Farm to Fiber: Andrea Zittel

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Andrea Zittel

6pm-7pm (1hr)

Andrea Zittel presents herself as an artist, though she could also be thought of as a designer. The auditorium was packed, with people sitting in the isles and on the stairs. I was surprised by how much I was inspired by her and how much I identified with her. Zittel designs and builds living structures, furniture and clothing primarily. She experimented with making herself one garment per season and wearing it every day for the entire season - an idea that started out with wearing the same dress to work every day for a year. Her boss commented at the end of the year, "did you wear that same dress yesterday?" but otherwise never noticed. Expanding off of this, Zittel first tried making dresses out of whole rectangles of material, then knitting or crocheting from single continuous threads, then eventually began hand felting fiber directly to her body.

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Observations and tidbits:

1. Mostly women are interested in fiber farming

2. Fiber farming is generally a cottage industry, artisan sort of operation, with hand dyed and spun yarn on a small scale

3. Some time is spent each day tending to the animals, with full days spent a few times a year doing bigger projects such as sheering, vaccinating, and breeding.

4. A lot more time must be spent on the more tedious aspects of processing fiber from fleece to a final product

5. While this could theoretically be a profitable endeavor, fleeces start piling up and it would take serious dedication to keep up with them all

6. Money often comes from breeding rather than sheering

7. You must love the animals more than the desire for money

8. Most farms are either named off of the street they are on (eg. Fox Hollow, McTavish, Bailey Hill...) or something cute (eg. Ewetopia, Hum Sweet Hum...)

9. Alpacas don't have lanolin (and Shetland sheep don't have much) so the electric shearers need a lot of oil and even still sometimes get too hot to use

10. Alpacas and sheep, livestock, are not aloud to be imported to America anymore... but seamen can be. Too bad artificial insemination doesn't work on alpacas (they don't ovulate unless something will come of it. Wouldn't that be nice?)

11. A surprising number of women with sheep don't have children

12. According to Rolly, alpacas come from a high altitude (mountains of Peru) which had a thinner atmosphere, so down here, they like to lay out in the sun with the less hairy insides of their legs exposed to get enough vitamin D

13. Rolly chose Romney sheep because they do well with the climate here in the Northwest. Tracy chose Shetland sheep because of their size and personality. Cindy chose Suri alpaca because of the way they look and their personality (a characteristic she breeds for).
14. Rolly is particularly fond of and good at dying. Tracy seems to specialize in felting. Cindy is extra passionate about training animals. Why do people not teem up for their fiber farms, each doing the part they are best at and happiest doing?
15. Suri alpacas are the ones with heavy, fine hair that look more like dreds or ringlets. Huacaya alpacas are the fluffy teddy bear ones. About 80% or 90% of American alpacas are huacayas (wu-kay-ah).

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Andrea Zittel

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