Nuno Alpaca Collars

Periwinkle Alpaca Collar

Black Alpaca/Mohair collar.

Rose Alpaca Collar

I constructed these using some alpaca that I purchased locally from  Yarn Barn, a delightfully rich resource for textile artist. Susan and her hubby have been supplying artist with dyes, and dying supplies, resists, thickening paste, pigments and just about any kind of natural dyeing ingredients, plus all the basic artist silks one could desire and not to forget oodles of yarns, exotic rovings,  fleece from buffalo, camel, llamas and all sort of wools, silks and even fiber made from soy.  Though their focus is on weavers, spinner and knitters, they have an ample supply to keep us, fiber-artist buying locally and wane the armchair shopping, though we do comparison shopping—- we are brought back home each time.

Therefore, thanks to Nicola Brown, who has been singing the praises of Nuno Felting for months, though I was skeptical, I publicly thank her for influence and inspiration. I began these collars with loosely woven cotton gauze, it was not really gauze but more of a thin mesh; then, gingerly placed tuffs of the wool on both sides.  I shed the bubble wrap technique for hand massaging the wool as it felted, then off to a bamboo shade to full it. I finished the fulling by hand agitation against itself.  It seems this process is more satisfying to me.

If I were to shorten the collar by several inches, it could be secured with a pin. (As some of you know, I spent two years experimenting and painting with melted glass on metal (copper enameling) making pins, which would look so smashing with these collars. I also made buttons that could be used in a pinch if I could be convinced that dividing a set was noteworthy for an extraordinary result. I would like to expand the color palate into more sophisticated subdued colors so if nothing distracts me I shall.