Posted by roo on August 31st, 2008 — Posted in Fiber
Earlier today I took a bunch of photographs of my new beads, and was just astounded when I pulled them up on the computer. Most of the photos did not depict the correct colour of the beads (the reds turned out greenish brown), so I’ll have to try to take them again… perhaps using a lighter background will help the camera get the correct colour. How disappointing, because I’d hoped to list them in my farm store today. The above photo was the only one that depicted the colours well:
‘Pumpkin Jamocha’
orange, brown, mocha, cream, with a sprinkling of golden glitter
‘All hallow’s Eve’
black, purples, orange, translucent, and a sprinkling of golden glitter
‘Autumn Spice’
cinnamon, chocolate, reds, and a sprinkling of golden glitter
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Posted by roo on August 31st, 2008 — Posted in Marius, Myra, Dee Dee
Jason was at John’s on Thursday evening to pay the boarding for September, and snapped off some pictures of our alpacas.
I was very surprised at how much Marius has changed. He’s very tall, but he’s keeping his solidness. His conformation is now also beginning to develop and I very much like how ’square’ he is in his body, and how well he carries his legs underneath him. The wool on his face is coming in now too, and there is a distinct line high up on his nose where the short coverage ends and the long wool sets in. From the moment I saw his size and his cria fiber something told me that this boy is going to be worth watching. With his bloodlines, I sure do hope he’ll develop into something special for us… so far he has not let me down.
Studying the photos of Myra, I came to the realisation of how much she is beginning to look like her full sister MAR Gustav’s Mimsy, only a different colour. I had hoped that Myra would not have the scantily clad lower legs that the chileans are so renowned for, but it appears that she’s inherited these from Dee. It will be interesting to see Dee’s 2009 cria from Billie, see if that cria too will have scantily clad legs *grin*. Myra’s colour is lightening up I think… it’s hard to tell. But she sure is incredibly pretty, petite, and according to Jason, very dainty.
Speaking of Dee, I was somewhat startled to see the photographs that Jason had taken of her. She’s lost quite a bit of body mass and that concerns me. Again, it could be the angle of the photographs, but I need to make a mental note to speak to John and see if he’s weighed her lately by any chance.
Oh, I am so aching to have all the alpacas home!
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Posted by roo on August 24th, 2008 — Posted in Fiber
The bracelet production is going well, I just completed a lovely black fiber bracelets with floral and magnetic hematite beads, and I’ll be sending it off to the test wearer shortly. The waxing of the yarn did make it a lot easier to knot, but I’ll soon know whether it will stand up to the durability and fuzzing test. I will make a duplicate with unwaxed yarn to see how it compares.
One thing that has frustrated me since I started knotting hemp was the size of the holes in the beads. Often I would find some very lovely beads, only to pull them apart and find that the hole was barely big enough to thread fishing line through, let alone a hemp yarn! So I tried my hand last night and making my own beads, specifically for hemp and yarn jewelry, with a nice big threading hole. The pictures above are my first attempt.
The pink ones are a combination of pink pearl, pearl and a little translucent into which I added a little silver glitter. The brown ones are chocolate, chocolate mixed with pearl, and a tiny bit of the left over translucent with glitter. I baked them (they are poly clay) to cure, then strung them onto a piece of yarn which I stretched above my kitchen sink horizontally so I could glaze them. I was pretty happy with my first try!
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Posted by roo on August 10th, 2008 — Posted in Fiber, Demi
During the summer of a few years back, I liked to create hemp jewelry, adding beads and adornments to personalise them. And while trying to find a use for some of the coarse seconds I have sitting here in the fiber bags, it occurred to me that perhaps I could spin it into a stiffer yarn and make jewelry out of it. Exited, I began right away.
Only, it became clear very quickly that the alpaca fiber was way too soft, and when knotted, did not show the beautiful twists and blocks, it was lost in that molten together softness. A few weeks later it dawned on me that perhaps if I used hemp for the core of the knotwork, a nice solid foundation for the alpaca yarn to wrap around, perhaps that would work better. And it did, as shown in the picture above, where I used a combination of hemp and yarn to test how well it would work. This test bracelet was made from Demi’s light rose grey seconds, and a rosy coloured hemp, adorned with wooden beads and metal spacers.
However, then I ran into the problem of the alpaca yarn creating a halo after being handled extensively. I ordered a few bars of pure beeswax to see if I can lightly wax the alpaca yarn and encourage it to stay together. So far I haven’t had the chance to sit down and make a sample bracelet with the beeswaxed yarn yet, but I’ll get around to it soon. I have a feeling that it will work very nicely.
I need some test wearers! Before I begin producing the bracelets (and other jewelry too) for sale in my farm store, I want to know how they will stand up to actually being worn, and this will largely dictate the price. If you are interested in wearing a bracelet for me, please email me (roo@moonwoodfarm.com). I’ll pay the shipping, you get to wear and keep the bracelet, in exchange for some feedback.
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Posted by roo on August 9th, 2008 — Posted in Mazara
I sent a small sample of Mazara’s wool to Yocom-McColl to have it analysed a while back because I was certain that it was below 22 microns, it was so incredibly soft and fine, amazing me when Gary sent it to me. And I was not disappointed with the histogram when I received it via email today. For a girl that’s 5 and half years old, has borne and nursed crias AND is black… 20 microns is just incredible in my opinion! And to top it all off, the histogram shows that the majority of the fibers in that sample fall between 16 and 22 microns.
Mazara was chosen by me because she is half Alianza, and so far she has done nothing but impress me… it will be interesting if, true to Alianza style, she will retain the fineness and softness as she gets older. We are having everyone tested from here on at shearing each year so that we can see the rate of coarsening for each alpaca and their offspring.
I am VERY happy, because this is exactly the type of alpaca we are looking for to keep in our core herd!
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