Fiber Processing

Fiber Processing

I wonder if I will get any takers…  I placed a classified ad for fiber processing in an Alaskan Native newspaper online.  

Fiber processing ad

Lol, I am so willing to work for fiber at this point in my fiber artist life!  Pictured is the Navaho Churro I got from a lady who had moved up here with it but found she had no time to do it so sold it to me.  It was a great haul of 5 garbage bags full of wool!  It was fleeces from many different navaho churro and a few mixed or second cuts that she got for free to play around with.  I am currently drying some tunis/east friesian (spelling??) cross second cuts and plan to work them into a batt once I get a drum carder!  Or I might not have the patience and try to hand card them!  I think the second cuts will be ok for felting, maybe as decoration instead of main material...

Navaho churro washed and drying on rack

I am trying to get the film stuff together for this summer but so love felting and playing with wool!  I am expecting my 16 pounds of unwashed merino fleeces to arrive by this weekend!  I look forward to showing it before and after the washing!  I am not sure if I will try to hand card it or wait a bit.  I guess it depends on if I get any takers who need their fiber processed for them.  I am hoping there are a lot of people who love fiber but don't have the time to process  it themselves and need someone who believes in quality and loves fiber!

It feels like time is flying by!  where are the weeks going?  I guess I get lost in trying to hand card the navaho churro and other stuff that I lose track of days!  But this month has flown by so fast I think I am in a time warp!  You ever feel like that?  

But I plan to try to get some lanolin from the merino that is coming soon!  last time I was too impatient to wait for it to separate and float to the top  :p  But this time I plan to do it and film bits and pieces of it for a BTS episode on my channel!

If only I had been born rich!!  :p   Love you all and please take care of yourself and each other!

hugs,

~Sea

Ways to support me

Ways to support me

I wanted to create a page with links to the sites where you can support me.

Youtube channel ~ it is new with just a few things on it.  I have more that is being edited and hopefully uploaded soon.  But you can subscribe to the channel and click on the little bell that is the notification when I upload a new one.  It helps to show that my audience is growing, if slowly.  

Instagram ~  I try to post on there often but lately I have not been out photographing much so not many new photos for it.  I have been busy creating fiber art!  the latest on my instagram shows it from my lucky buy of navaho Churro wool (about 6 pounds of it or more, was about 5 fleeces I think or more! lucky lucky day I read that Craiglist and decided to respond.) to my buying some wools!  Following me will help show my audience is growing!

Twitter ~  I am not often on here anymore, I was very active for a bit but then began crafting a lot and it dwindled.  But I do post there at least once a month I think!  I will make a better effort to become more active there!  You can follow me there and see when the film stuff is posted!  



The way the social media works is we need exposure to capture people's  interest.  The best way is for people who find us interesting to repost/share our stuff so others who you know get a chance to see it.  It is hard when your interests are varied like mine but you dont want a dozen different accounts to maintain.  I have all combined into these so there is buttercream, fiber arts, 80's rock, indie director / film stuff all combined.  Maybe it is being indigenous where we see it all connected as one so it seems natural to have my social media this way too…

I hope to post more on Youtube soon!  I have 2 short films almost ready, episodes of frugal living, crafting and film so it will become more interesting soon!  It is hard to grow a channel when you are new, like on Youtube since people "binge" watch where they like to watch a bunch of your stuff at once then subscribe.  If you dont have a lot to interest them they move on…  

Life here is good!  it is cold!  but also Hope for Spring on the horizon!  I hope you are following your dreams and doing it even if it is only baby steps at first!  it matters and counts!

Hugs,

~Sea

Felt Inspirations

Felt Inspirations

There are so many amazing fiber artists out there!  I hope to get something going as a co-op for the alaskan #indigenous, imagine being able to stay in your village, live as you want and make $$$$!!!  Not that it is about the money, at least not until 'America' came and took over…  So now we are forced to change our lifestyles and driven out of our villages so they can more easily steal our natural resources…  We need to stop that and turn the tide back!

I plan to do my part, I hope to get my first feature film out this summer!  It is on schedule and is a low budget one and I will soon be holding auditions for it…  but mainly the idea is to show we can do a film, start to finish!  Hopefully that gets us some recognition and some funding so we can begin working with bigger groups of indigenous.  If they are not into film and acting, there is costuming, set building, etc.  If that does not interest them there is the crafting/felting to learn and do!

I am planning to get some merino sheep this next summer!  this summer we are buying some land in Kenai Peninsula area.  If I cant interest an #indigenous corporation to let us lease their land for grazing then we will start small and buy our own plot!  

But it is easy to get inspired by it.  It is "traditional" skills updated to modern tastes!  Using the same sort of techniques but changing the design or adding labor saving tools.  

I watched this video and just think it will help explain my desire to get us our own sheep/goats/alpacas/musk oxen!!!!

Maybe once we get better established we can work with this group to learn skills!  Ladies from Peru keeping knowledge and skills alive, so inspiring!  Either send some down to learn or bring some up to teach :p  

I hope to get an outfit completed in time to enter the local spinners guild fashion show!  it will be fun to try!  I went to my first meeting and really liked it, I plan to get more involved, but been so busy trying to get all this stuff done!  I made some wrist warmers today, my "post apocalyptic" ones are almost dry and I will get pics of them.  I made some today for my daughter.  I used some left over merino from other projects and used them as the base layer then over that I did stripes of navaho churro, Cheviot, and alpaca.  They are drying but I will get pics of them up sometime.  I think they came out cute!  I remembered to do the pattern the right way so it came out even when cut in half  :p   

But I think my "Post Apocalypse" outfit will be good!  I love the dark purples and blacks of it!  I ordered some more merino that had purples and black and one with more black and greys to make the rest of it.   I plan to dye some of the merino I am getting from Australia black.  It might not get here until the end of the month though, but here's hoping the flight connections work and it comes quick!  I ordered some merino yarn (a bulk purchase from a person who is trying to help make it affordable to fiber artists:  poundOwool on Etsy   I ordered his pound of sport weight yarn since one of my daughters is getting into crochet, got a pound of her and one for me  :p   With mine I plan to make the top of it, creating a criss cross pattern and using some roving to cover it but I think it will help create the shape and keep it's form better using the yarn.

I am so excited, ever feel your life is finally on the right path?  that you finally found what you were always meant to do?  I am so glad I got the courage to go for my dreams!  It is easy to remain too timid after a lifetime of abuse, but you need to let all that go and decide to thrive not just survive!!  the courage of it seems so impossible to muster but one big push and you are free!  and then free to do what you like!  It wont be easy, fighting the bad thoughts and feelings that do not disappear overnight, though you wish they would!  but it is such a great feeling to get away from the bad and work toward the good!  

go for your dreams!  it is worth the risk and the hard work and all the sweat and tears and drive!  

hugs,

~Sea

Post Apocalyptic Outfit

Post Apocalyptic Outfit

I am having fun creating an outfit that I think will end up looking great!  It was one of those turn your "mistake" into a gem kind of inspirations!  I was practicing the wrist warmers as I plan to offer them as a reward in my next Kickstarter campaign…

So, I had some purple and some black rovings and divided it in half for each side.  I used the same resist a few times before so felt comfortable with it and began laying out the wool.  Lol, but I forgot I cut it in half and should have done the pattern along it instead of down it!  Realized one would be mostly purple and one would be mostly black  :p

Oh man, but they looked good and it came to me, this whole outfit I would make from it:  post apocalyptic outfit!!  Where you have to wear what you find in the future and maybe she found these unmatched pairs left in some home or maybe that was all she had to make her own… 

But I will create a big top to go with it that has built in holes and a scarf with some holes too…

What is driving me crazy is the hat!  I want maybe a cyber punk dreads coming down from a beret look but then think maybe steampunk instead with the aviator hat and goggles…  leg warmers to match too…   then just some dark leggings and maybe nuno felt a top to go under the big wool one with holes  :p  I am sure layers would be worn so it would look good…  

I am getting 16 pounds of fleece from a lady in Australia!!  I cant wait!  I am going to try to extract the lanolin from it!  You think 16 pounds of fleece would make maybe a pound of lanolin at least…  I just ordered it so who knows how long to get here…

I plan to video it, the stack of them just 4 fleeces but 16 pounds of them, washing 1 of them and trying to get the lanolin, then maybe carding it and diz into a roving…  though I usually just pull it off the carder and use it like that instead of rolling it into a rolag or diz it to roving…  

I am so behind on posting videos, I know!  My mac is incompatible with photoshop and those still!  My gaming one is out there and in use a lot so I end up moving on to something else…

Oh man, but expecting a nice order of stuff!  I figured it would count as the film budget since it will become costuming.  Except not for the werewolf one…  

I so hope I get $$ sometime soon!  things would go so much faster and smoother that way!  I want to do so much but right now I work from home and do not want to have people over so dont do filming much and so want to!  Drives me crazy some days!  But once I get the short films up then interest will grow and then maybe get some funding for the werewolf one!  

but this outfit, should be nice!  I will post pics sometime, I am not sure when I will feel like showing it…  but I did take pics of some other stuff for the kickstarter.  I am not sure when I will try again…  I want to right away but guess I need to grow a bigger following…  except so busy doing stuff that wont be posted online that it seems I am not doing anything  :p  

I am just super excited, 16 pounds of merino fleece to play with!  I love hand carding it, washing it myself is great too, control the quality best as I can that way and such good practice too!  

Just a quick update, I am very busy behind the scenes, not forgotten my writing or short films or any of it!!  

hugs,

~Sea