Every so often I record a fibre arts conversation with someone and post it on YouTube. (I'm not all språng how-to videos!)
Here is Cindy, talking about her homegrown clothing, the wheel she was given, and how to spin flax into yarn.
Here is Monica talking about the benefits she has gotten from membership in her local handspinners guild.
May 23, 2018
Excited for PNW Fibershed's System Map
Well, this is exciting! Pacific Northwest Fibershed now has a map of producers of local fibre, local dyes, and local labour at www.bit.ly/Fibershed-crowdmap. It's called Mapping the Domestic Fiber System, and it's on Google. It's done in partnership with Ecotrust.
While Pacific Northwest Fibershed is primarily concerned with producers in its own region, it appears that the map is meant to cover the whole United States. At least, there are entries from other places.
Appears that to qualify for a producer listing, you don't need to fall into an official Fibershed affiliate area or need membership in an affiliate. This is a boon to regions like mine which are only partially covered and lack a producer program. But, as they say on Air Farce, I'm not bitter.
Do you produce Fibershed goods or services? The map is crowd-sourced, so you can add your listing.
Do you buy local fibre, local dyes, local milling and spinning services, local patterns, local tools, local knitting, weaving, dyeing, or design services, local seeds for dyes or fibre, local fibre arts books, or local fibre arts instruction? Please give the link to your sources and urge them to add a listing.
I am still trying to clothe myself with pieces made with natural fibre, plant-based dyes (or naturally-coloured fibre), and fair labour in order to make my life more eco-friendly, beautiful, comfortable, and interesting. Traceable local materials or labour are a bonus. So if you're on the map, I might buy from you. My stack of real indigo J.Crew tees are getting a little faded and shabby.
While Pacific Northwest Fibershed is primarily concerned with producers in its own region, it appears that the map is meant to cover the whole United States. At least, there are entries from other places.
Appears that to qualify for a producer listing, you don't need to fall into an official Fibershed affiliate area or need membership in an affiliate. This is a boon to regions like mine which are only partially covered and lack a producer program. But, as they say on Air Farce, I'm not bitter.
Do you produce Fibershed goods or services? The map is crowd-sourced, so you can add your listing.
Do you buy local fibre, local dyes, local milling and spinning services, local patterns, local tools, local knitting, weaving, dyeing, or design services, local seeds for dyes or fibre, local fibre arts books, or local fibre arts instruction? Please give the link to your sources and urge them to add a listing.
I am still trying to clothe myself with pieces made with natural fibre, plant-based dyes (or naturally-coloured fibre), and fair labour in order to make my life more eco-friendly, beautiful, comfortable, and interesting. Traceable local materials or labour are a bonus. So if you're on the map, I might buy from you. My stack of real indigo J.Crew tees are getting a little faded and shabby.
May 19, 2018
Somebody Set Up Fibershed Virginia, Please
I've been talking to shepherds who raise fibre and small business owners who serve fibre artists, and I think there is a need in Virginia for a non-profit or a business to help connect sellers and buyers, and support both. Have a look at Fibershed's Producer Program and their publicity work and education events. I wish someone would set up an affiliate Fibershed here. There is a Fibershed affiliate that covers part of Virginia but I've heard it does not have a producer program, only an education program.
I think there is consumer demand for textile products that are exceptionally beautiful and functional, raised humanely, produced and delivered in an environmentally-friendly way, presented so that the customer can connect emotionally with the producer, and sold in a way that makes it easy for the customer to buy and use the product. It probably means e-commerce and in-person sales at public markets.
Additionally, the products and services should let people be themselves but more so, in an area they deem important to them personally. I've seen wool let people be generous, be connected with peers, be connected with charismatic stars, show love to family, show their fandom or taste or profession, be a nature lover, be a mentor, be a planner, be a collector, be a savvy shopper, be thrifty, be extravagant or self-indulgent, be a patron, be interesting, and (of course) be a maker. And in some cases, whatever their thing was, that was their life. Honestly. Marry that with a product of remarkable beauty from a seller they know, like, and trust, and people quit caring about the price tag and just buy.
E-commerce can be tough for producers to arrange. In my shopping experience, shepherds and mills are open for business but often it is difficult to see and buy their current stock of goods and services. Right now as a customer you have to be in the know and making a real effort. Producers will put up a static webpage (often outdated, saying things like "we're really excited about the sheep shearer coming in Spring 2014!") and expect customers to phone them and inquire. It's like asking people to click. Chances are they won't. Or they are focussed on selling breeding stock or milling services, and missing the person who wants to buy yarn or a fleece. Also, most fiber websites have poor graphic design. In contrast, the Fibershed website is gorgeous. Fibre buyers are highly attuned to colour and design.
Production challenges are an issue that the Northern California Fibershed supports. I don't know if that is so much of a need in Virginia in the sense of wool going to waste because no one is there to mill it like in Northern California. Money is leaving the region: I know two or three Virginia-based yarn merchants who send their wool out of state for milling, and I know of another yarn merchant that does its own milling but sends materials out of state for washing. I once heard from a shepherd who was having trouble finding breeding stock for a rare breed.
Customer education is needed. I believe there are buyers out there willing to pay for beautiful textiles they can feel good about, who have no clue what to ask for, how to ask, where to ask, or how much to pay. Or even that these things exist. In my experience demonstrating handspinning in public, they have the most basic of questions. Ten years ago I was like them myself. A middleman could help. In the Northern California Fibershed, they've been able to connect some pretty big corporate clients with producers.
There is also an appetite for education from sophisticated buyers and from producers. I know handspinners and weavers that travel out of state to hear speakers and take workshops, and they buy books and DVDs. Rita Buchanan (A Weaver's Garden) is the only fibre arts author I know that wrote in Virginia. Oh, and Max Hamrick (Organic Fiber Dyeing: The Colonial Williamsburg Method). Equipment and materials too, the majority of the stuff used by the dozens of handspinners, weavers, dyers, and knitters I know comes from out of state. And I see a lot of money being spent, these people have disposable income and time. I can think of one nationally-known manufacturer of equipment in Virginia, Strauch Fiber Equipment Co.
Some of the functions of such an organization are covered in our region by local guilds, fibre festivals, and breed-specific sheep breeder associations and the Virginia Sheep Producers Association. Other resources include
Wear beautiful traceable textiles in your daily life, and be prepared to do show and tell and make referrals to your sources. Throw some work their way. Distribute brochures for fibre festivals. Spin yarn, knit, or weave in public.
Talk to young people about the possibility of finding work in the fibre arts, and about the small scale production equipment available such as mechanized carding machines, e-spinners, knitting machines, floor looms, and mini mills from a company like Belfast Mini Mills. Consider a Kickstarter campaign to buy a young person equipment and training to set them up in business. Connect young people who need work experience with fibre small businesses who need services like graphic design, web design, photography, marketing, and social media tutorials.
Send shepherds encouraging notes, maybe with photographs of them at events that they can use for publicity, and ask them how it's going. Tell personal fibre stories on social media. Help a guild or an arts centre apply for a grant. Refurbish old wheels and looms to keep them in service. Run a seminar or workshop for the public to show them the possibilities of fibre arts. Develop and publish educational materials like handouts or booklets. Pray (or whatever you do instead of praying) for take-charge people to get involved and carry through. I'm sure you'll think of something. Thanks.
I plan to order some cloth reusable shopping bags to dye with indigo, walnut, and madder, to use as a conversation starter when I shop. I plan to demonstrate handspinning at a farmers' market next weekend, knit in public for WWKIP day the week after, and demonstrate either handspinning or språng at a museum the week after that.
And you?
I think there is consumer demand for textile products that are exceptionally beautiful and functional, raised humanely, produced and delivered in an environmentally-friendly way, presented so that the customer can connect emotionally with the producer, and sold in a way that makes it easy for the customer to buy and use the product. It probably means e-commerce and in-person sales at public markets.
Additionally, the products and services should let people be themselves but more so, in an area they deem important to them personally. I've seen wool let people be generous, be connected with peers, be connected with charismatic stars, show love to family, show their fandom or taste or profession, be a nature lover, be a mentor, be a planner, be a collector, be a savvy shopper, be thrifty, be extravagant or self-indulgent, be a patron, be interesting, and (of course) be a maker. And in some cases, whatever their thing was, that was their life. Honestly. Marry that with a product of remarkable beauty from a seller they know, like, and trust, and people quit caring about the price tag and just buy.
E-commerce can be tough for producers to arrange. In my shopping experience, shepherds and mills are open for business but often it is difficult to see and buy their current stock of goods and services. Right now as a customer you have to be in the know and making a real effort. Producers will put up a static webpage (often outdated, saying things like "we're really excited about the sheep shearer coming in Spring 2014!") and expect customers to phone them and inquire. It's like asking people to click. Chances are they won't. Or they are focussed on selling breeding stock or milling services, and missing the person who wants to buy yarn or a fleece. Also, most fiber websites have poor graphic design. In contrast, the Fibershed website is gorgeous. Fibre buyers are highly attuned to colour and design.
Production challenges are an issue that the Northern California Fibershed supports. I don't know if that is so much of a need in Virginia in the sense of wool going to waste because no one is there to mill it like in Northern California. Money is leaving the region: I know two or three Virginia-based yarn merchants who send their wool out of state for milling, and I know of another yarn merchant that does its own milling but sends materials out of state for washing. I once heard from a shepherd who was having trouble finding breeding stock for a rare breed.
Customer education is needed. I believe there are buyers out there willing to pay for beautiful textiles they can feel good about, who have no clue what to ask for, how to ask, where to ask, or how much to pay. Or even that these things exist. In my experience demonstrating handspinning in public, they have the most basic of questions. Ten years ago I was like them myself. A middleman could help. In the Northern California Fibershed, they've been able to connect some pretty big corporate clients with producers.
There is also an appetite for education from sophisticated buyers and from producers. I know handspinners and weavers that travel out of state to hear speakers and take workshops, and they buy books and DVDs. Rita Buchanan (A Weaver's Garden) is the only fibre arts author I know that wrote in Virginia. Oh, and Max Hamrick (Organic Fiber Dyeing: The Colonial Williamsburg Method). Equipment and materials too, the majority of the stuff used by the dozens of handspinners, weavers, dyers, and knitters I know comes from out of state. And I see a lot of money being spent, these people have disposable income and time. I can think of one nationally-known manufacturer of equipment in Virginia, Strauch Fiber Equipment Co.
Some of the functions of such an organization are covered in our region by local guilds, fibre festivals, and breed-specific sheep breeder associations and the Virginia Sheep Producers Association. Other resources include
- the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Virginia Grown program
- the Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network
- local chapters of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), which provides business mentoring
- the Retail Merchants association (RMA) in Richmond
- Business First Greater Richmond
- Thrive Mentor Network at the Greater Richmond Small Business Development Center
- your city or county economic development office or finance office
- your Chamber of Commerce
- U.S. Small Business Administration
- IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center
- Virginia Cooperative Extension
- Local Harvest, a national e-commerce platform for agricultural products
- Agrilicious, which plans to start a national e-commerce platform for agricultural products
- Etsy, an international e-commerce platform for handmade items, vintage items, and supplies
- Ravelry, which sells advertising placements to reach knitters
- the MidAtlantic Fiber Association (MAFA), for grants
- the Virginia Commission for the Arts, for grants
Wear beautiful traceable textiles in your daily life, and be prepared to do show and tell and make referrals to your sources. Throw some work their way. Distribute brochures for fibre festivals. Spin yarn, knit, or weave in public.
Talk to young people about the possibility of finding work in the fibre arts, and about the small scale production equipment available such as mechanized carding machines, e-spinners, knitting machines, floor looms, and mini mills from a company like Belfast Mini Mills. Consider a Kickstarter campaign to buy a young person equipment and training to set them up in business. Connect young people who need work experience with fibre small businesses who need services like graphic design, web design, photography, marketing, and social media tutorials.
Send shepherds encouraging notes, maybe with photographs of them at events that they can use for publicity, and ask them how it's going. Tell personal fibre stories on social media. Help a guild or an arts centre apply for a grant. Refurbish old wheels and looms to keep them in service. Run a seminar or workshop for the public to show them the possibilities of fibre arts. Develop and publish educational materials like handouts or booklets. Pray (or whatever you do instead of praying) for take-charge people to get involved and carry through. I'm sure you'll think of something. Thanks.
I plan to order some cloth reusable shopping bags to dye with indigo, walnut, and madder, to use as a conversation starter when I shop. I plan to demonstrate handspinning at a farmers' market next weekend, knit in public for WWKIP day the week after, and demonstrate either handspinning or språng at a museum the week after that.
And you?
May 12, 2018
Till the Dye Runs Clear
Once there was a handspinner who went to an indigo dye workshop, and came home and applied what she learned to some wool. But the indigo rubbed off on skin and spindle.
You don't want indigo to be rubbing off on your skin and turning your hands blue.
Off into the reference book and cyberspace went the handspinner in search of a solution. Into some very hot water and Synthrapol went the rest of the wool. Many, many basins of wash water later, the handspinner resolved not to dye any more wool with indigo. Even though the colour was so very, very beautiful, it just wasn't working out. When the roving dried out, it was so felted, it could not be spun. Again, not good.
Now, linen or cotton cloth, I would still dye that with indigo because it can go in the washing machine with Synthrapol. It is possible to take wool fabric, full it, dye it, and full it again in the washer, but the amount of washing I went through would probably push the fabric past the useable point.
You don't want indigo to be rubbing off on your skin and turning your hands blue.
Off into the reference book and cyberspace went the handspinner in search of a solution. Into some very hot water and Synthrapol went the rest of the wool. Many, many basins of wash water later, the handspinner resolved not to dye any more wool with indigo. Even though the colour was so very, very beautiful, it just wasn't working out. When the roving dried out, it was so felted, it could not be spun. Again, not good.
Now, linen or cotton cloth, I would still dye that with indigo because it can go in the washing machine with Synthrapol. It is possible to take wool fabric, full it, dye it, and full it again in the washer, but the amount of washing I went through would probably push the fabric past the useable point.
I recently interviewed a few shepherds and posted the videos on YouTube. In one interview near the end, Kim Harrison talks about fulling her handwoven fabric from her flock.
Dyers accept that some natural dyes are not colourfast, but almost everyone else in the Western World expects all dyes should be colourfast, whether natural and synthetic.
You may be wondering why I got blindsided by that much crocking. The answer is, the original rinse water was pretty clear. However, that was washing with regular dish soap and that wasn't good enough. I just didn't know.
I've read in a couple of places that indigo crocking is a result of improper dyeing. I followed the recipe properly. I have also followed the recipe for a fructose vat and hardly got any colour. Perhaps I need new fructose. That problem, as the French say, is another pair of sleeves. Indigo has that variable ratio reinforcement thing going, it keeps you engaged.
Dyers accept that some natural dyes are not colourfast, but almost everyone else in the Western World expects all dyes should be colourfast, whether natural and synthetic.
You may be wondering why I got blindsided by that much crocking. The answer is, the original rinse water was pretty clear. However, that was washing with regular dish soap and that wasn't good enough. I just didn't know.
I've read in a couple of places that indigo crocking is a result of improper dyeing. I followed the recipe properly. I have also followed the recipe for a fructose vat and hardly got any colour. Perhaps I need new fructose. That problem, as the French say, is another pair of sleeves. Indigo has that variable ratio reinforcement thing going, it keeps you engaged.
May 05, 2018
Areas where I try to be Eco-friendly
Fibershed, which is one of the influences on my work, has changed over the years to put more emphasis on pollution reduction, specifically carbon sequestration through grazing of sheep. I am still stuck on the natural dyes part which was more Fibershed's earlier message. And it's not even the environment impact of dyes* that gets me, though I appreciate that aspect. Natural dyes give such a beautiful result. And I think they are, as founder Burgess claims, healthier to wear than synthetic dyes. Can't prove it. But I think so.
In my work with the fibre arts, I don't know if there's much more that I do besides what I've already mentioned. I suppose I consciously limit how much I buy, no S.A.B.L.E. for me. I try to buy North American products. I try to buy used equipment. The only dye made from wood that I would ever use would be osage orange because the trees are considered too abundant in nature. I've dyed with local black walnut hulls which are a waste product here in Virginia. I rarely use silk but that's more out of concern for the working conditions in silk factories than anything environmental. One day I'd like to get some secondhand silk clothing and dye it. However, I have other things to get through before that. I'm not used to having this long a to-do list, really.
In other news around here, the språng demonstration went well last week. The pillow I stuffed with shredded natural latex worked out well and only took 2.5 pounds of fill. The indigo-dyed cotton pillow slip looks excellent. I got more linen in my life by buying a stack of imperfectly-printed tea towels from a local artist's store, Pat Cully Illustrations.
*it's not just about water pollution, there's the possibility of taking invasive plant species and using them for dye. Which I've done, with Scotch broom.
In my work with the fibre arts, I don't know if there's much more that I do besides what I've already mentioned. I suppose I consciously limit how much I buy, no S.A.B.L.E. for me. I try to buy North American products. I try to buy used equipment. The only dye made from wood that I would ever use would be osage orange because the trees are considered too abundant in nature. I've dyed with local black walnut hulls which are a waste product here in Virginia. I rarely use silk but that's more out of concern for the working conditions in silk factories than anything environmental. One day I'd like to get some secondhand silk clothing and dye it. However, I have other things to get through before that. I'm not used to having this long a to-do list, really.
In other news around here, the språng demonstration went well last week. The pillow I stuffed with shredded natural latex worked out well and only took 2.5 pounds of fill. The indigo-dyed cotton pillow slip looks excellent. I got more linen in my life by buying a stack of imperfectly-printed tea towels from a local artist's store, Pat Cully Illustrations.
*it's not just about water pollution, there's the possibility of taking invasive plant species and using them for dye. Which I've done, with Scotch broom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)