Whispirit By the Yard

May 1, 2017 By Lee Leave a Comment

Goodbye Garage, Hello Artisans Nook

After running the felting operation from the garage on our ranch the past five years, we have moved that aspect of our operations to the Nob Hill Fabric shop in Albuquerque.

Conversations began with Liz Frank, the owner of Nob Hill Fabrics, after she moved her shop away from its Central Avenue location into a well-lit and inviting space a few miles away. She invited us to talk with Rikki Quintana, owner of HoonsArt, a Fair Trade certified importer of textiles, apparel and other goods from Central Asia. Our synergy over handcrafted creations, textiles and wearable art was quickly evident.

We decided to name our adventure New Mexico Artisans Nook. Whispirit is hoping to use this great space to create felted wonders, to sell fabric and pieces, and to hold the occasional felting workshops. You will also be able to buy felting supplies, including batts (ours are very thin and great for nuno felters), prefelts and roving. You can follow our plans on the Nob Hill Fabrics “Newsletter” or on our NM Artisans Nook facebook page.

We are not completely set up, but Lee and I have each felted projects in our new digs. We are close to having a routine down for “who drives into the shop when” thus, a schedule for when Lee or I will be in the shop should soon emerge. It still feels weird having to plan what materials need to be at the shop for which felting projects, but we are enjoying being a little more social. Already learned a new dyeing technique from Liz (ice dyeing), worked with the talented Allie on a cook piece of felt and am trying to sort out exactly were is Tajikistan and how does it differ from Kyrgyzstan from Rikki. But, the real bonus, after nine years I get to park my car in the garage!

When you find yourself in Albuquerque, come see us!

Til next time, Sandy and Lee

December 5, 2016 By Lee Leave a Comment

December Means Special Orders

Sandy’s favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) is over. Our phone and website are heavy with special order requests. It must be December? On the strength of our “Best Artist – Art to Wear Fashion” award at last September’s Western Design Conference and being added to a new boutique (Sacramento Mountain Weavers) there has been an up-tick in orders. Such that our hours at respective production stations are getting much longer and we are pressing both two- and four-legged residents into service.

If you’ve been thinking about adding our award-winning, limited-addition, Fire Nymph to your wardrobe we have enough material to make one more in any size. This is it, last chance – don’t be disappointed by your procrastination.

So, as you can see, Osita is ready to wrap, our sewing machines are sewing, the FeltLoom is looming, Atticus is ready for a run to the Post Office and it is December. No better time to place your special order.

Thank you …. Until next time…….. Lee

June 6, 2016 By Sandra Liggett Leave a Comment

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 owned and run by Victoria and Robert Collins and is truly a hands on fiber producer. Victoria is proud that this operation is literally from sheep to shawl. They sell fiber for all uses, wool, angora rabbits and alpaca from local producers. They feature handspun wool yarns as well as blends. The Collins are dealers for the well known looms Majacraft and Louet and have many commercial products to sell.

Stop 5. Hollywick Farms Alpacas

Kathy and Bill Herman own and operate Hollywick Farms. Their herd of alpacas are used to visitors and have just been shorn. Come meet the alpacas, feel their fleece and shop for roving, yarns, fashion garments and accessories. Be sure to enter Hollywick Farms’ drawing to win a pair of soft and comfortable alpaca socks.

Annie McHale's contribution to gift basket

Annie McHale will also be at Hollywick Farms with her amazing weavings. Annie is a passionate and prolific Inkle weaver. She saw her first Inkle loom when she was 17 years old and with the help of a library book and her dad, Annie built her own loom. Inkle looms produce warp faced bands no wider than 6″. Annie weaves straps for cameras, guitars and other musical instruments as well as belts and other personal accessories. See her endless ways of combining colors into patterns and clever use of new materials, techniques and inspirations.

Stop 6. Whispering Spirit Alpacas

This stop is our alpaca breeding and fabric creating location. We have a herd of 30 alpacas and two llamas (yes, you will notice the difference). Stop up at the barn, where Lee will introduce you to the animals, especially our new cria Normandie (born just yesterday) and show you this year’s harvest. See how we skirt the fiber to ready it for the mill. Then come down and join Sandy in the Fabric Design Center (a/k/a the garage). She will show you the equipment we use to make our textiles and will have deep mark downs on our Whispirit designs from this past winter. We will also have several new offerings fresh off the design table and ready for the boutiques. You get first dibs before we deliver. And, we will have felted fabric, prefelts, bags of felted remnant, batts, roving and raw fiber for sale. The purple scarf pictured above will be raffled off at our ranch.

Check out last week’s post for info on the other half of the tour, and join us this weekend! We look forward to seeing you.

March 15, 2016 By Lee Leave a Comment

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 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

March 7, 2016 By Lee Leave a Comment

A Convocation of Creatives

I am so glad I attended the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington this year. It was my second time at this wonderful festival of creativity. Once again I came away inspired, energized and armed with new fashion images.

This five day show is huge. Over 400 vendors and 15,000 attendees. For five days in February, the Washington state fair grounds become a village teaming with quilters, fiber artists, weavers, lace makers, sewists, designers. Rows upon rows of booths stocked with patterns, equipment, supplies, clever tools, stunning fabrics, handmade creations and still more. When I arrived at 8 AM on Friday morning, waves of patrons were streaming across from the parking area, standing in burgeoning lines waiting for the gates to open.

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A couple of months before the event, I registered for several classes. I must have been in a different mood at the time because the classes I chose were self-improvement classes, like figuring out what the attachments were that came with my sewing machine. How to organize my sewing room. By the time I arrived it was ….. the heck with self improvement … let me at the vendor area! I explored booths, attended several of the fashion shows scheduled and networked until I was blue in the face. Now that was more fun!!!

On the very top of my list was to visit booths run by several of the alumnae of Dianne Ericson’s Design Outside the Line retreats. I was unable to even get inside Marcy and Katherine Tilton‘s booth my first day, it was so jam packed. I decided Saturday morning the booth would be empty. Even early on a Saturday morning the booth was packed and teaming with energy. I elbowed my way in and witnessed a mini reunion of women who had taken “the” Paris trip.” It’s now on my bucket list. I found some fabric that will look fabulous felted with our black alpaca fibers. I visited the very talented DOL alum Susan Liane at her Smuggler’s Daughter booth. Also bought several fabrics there that are going to look great in our designs. Susan has great taste and I just love her creativity.

What I find absolutely amazing are the attendees. Mostly women, adorned in all manner of creative wear, discussing with vendors and each other styles, methods and techniques. Complete strangers stopping each other to admire the other’s jacket or a handcrafted pair of earrings. Touching EVERYTHING! Praising each other’s imagination. Camaraderie, easy fast friendships, a sense of celebration, support, touching EVERYTHING! and, of course, the wonderful networking is well worth the effort to get there.

I dallied a little in Seattle to see our kids but hurried home and felted my new fabrics. Look at these wonderful fabrics!!!

Hope you enjoy the new fabrics and be sure to put Puyallup on your bucket list! Sandy