slow and steady: velvet rabbits transformed

https://mailchi.mp/c4217893155d/slow-and-steady-velvet-rabbits-transformed?e=8827d243a2

link with images

In the Spring of 1993 The United Nations Environment Programme presented to my company an award (which I still treasure) for doing the hard technical and practical work involved in bringing these cottons of color into the commercial marketplace, where their environmental impact could make a difference in dye waste effluent discharge coupled with their reduction- or elimination of their need for agrochemicals. 
 

Another group receiving recognition at the ceremony were a group of textile scientists developing methods of recycling plastics into fibers suitable for yarn spinning. One of the scientists within this group, Dennis Sabourin, was working with Malden Mills, of Lawrence MA in developing a recycled version of their well known fabric named Polartec®. Aaron Feuerstein, the owner of this mill became famous in 1995 for keeping roughly 3000 workers employed when the mill was destroyed by a fire. Despite the fact that the customers - the big brands who purchased textiles - had begun their decimating exodus to the less regulated places of manufacturing. Hauling the toxic wastes that my customers had been cleaning so responsibly to peoples and lands who still suffer from the horrible pollutions of their waterways and soils.  Maulden rebuilt and kept it's skilled workforce. For another decade they heroically stayed open. But only 3% of the US textile industry managed to survive this disaster and Maulden Mills was not among them.

I never met Mr Feuerstein, but his wife Louise had her own design studio within Malden and had imported from Italy a very special velvet loom. She becomes interested in Foxfibre® and bought yarns from one of my spinning mill customers which she used to produce thousands of yards of beautiful upholstery weight velvets; I used to sell them retail to many home sewists. These were in lovely vintage designs of brown and green. In one of our regular telephone meetings I asked if she would be open to producing a new design, using the artwork of my friend Paula Teplitz, the designer of the image in my Foxfibre® Colorganic® logo. One that would introduce the color of my newest variety at the time, " Buffalo" the first of my Pima brown varieties that was long and strong enough to be spun into a finer yarn pure- that is without having to blend it with any white cotton- to get it to process at normal speeds. She said, absolutely yes and gave to us the specifications of the requirements of the image. 

Paula worked on designs for about 6 months and in the end sent to me, rolled into a tube, images that I loved dearly. There were two: foxes with rabbits and foxes with a cotton flower. I think that I spent too much time just gazing at the artwork. I finally got down to organizing the production of the yarns to be spun to the specifications required for the velvet loom's pile. And then, the financial catastrophes that were taking all of the textile industries down and out, in the parts of the world that I sold to, which happened of course to be the parts of the world where die waste effluents were regulated (The USA, the EU, and Japan) struck even Malden Mills. And Mrs Feuerstein had to close her studio and the loom was shipped away. This project shelved.

But the tube with the artwork was returned to me and I kept it as my visual treasure through all the twists and turns of fate that awaited me and these cottons of color and vigor. In the years that I camped out on the farm that I live upon now, in the tiny travel trailer, I kept the tube with the artwork inside with me- in the precious space that I should have kept clothes in, for fear that rats would get to it. I kept it safe and clean and I always wondered how it could be made into fabric.




When the pandemic hit and I realized that hey, I am in the age group considered rather vulnerable, I made a list of things that I really wanted to make sure got done. With or without me. I asked the research mill that I have been working with this past decade, North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Textiles, if they thought that this gorgeous image could be formed on their jacquard knitting system. The Professor running the NCSU knitting lab at the time turned out to be the cousin of my local wonderful customer Myrrhia ( one of the original founding businesses within our local Fibershed) who had a Stoll computerized knitting machine. Leah Resneck was wonderful to work with and also loved Paula's images and had one of her students digitize it. I worked on getting the yarns spun for the project. The foxes would be composed of the 100% "Buffalo" brown that I had grown here at my farm. The rabbits and or cotton flowers would be the first use of the new color that I used to call "Sierra Sienna". But switched to calling "Saffron", to help me feel better about it's ridiculously high cost of production, under the challenges of the pandemic.



Leah tried different sizes and different patterns (cotton flowers versus rabbits) and I tried adding a few touches such as using the "Buffalo" inside the midribs of the leaf images, those sorts of things.
 

The velvet was designed to be made into a three dimensional construction, what is white in this fabric, would have been nothing at all, just a view down to the back of the velvet. In this image below on the left is the raw fabric and on the right is the same fabric washed to develop the color (warm water wash with washing soda added and warm dry in the dryer). The fabric shrinks a great deal as well;  while the color development process begins. Launderings after this first one are more subtle in their color intensification.

Every fiber in this fabric was organically grown, spun and knit in the US. Here is the breakdown of by whom and where. The foxes are 100% "Buffalo" brown grown on my own Viriditas farm here in Yolo County. The rabbits are a mix of "Saffron" grown here at Viriditas Farm and Pima cotton grown by Alvarez Farms in NM. The white in the background was upland cotton grown by the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Coop and the green was a blend of my old green variety named "Palo Verde" grown by me back in 1995 on the farm that I once tended in Aguila AZ, before these cottons of color were quarantined there. Getting me to move once again. Blended with Pima cotton grown by Alvarez Farms in NM. Spun and knit in North Carolina.

The cost of producing this fabric was in another league because of custom spinning along with the digitizing and custom knitting at the research mill. In the end, though, the fabric was produced. And I was able to give a roll of the exact pattern, as designed by Paula, to her as a thanks for this incredible work of textile artistry. I am working with a sewing facility in San Francisco to produce baby blankets that I will be offering on the website as a thanks for donations to the breeding program. And I will have yardage available as well. Please do not be shocked by the price. It is a textile treasure. And while it is possible that someday, somehow, this will get picked up and produced by mills at scale at a more reasonable cost, this is what research textiles actually cost to produce. For the time being, there are just these yards that were so carefully and lovingly produced. It just took three decades.  

 

This month on the website by February 15th I will be adding new items such as this fabric by the yard. As well as it cut, edged and sewn in San Francisco into baby sized blankets. As well as many kinds of seed cottons that I think should bring joy to hand spinners. All as special thanks for donations to my breeding program.  Lints from the breeding program listing will be updated as well on the sales section as well. The much needed deluges of rain in January set me back a bit time wise. 

Thank you sincerely for your support of my work with these cottons. 


PS: Paula Teplitz's images brought nursery tales and old typing class pangrams to my mind- little mantras that have helped me keep going-  that I share as an aside with amusement.

I am hoping still -after all these years- to be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat and get these cottons to be used by the many because those of us so dedicated and determined never gave up believing in their magical qualities.

And how about the images of the brown foxes (and rabbits) will inspire us to keep trying to nimbly jump over the troubles that have dogged these cotton's rightful place in the textile industry? 

Sorry- I just had to write them down! Can you come up with some?