bears, wolves, horses, leopards and foxes.

Lauren flatly refuses to use glue, insisting it is cheating, and has been perfecting her techniques since she was just twelve years old.