Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Promoting Alpaca Fiber
One of the many questions we alpaca farmers get is, "what do you do with alpacas"? The short answer is, it depends. Depending on what your goals are for raising alpacas will determine the answer. For us, what we do with alpacas is: breed alpacas for resale to new and existing breeders, offer stud (breeding) services, harvest and process the fiber once a year, and of course, stand in the paddock with a glass of wine and watch them pronk through the pasture.
Internationally alpaca fiber is used to make high-end clothing. Here in the U.S. alpacas are still a cottage industry. There are no major producers of alpaca fabric or product for the consumer market. Within the alpaca industry, we are working to change that through an educational awareness campaign called "Fiber to Fashion" amongst students enrolled in design courses. Students apply for the contest and are sponsored by alpaca farms to compete in one of two categories; Fashion Design and Textile Design. Each student receives a packet containing alpaca yarn, fabric swatches and unprocessed fiber. Students are required to design a clothing line or textile product using alpaca fiber and write a short essay. Students are judged on their story board and design concepts.
For the 2010 Fiber to Fashion contest Maranatha Alpaca Farm sponsored one student who came in eight place in the Fashion Design category. This year, 2010-11 we sponsored 2 students, one of which has been selected as a finalist. Lisa and our daughter Sarah will accompany our student to the awards ceremony in Nashville, TN 17-20 February, 2011. We are excited or her. Once the results are posted, we will be updating our blog to let everyone know.
Educating people about alpaca fiber will help create demand for an American alpaca fiber industry. Having designers who are comfortable designing with and are familiar with the properties of alpaca will ensure the industry is able to support the demand.
Keep an eye out for American made and designed alpaca products, coming to a store near you.
Internationally alpaca fiber is used to make high-end clothing. Here in the U.S. alpacas are still a cottage industry. There are no major producers of alpaca fabric or product for the consumer market. Within the alpaca industry, we are working to change that through an educational awareness campaign called "Fiber to Fashion" amongst students enrolled in design courses. Students apply for the contest and are sponsored by alpaca farms to compete in one of two categories; Fashion Design and Textile Design. Each student receives a packet containing alpaca yarn, fabric swatches and unprocessed fiber. Students are required to design a clothing line or textile product using alpaca fiber and write a short essay. Students are judged on their story board and design concepts.
For the 2010 Fiber to Fashion contest Maranatha Alpaca Farm sponsored one student who came in eight place in the Fashion Design category. This year, 2010-11 we sponsored 2 students, one of which has been selected as a finalist. Lisa and our daughter Sarah will accompany our student to the awards ceremony in Nashville, TN 17-20 February, 2011. We are excited or her. Once the results are posted, we will be updating our blog to let everyone know.
Educating people about alpaca fiber will help create demand for an American alpaca fiber industry. Having designers who are comfortable designing with and are familiar with the properties of alpaca will ensure the industry is able to support the demand.
Keep an eye out for American made and designed alpaca products, coming to a store near you.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Welcome From Maranatha Alpaca Farm
This is our first post to introduce ourselves, Lisa and Perry to everyone. We are the owners of Maranatha Alpaca Farm, Inc. located in Fredericksburg VA. We bought our first alpaca "Red Maple Polly Anna" or "Polly" in Aug 2007 and brought Polly and her new baby (cria) Rosh home to our farm in Sept 2008, Just in time for the first "National Alpaca Farm Day". This was our inagural farm opening to the public as well.
How time flies. We now have 19 alpacas, a farm store focusing on alpaca fiber products, we offer classes that teach all levels of knitting, crocheting, spinning, felting, and introduction to Fly-Tying, with weaving coming in the future.
As with most alpaca farms, our primary focus is the breeding and sale of alpacas. We are also focused on educating people about alpacas, alpaca fiber and alpaca products. There is so much to learn about alpacas and we never get tired of sharing our love for these unique animals. We offer educational tours for groups and individual families.
We look forward to discussing the many aspects of alpaca ownership and hope you will find us a valuable resource.
Until Next time,
How time flies. We now have 19 alpacas, a farm store focusing on alpaca fiber products, we offer classes that teach all levels of knitting, crocheting, spinning, felting, and introduction to Fly-Tying, with weaving coming in the future.
As with most alpaca farms, our primary focus is the breeding and sale of alpacas. We are also focused on educating people about alpacas, alpaca fiber and alpaca products. There is so much to learn about alpacas and we never get tired of sharing our love for these unique animals. We offer educational tours for groups and individual families.
We look forward to discussing the many aspects of alpaca ownership and hope you will find us a valuable resource.
Until Next time,
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