Friday, June 25 – Open Studio

Open Studios at our Brazee Street Studios facility – 6-9 PM; Fiori del Campo will be featuring Hand Spinning Demonstrations, so look for our banners and follow the arrows to our Fiber Arts Center on the first floor

Fiber Arts Classes for Summer Now Online!

Finally the moment you have been waiting for – our summer fiber arts classes for June and July are finally online! From Knitting to Hand Spinning, to various types of Felting and Dyeing, we have a class for the inner fiber artist in each of you. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. So check out our Upcoming Events page for the schedule, and contact us via e-mail or by phone at 513/300-3395 for registration information. Fiori del Campo’s Fiber Arts Center is located on the first floor of the hot new LEED certified, solar powered Brazee Street Studios at 4426 Brazee Street in the Oakley merchant’s district, behind BOCA and across the street from the Cincinnati Ballroom Company.

May 28 – Wet Felting at Oakley After Hours!

Fiori del Campo will be hosting hands-on wet felting demonstrations for kids this Friday at Oakley After Hours between the hours of 6 and 8 PM. Stop by our Fiber Arts Center at the Brazee Street Studios for some fun!

Our First Art Show Installation!

On April 30, 2010, we celebrated the Opening Reception at the Brazee Street Studios, the opening of MOLD DIGGER exhibition at gallery One One, AND our first Artist Open Studios- all during the first Oakley After Hours of 2010. Each resident artist at the Brazee Street Studios contributed an installation to the show, including Fiori del Campo!

During the renovation of the building that is now the Studios, over 50 graphite molds were discovered stashed in the ceiling. Beautiful and complex in both form and history, these graphite objects inspired a lot of questions by the Studio’s owner and staff: What were they used for? Why were they hidden in the ceiling? How can they be used now? There answer was to turn them over to their new group of studio artists, including Fiori del Campo. Each artist had responded to these molds in their own medium, which were gathered to create gallery One One’s break out exhibition MOLD DIGGER. As the Studios mark the transition from old to new, the show is presented in the spirit of scavenging, re-purposing and building on what was.

The event was a huge success with an amazing turn out. Many thanks to everyone that participated! brazeestreetstudios.com/home/biome_gallery.html

Don’t Get Fleeced on Your Alpaca Fiber!

Want to get the MOST from your fiber and Alpaca herd? Who doesn’t? Why wouldn’t you?

Have your fiber Certified Sorted™. You can’t afford not to!

Certified Sorting increases the usable fiber per alpaca and increases the quality of the product produced.
Sorting can pay for itself through the use of leg, chest and belly fiber alone.
The superior products created command superior prices, which also helps to cover the additional cost incurred with sorting.
The valuable information received about each animal during the sorting process will help with management and breeding decisions as well as sales and marketing.
Stop throwing away over 50% of your raw product – no other successful industry does!
Use all of your fiber, including cheeks, tail, legs, chest and belly
Lower your production costs by pooling your fiber with others
Join a cooperative to take advantage of combined processing costs. Small producers pay the same price as large producers
$40/pound (a typical fee for small lots processed in mini mills) for processing is too much! You can’t realize a profit when the processing cost is so high!
Breed for more profitable fiber animals
Improve density and uniformity of grade (micron), length
The use of the individual sort record provided by your certified sorter can help you achieve this goal
Your fiber sitting in your barn, attic and guest house, isn’t making you any money
You have to do something with it to make a profit from it. Most farms do not have the ability to retail products. That is why NAAFP has retail outlets for its members

Contact us to discuss the tremendous impact that the Certified Sorted™ system can make on your fiber profits and herd management!

Our new Fiber Sorting and Grading Services!

Fiori del Campo is pleased to announce that it now offers alpaca fiber sorting and grading services using the Certified Sorted System

I just returned from a 4 day intensive class to train with Coarse Broads, Inc. to learn their system of fiber sorting and grading. I am now an official Certified Sorted™ Apprentice that will lead to becoming a full-fledged, card carrying Certified Sorter.

The Coarse Broads Sorter class is intense and rigorous and not for the faint of heart; not only is it choked full of data and information gleaned from lots of research, but there is a lot of after-hours study, a final exam that must be passed, and lots of practice sorting and grading. It can be a dirty, difficult and tiring job and is not for everyone. However, it is a service that is vital and mandatory for the current North American alpaca fiber industry.

Our mornings were spent studying sorting theory and the ins and outs of fiber, including but not limited to fiber basics, histograms and skin biopsies, fiber characteristics that affect the processing, understanding grades, and the value and advantage of Certified Sorted™ fiber, among many other topics. After lunch, the class worked on the hands-on part of learning the

Certified Sorted ™ system, including but not limited to learning to identify micron/grade, sorting fleeces utilizing the system, using the sort records and sort summaries to assist the breeder and more. As I stated earlier, there was also evening homework, not to mention a final exam that must be passed in order to become a Certified Sorted™ apprentice. Fortunately, I passed the final exam with a very high score – what a relief!

I am so glad I had to opportunity to attend and complete this difficult class; it has considerably expanded my knowledge base with respect to the commercial processing of alpaca fiber, as well as given me a whole new perspective on my own herd’s management and breeding decisions.

Big Move

Today is a big day for Fiori del Campo – we have started the move into our new workshop production space at the Brazee Street Studios in Oakley! The studio is a completely green building, being LEED Certified and solar powered. The space is exactly what I was looking for when considering expanding the scope of our business as we work towards expanding the success of the North American Alpaca fiber industry. I wanted a green building, preferably in Oakley (near my home), in the upscale Oakley retail district, with foot traffic, easy access to the public for classes and participation in monthly Oakley After Hours. On December 23 discovered that the old abandoned T-Shirt Factory on Brazee Street had seemingly overnight transformed into a glowing, thriving new artist’s space. To make a long story short, I called them right away and found out they had only *one* workshop space remaining in the building. And lo and behold, it met *all* of the requirements I was looking for – it is LEED certified and solar powered, is right across the street from my house, is in the Oakely retail district with foot traffic. Our workshop is located on the first floor directly on Brazee Street with its own private entrance for my customers and staff and is the perfect spot to participate in Oakley After Hours!

In the early phases the workshop will be offering fiber arts classes to the community both at the workshop and at external sites, and will eventually be employing designers and artisans from UC’s DAAP as we design and produce luxury Suri alpaca garments and accessories. The workshop will also house our new fiber sorting and grading operation. I continue to write my business plan, which includes very ambitious 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10 year goals which will involve incredible growth. I will be continuing to look for assistance with marketing, production, financing, and all the other aspect involved in growing a new business. I am very optimistic and have very high hopes for Fiori del Campo as well as the North American alpaca Commercial fiber processing industry. We hope that you will continue with your support and encouragement, and make sure that you do check the website for upcoming classes, events and announcements!

The Brush Factory Open House

Visit The Brush Factory on Saturday, February 6 for their first annual Valentine’s Day Sale and Open House. I have created a special line of Felted Truffle Soaps for this event, handmade chocolate scented soap, surrounded by felt, ribbons and ribbon roses to look like truffles. And wow, do they smell good! I have also marked down some of my hand spun and hand dyed wool and mohair yarns to make room for the new plant-based yarns I will be bringing in for spring. As always, my hand spun Suri yarns are available at The Brush Factory for your purchase.

Fiber Arts Classes

All our fiber arts classes can be taught either at the Fiori del Campo workshop at The Brazee Street Studios in Oakley, or offsite at your school, facility, home or farm.

Introduction to Hand Spinning

This is a fun class for both children and adults alike who are curious about hand spinning but have no experience. Students learn about shearing the fleece off of alpacas, skirting, scouring, carding and combing. Then each member of the class constructs their own drop spindle made with CDs and other common hardware. Finally, the students are taught how to spin fleece into yarn on their drop spindles. This can be taught as an abbreviated 2 hour class or ½ day workshop, or in its entirety as a day-long workshop. This has been a popular workshop with home school groups and is also suitable for the traditional classroom as well.

Fiori del Campo