Thursday 10 March 2011

Alpaca, alpaca, alpaca!

During this academic year I am required to undertake several competitions as part of the spring unit of my Textiles degree, of which the 'Alpaca competition' is on of.
We (NUCA) are working with the AzSu Alpaca farm, situated in rural countryside of Norfolk. The farm has supplied us with Alpaca wool and fleece to work with, and to produce some form of constructed textiles for their shop.
As part of the competition we have been asked to keep everything natural and that all other material should be sourced locally.

If you wish to find out more about the AzSu Alpaca Farm you can visit their website at www.azsualpacas.com

The alpaca's themselves;

Alpaca fleece;


Alpaca yarn;


As part of my design, I have taken my development into weaving. So far, I have found working with the alpaca wool very difficult its very thick and not only is it extremely sticky within the warp, but I've also found out that my skin doesn't like the alpaca wool! Bringing my hands out in a lovely red, itchy rash every time I handle it. But I am continuing to progress with my weaving aside this downfall. I also found that the alpaca wool tends to break quite easily in the warp which doesn't help matters either! Considering all the negatives of alpaca wool I have experienced I don't feel encouraged to use it again in my work, but it has been interesting to experiment with.
I am still working on my weave, but I will update the final outcome once it is completed.

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