Artisan Felted Fabrics, Garments
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. Happy Fourth of July to all of our friends, near and far.
Happy Fourth of July. Celebrate safely and please remember all of our men and women in active service. Sandy
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 of fiber left when the shearer went back over an area a second time), and inconsistent fibers. This step is done by me and Lee in our barn, (most friends avoid our phone calls if they know we are skirting), before we send the fibers to the mill to be washed and processed.
Why do we hate it so much? It is a tedious process, requiring concentration and focus. We have to stand at the skirting table for hours. Our finger tips get sore from the dirt and dust in the fiber. You get dirty. Real dirty. And bored. We are constantly shooing the cats off the fiber.
We have a handbuilt skirting table that a favorite Houstonian built for us several years ago. It is constructed from chicken wire and 2 x 4s, measures 3′ x 6′ and rests on saw horses. We lay out the blanket (the fleece from the alpacas’s torso minus the underbelly fibers) with the cut side up. Our larger alpacas’ blankets will fill the entire table. We then move around the table, handling every part of the blanket, pulling off nonconforming fibers. Every alpaca blanket, even from the best of animals, will have areas of the blanket that need to be removed before milling.
And the “love” part of it? We get to touch and feel our harvested fibers, oohing and aahing over the colors, the brightness, the waves of crimp and best of all that wonderful alpaca softness. We analyze each animal’s fiber and note changes. Some alpacas maintain their fine soft lustrous fiber longer than others. The handling of Jazzman‘s fibers (the first alpaca born at our ranch) is still soft, shiny and consistent eight year’s later. It is still a breeze and a delight to skirt.
Several of our older females show their aging by the addition of white and grey fibers throughout their fleece. Salt and pepper, just like me. All of the alpacas develop coarse fibers called guard hair as they age. When they are young, guard hair tends to cluster in areas like their chests. Some guard hair areas must be pulled out and thrown away. Others are worth working through, pulling out the coarser fibers. Our grey fibers require the most work because they have longer dark fibers, similar to guard hairs, which need to be pulled out if the fiber is to be used for clothing worn next to the skin.
Skirting is particularly important to our Whispirit line because the quality of skirting impacts the feel of our garments. Fleece that contains inconsistent lengths, second cuts, and variations in the diameter of the individual fibers can feel coarse even when most of the fibers are incredibly soft. Our garments have that wonderful alpaca softness due to our skirting and practices of constancy of grade because we take special care with our skirting. Like the old saying “garbage in, garbage out.”
Skirting is the most important step to turning out quality fabric, yet we put it off. We have half of last year’s clip in our storage area in the barn (cat secure). Immediately after last year’s shearing we skirted all of our white and black fiber, as we find these are the most popular colors currently in our fabric making. With sheering just a week away, we look anxiously at the bags of grays, browns and fawns.
Okay bucko, it’s up to the barn to make room for this year’s clip. (Yes, yes, you can LISTEN to the Red Sox game.)
Anyone want to learn to skirt?
Til next time. Sandy
April 18th, through April 24th is the third annual Fashion Revolution Week. Organized by people who are part of the the apparel production world — designers, textile makers, sewists, models, production houses — the purpose of this week is to educate people all around the world about the human suffering, the waste and the environmental impact of the production of fast fashion.
April 24th is the third anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, the largest disaster in fashion history. Some 1,333 workers died and 2,500 were injured while laboring in the five factories manufacturing clothing for the Western market. Many of those who died and were injured had attempted to protest the unsafe working conditions and were beaten and forced to enter the building. Within an hour of their entrance, the building collapsed. The tragedy was well covered by the world media, and the horrors of the recovery effort. Reform was called for and the companies behind the labels that were found in the ruins were asked to contribute to the the disaster relief.
Three years later, the Fashion Revolution is urging consumers to ask fashion houses “who made my clothes.” For those of us who produce apparel and accessories following “slow fashion” methods, ask us to to explain “who” and “what” go into our claimed ethically produced garments, accessories and fabrics we market under the Whispirit label. Lee and I hand make the fabric which comes mostly from our alpaca herd or other US raised alpaca. We know each and every person who contributes to our apparel line, the people who mill the fibers, the people who make the patterns, the people who sew the garments. We know the person who makes most of our buttons and, if we don’t, dyes our fibers. Each vendor establishes their hourly charge or piece work price for their work on our line. We are proud of that fact and committed to ethical and environmentally sound practices and transparency in our business practices. We are committed to producing our work guided by a moral sense of beauty.
Please like the Fashion Revolution Facebook page, and read their facts and information about fashion. Ask your favorite label “Who Made My Clothes?
Until next week…….. Sandy
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 to create a unique form of excellence in each and every aspect of its service (reservations, welcoming, restaurant decor, plating, delivery, accompanying beverage, check out, attention). Every role in the restaurant — from the individuals plating the food to the cook to the sommelier to the person selecting the ingredients — must perform his or her part with the same commitment to perfection.
Soigné is a word that has also been historically associated with haute couture to describe both a daily style of exquisite dress as well as the highest achievement of design. To Google the term, unfortunately shows that today’s fashion world uses this elegant word to infuse mass produced inexpensive apparel with a sophistication it does not deserve. Oh, where are the word police when we need them? Mass produced, sacrificing quality of materials for less expensive, overseas labor. Yes, you too can buy a trendy dress for $19.99. It is so inexpensive you can buy 6 and next season throw them out and buy 6 more. This, I believe, is a misuse of the word.
Some in the world of fashion who are trying to re-find the sense of excellence in all dimensions — sustainability, fabric, design, quality of production and artisan creations have coined a far less elegant phrase: “Slow Fashion Movement.” I have to fight the image of a chicken cooking in my crock pot, but the Slow Fashion Movement really is another name for the wearable art that has existed in unique shops created intentionally, by design by talented, intentional and yes, slow moving designers. Their’s is not the mass produced wearable which dominated this century as “off the rack” designs. Whispirit is part of this movement.
Each of our garments at Whispirit is created with the very best of creative commitment. Our ingredients are the luxurious natural alpaca fibers … milled by hand into amazing batts … hand felted into unique fabrics … designed to match the qualities of the fabric to your comfort … sewn by hand seamstresses using their highest level of skill … finished with handmade artisan buttons and closures that is artfulness. Each garment is made, one by one for you the ultimate consumer. Soigne!
We, the Whispirit team, work hard to combine artfulness with the highest standards of sustainability, teamwork and production excellence. Each of us bring our best to the effort, combining seemingly unparalleled skills of animal husbandry, shearing standards, milling excellence, textile production, garment creation, button creation, sales and customer service to create a unique personal experience — soigné, slow fashion, that is a memorable fashion experience for you.
Treat yourself to one of our our new creations that will be appearing in our partner boutiques and in our on-line store shortly.
Til next time. Sandy
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 new vistas, and be inspired by other artisans.
Now returned and as we settle back into running the ranch and designing new garments for Whispirit, we are impressed again by how much creativity and productivity there is in New Mexico, our chosen home and how many new ideas we have bouncing around. New Mexico is where our imaginations and our dreams take shape.
As we collect with our creative partners who help us pull our ideas into Whispirit products, we are excited to take on several new projects, which we will describe in future blogs
We are excited and hope you will follow us throughout this year.
