After its introduction in Jackson Hole at the Western Design Conference, the Cacaophony of Colors Collection is now available for purchase. Featuring the award winning Fire Nymph jacket, this fall collection of jackets and wraps is full of bright colorful abstract designs to brighten any fall or winter day and evening. Each piece of this […]
Spirit of the Dance: Introducing Whispirit Wall Hangings
You’ve seen the results of our new design process we call “collage felting.” This technique now enlivens our jackets, shawls and scarves. We are delighted to report that we are getting rave reviews from Handwoven Originals, website and Facebook visitors and those who have come to our studio. Recently, while Sandy was showing me her latest […]
Preview “Design Your Own Jacket ” – Tell Us What You Think!
Do you look at the Whispirit designs and think, “I really wish I had a unique alpaca jacket but … I’m not sure it will fit, I think I want a different cuff, I would really like a closure… I have short arms, am tall, short, skinny, not so skinny… I think a button would […]
Off the Beaten Track “Gems”
Sunday and Monday we celebrated my birthday by visiting some of my favorite off-the-beaten-path “gems” that make New Mexico so delightful. A drive up the High Road to Taos, lush and green due to the monsoon rains having soaked at least this part of New Mexico’s northern terrain. Small artist communities like Truchas, Chamayo […]
Dog Days of Summer
From last week’s blog you know that we were in Seattle for a few days. Returning from Seattle, we found our senses of sight, taste, and smell had been tickled to “overload.” We’re bursting with new ideas for designs and colors. Prior to departure we took several “sewing” machines in for servicing. They were to […]
Re-generating Our Creativity
Some years ago we embraced the philosophy of needing an “artist’s date” every so often to fan the creative embers. Artist’s dates can come in many forms from several hours to several days. Museum visits, a solitary hike in the woods, a visit to a gallery or even a brief trip to Taos brings new […]
Celebrating the Fourth!
As we wrote in this blog last year, the Fourth of July is Lee’s favorite holiday. Besides celebrating our country’s birthing process it’s that time when he reflects on the year just past. This year we are doing our reflection in pictures. It has been a year of great delight, friendship, health and gratitude. […]
Wild Fires & Community
Like predators, wildfires are part of our life in the Southwest. The Dog Head Fire, which broke out last Tuesday in the Manzano Mountains and continued to rage without significant containment for almost a week, is probably 15 to 20 miles south of us. The plumes of smoke can be seen from every where in […]
The Rest of the Fiber Tour & Welcome A Newborn Alpaca to the World
This week’s blog will focus on the artisans to be found at stops 4, 5, and 6 of the East Mountain Fiber Farm & Studio Tour, which is this coming weekend June 11 and 12. Get your map here. Stop 4. The Woolshed at Maple Winds Farm This stop on the fiber tour is […]
Check Out Our Fellow Participants on the East Mountain Fiber Farm & Studio Tour
Our blog today and next week will focus on the other ten fiber creatives who are welcoming people to the 13th Annual East Mountain Fiber Farm and Studio tour June 11th and 12th. As you will see, many of the six stops on the tour map have multiple artisans, so check them out in advance to […]
Love Hate Relationship with Skirting
One of our least favorite — hence most avoided — part of the fiber processes is skirting. This is where we take the fiber shorn from our alpacas, lay it out on a mesh table and pick through it by hand. The hand-picking process removes vegetation, matted or soiled fibers, second cuts (short small pieces […]
Returning Birds and Spring Cleaning Reminds Me of …. Baseball!
I’ve always marveled at how hibernating or migrating species know it’s time to get up or return. Or, why humans get that uncontrollable urge this time of year to throw things out, wash off the winter grime, weed garden beds, re-organize the shed, start the new exercise program. Best of ALL, from my perspective, is […]
Bringing Whispirit Fashions To Life
Last Wednesday, Lee and I had great fun at our first ever, non-style show fashion photo shoot for our new Whispirit collection of fabrics and fashion. The session took place at the studio of our great photographer and friend, Dave Nufer. Dave had arranged for local mom, home school teacher, trained dancer Tara Ortiz to model. […]
Soigné d/b/a Slow Fashion
This weekend one of our sons, Chris, who did his culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu and has worked in fine dining restaurants in NYC, Boston and Girona, Spain explained the subtlety of the wonderful French verb “soigné(e)” to distinguish between fine dining restaurants and excellent restaurants. Fine dining restaurants are staffed, physically designed, and completely orchestrated […]
Like Looking Through a Kaleidoscope
Our efforts to combine silk and alpaca into sheer fabrics just turned another corner. Since we began Whispirit, we have felted without water to create our alpaca fabric. We have relied on a mechanized needle felting process to create yards of stable and strong textiles. With this process we have been able to range between more dense outer […]
The Button: A Bridge Between Art and Fashion
A year ago, on my first trip to Paris, I spent hours at the Musee de Les Arts Decoratif’s special exhibit “Deboutonner La Monde,” roughly translated “Unbutton Fashion.” This was the first exhibit of a wonderful gift from a collector and it was superbly curated. Aptly, the fashion world noted this wonderful exhibit in many […]
Spring is Just Around the Corner … Really … No Kidding…
It may surprise our friends who are digging out from one of the worst snowstorms to hit the east coast in many moons, but we are already making fabric for Whispirit’s 2016 spring designs. For our lighter weight spring garments we felt spiderweb thin layers of alpaca into silks, cottons and linens which becomes the […]
Finding Whispirit’s 2016 Groove
All of us at Whispering Spirit Alpacas are concluding a much needed break over the winter holidays which graced us with travels to Spain & France, time with parts of our family and opportunities to ponder ideas for our Whispirit 2016 creations. Traveling gives us a great chance to change our rhythm, take in […]
Fleece Navidad
‘Tis a great holiday season. At Whispirit, we have been delighted to provide unique, American made, super warm, and extra cuddly gifts to customers who are gifting in celebration of their special holidays, as well as customers who gifted something special to his or herself. We have especially enjoyed working with those of you […]
Saki, Cisco and their Collaborative “Brown and White Chocolate” Fabric
“How do you make that?” asked the excited purchaser of the lovely Kasode jacket you see pictured. It’s a frequent question. Laurie Schatzberg said, “Thanks for a fantastic afternoon of shopping, and communing with you all … And those wonderful dogs and alpacas! I’ll be back for sure!” Doesn’t she look great? First, of course, […]
Evergreening Our Fiber
On our first day in the Seattle area, we visited Evergreen Fleece Processing LLC mill which has been processing our fiber in batts for more than three years. We had never visited Evergreen mill before, although we have spent time with owners Chuck and Lynn Armstrong at several FeltLOOM gatherings. In addition to owning and operating equipment […]
Labor Day – Celebrating Everyone Who Makes It Happen
Labor Day, the first Monday of September, is a celebration of the American worker. Although the holiday is often associated with organized labor, to me it is a time to recognize those individuals who roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty making things happen in unison with others. Yep, Labor Day is another […]
The Alpaca Batt Channel
So I imagine you have been waiting to hear what happens next after Sandy is done skirting… Once we have separated good from unusable fleece (at least for our purposes), we bag, box and ship the fleece to one of the mills we use for processing. Because we require the processing to be done […]
Dog Days of Summer
Thank you. We are humbled and flattered by the increasing numbers reading our blog and appreciate those of you sending us questions. We are passionate about our alpaca, their fleece and our fabrics. So don’t hesitate sending your inquires, we love to answer them. Last week several of you wanted to know if things are […]
4th of July Inspiration
We hope everyone had a terrific and safe Fourth of July. This is my favorite holiday. It’s a time to honor these United States, our history, warts and all. For me it is a time to reflect and find inspiration from how far we have come and our hopes and dreams for tomorrow, as individuals […]
