Artwork by Arina Borevich

Artist Arina Borevich encountered her first nudibranch, a type of sea slug, while volunteering at the White Sea Biological Station around 10 years ago. “I couldn’t believe something like that actually existed,” she says. Captivated by the creatures’ vibrant colors and intricate patterns, Borevich began making felt sculptures of the soft-bodied marine mollusks and eventually launched Wool Creature Lab, where she painstakingly handcrafts exact replicas of nudibranchs and other ocean life using needle and wet felting with sheep’s wool—a process that can take up to a full day. She hopes to eventually make all 3,000 known nudibranch species. “Most people have never heard of nudibranchs,” says Borevich. “But once they do, they tend to become a little obsessed.”