Artist Jeff de Boer has designed and crafted tiny museum-quality armor for decades. How did he find his calling? “It all started with a mouse,” he says.

Calgary artist Jeff de Boer has been creating suits of armour for mice and cats as miniature art pieces. In the last 36 years, he estimates he has made more than 500 suits of armour.

Jeff de Boer’s elaborate suits of armor imagine a fanciful world in which cats and mice have learned to smith metal and construct for themselves often ornate suits of armor. Through the years ...