Thursday, December 24, 2009

Catclaw's Merlin Opens in NYC Tonight!


Appalachian Voodoo Fibers were used in the creation of the clothing worn by the papier-mache puppets in Catclaw Theatre Company's debut of The Birth of Merlin, which opens tonight in Brooklyn, NYC!

This is Jeffrey Scott Holland's adaptation of a play that was credited to William Shakespeare and William Rowley in a 1662 quarto, though modern scholars pooh-pooh any notion of the Bard's involvement. (Then again, they used to pooh-pooh Pericles but now it's finally become accepted into Shakespearean canon. The Two Noble Kinsmen and King Edward III are relatively recent newcomers to mainstream acceptance, and Sir Thomas More is making great inroads towards it.)

Expect the show to appear in other U.S. cities in 2010.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Krampus


Meet Mr. Krampus, our quality control manager.


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Hot Dyepot Action!


The old JSH dyepots are a-cookin' again. Here's a step by step pictorial of the process. Above we have an antique enamelware/graniteware oval roaster, filled with alpaca soaking in water.


White vinegar and pink dye are mixed together in a mason jar, then that mixture is poured directly on the alpaca. It's deliberately left haphazard, so that a desired mottled effect will occur on the finished fiber.


Then a vinegar-blue dye mixture is poured on the other half. Again, it's left uneven, knowing that some parts will end up bluer than others. Also, the blue and the pink are not separated, allowing the colors to run together slightly.


The fiber is soaked in water, drained and hung up to dry, awaiting the drum carder. The final colors of this batch were more vivid than it appears here; the colors were washed out somewhat by the camera's flash.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Set of four Mini-Batts


#1: Dark Green/Red/Orange: 1.3 ounces, merino, corriedale, firestar

#2: Purple/Gray: 1.1 ounces, merino, angelina

#3: Yellow/Green: 1.1 ounces, merino, punta, bamboo, angelina

#4: Brown/Tan: 0.7 ounces, llama, alpaca

Four is the happiest number that you'll ever do...

Monday, September 14, 2009

Ketchup & Mustard


Weight: 2.4 ounces

Contents: Merino.

Gobble it up!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Maharishi


Weight: 2.9 ounces

Contents: Merino, Alpaca, Corriedale, Firestar, Icicle, Angelina.

A simple, effortless batt that anyone can spin and enjoy