Intro to Dyeing Yarn
Dyeing classes are especially popular and fun, especially for hand knitters and crocheters who would like to add a personal, unique touch to their yarns. The class is taught how to dye yarns made of natural animal fiber using Kool Aid, Wilton’s Cake Dyes, crepe paper and one shot dyes. Techniques include microwave, migration, hand painted and piece dyeing. Class is be suitable for tweens and teens as well as adults.
1 Hot Mess Urban Thrashwear
Our pieces from our signature line, “1 Hot Mess Urban Thrashwear”, along with our yarns, are available through our Esty store at www.fioridelcampo.etsy.com.
Welcome Message
Welcome to the Fiori del Campo Suri Alpacas homepage! Fiori del Campo is a leader in this area of the country in the promotion of American Suri fleece through our fiber sorting and grading program, our fiber arts, and our commitment and involvement in the growth of the North American Suri alpaca fiber industry; we hope is to remain on the forefront of our growing textile industry and our 7 to 10 year business plan involves tremendous (and ambitious!) growth.
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Our 7 year plan includes the purchase of farm land to support a thriving fiber herd, and hopefully our mill and design studios. Rather than breeding for color or a certain genetic line (e.g., Accoyo), our breeding decisions are based upon fiber characteristics and the data from the Certified SortedTM system of fiber grading and analysis. Though we would be pleased to produce champions in the show ring, and are proud of our past, current and future success there, our focus is the production of Suri alpacas with optimally usable (and therefore highly profitable) fleece for high-end commercial production.
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Currently, our fiber arts center features instruction in a myriad of fiber arts in addition to artisan workspace where we design and produce fashions and fiber arts supplies made with 100% “Green” American grown Alpaca fleece. Our center also houses our unique fiber sorting and grading operations. We are passionately devoted to the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit) and function in a LEED certified, solar powered space within the Brazee Street Studios in Oakley (http://www.brazeestreetstudios.com/). Our products shall remain American-made using local artisans and our services and practices will follow strict LEED Standards using environmentally gentle processes.
Site Renovations
Our site is currently under renovation. I hope you like the new look. Keep checking back.
Intro to Wet Felting
Felting is one fiber art that is all-the-rage right now! This class focuses mainly on wet felting techniques, with some needle felting thrown in for good measure and the class material can be broken down to be spread over 4 weeks. Techniques include selections from the following: wet felted hot pad with needle felted detailing, watermelon or apple pin cushion, felted soap, felted bangle bracelets, felted “sushi beads”, and wet felted flowers/appliqués. Class is suitable for tweens and teens as well as adults.
Intermediate Wet Felting
Wet felting is back, and as participants in the “Intro to Wet Felting” class found out, it is great fun and full of creative potential. This intermediate class will move into the “resist method” of wet felting where the making of wet felted seams and hems on a two-sided object is the key focus. Participants will learn how to use a “resist” pattern to craft a lovely clutch purse with flap, with no sewing required! We will also explore the technique of applying wet felted appliqués onto a piece during the “soft felt” stage. Some experience with wet felting or completion of Pia’s “Intro to Wet Felting” class would be helpful, but not necessary, to register for this class.
Fiber Arts Boot Camp
Summer break is a great time for fiber arts boot camp! Camp includes a little bit of everything fiber – fiber processing (sorting, skirting, scouring, carding and combing raw fleece), hand spinning (using the students’ handmade drop spindles), weaving, felting, dyeing, knit/crochet, and field trips to Ohio Valley Natural Fiber Mill, my alpaca farm and the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati. Boot camps take place throughout an entire week that run five full days.
Nuno Felting
Nuno Felting, also known as “laminate felting”, is the art of felting fleece and fabric together which in turns creates a whole new fabric. Finished pieces can be elegant and refined or funky and textured. This class will focus on the wet method of Nuno and the students will create and complete a silk gauze and wool Nuno felted scarf.
Intro to Scrumbling and Novelty Knit/Crochet
This is the most fun class and it is suitable for *both* knitters and crocheters alike. “Scrumbling” is another name for “making things up as you go along”, or free-form knitting and crocheting. It is a unique and fun way to create garments without and pattern, using scrap and “novelty” yarns. Novelty knit/crochet involves the use of novelty yarns in addition to severe increases and decreases, the changing of needles or hooks mid row, the intentional dropping of stitches and any other myriad of techniques. This is a great class for knitters and crocheters that want to “stitch outside the box” and explore their inner fiber goddess! Beginner level skills and a willingness to create spontaneously are all that are required. Tweens, teens and adults all welcome.
Hairpin Lace
Hairpin lace is a crochet technique done using a crochet hook and a hairpin lace loom, which consists of two parallel metal rods held at the top and the bottom by removable bars.
Hairpin lace-making was popular during the Victorian Era, when the lace was actually made using the ladies’ large hairpins. The upper class ladies took great delight in showing off their skill in lace, while for the working poor, it became a quick, inexpensive substitute for Italian lace. The technique can be used to make endless varieties of garments, from doilies, edgings, afghans, shawls, sweaters and anything else that you can imagine. Materials fees includes all tools needed to learn how to make hairpin lace including a hairpin loom, crochet hook and yarn.