I recently bid on an Alchemy request on Etsy and my bid was accepted. Someone wanted their fibers carded into batts for spinning. She sent me 8.5 ounces of a variety of fibers, shown in the photo above. When the package arrived Friday, I opened it and pulled the fibers out of the bag and laid them out on our bed. Oh dear, I wondered what in the world I was going to do to put these fibers together and make some of my beautiful fiber blend batts. Not that they were ugly fibers, they just didn't stand out and really inspire me. I set them aside for the night and Saturday I got them out and laid them on the card table and took the photograph. Then I started arranging and re-arranging fibers side by side until I found some combinations that I thought would work well together. I normally make 2 oz batts and decided to make 4 batts each a little over 2 oz each. Following are the four batts I created using these fibers. My personal favorite is the pink/yellow/orange batt.
Here is what the customer had to say when I emailed photos of the finished batts to her (we exchanged several emails back and forth):
I was worried about the randomness of the fibers, but you just wow. WOW. LOL my friend is probably going to contact you too, she was just as amazed at what you created. You really have a talent for it, I know I couldn't do what you did.
OMG I am speechless!!!! You did amazing, I can't believe that is from the roving I sent. WOW. Thank you so so so so so much, you are just awesome!
Once again, you did AMAZINGLY thank you so much, they are perfect!!
Needless to say, her praise and comments made my day. Doing this really helped me to think outside the box. I have never done this before - carded up random fibers that people sent to me. She gave me free rein and told me to just go crazy and have fun. I'm always worried that my intrepretation of what looks good wouldn't match what the customer envisioned. This time it worked out well - we were both pleased with the outcome. I'm thinking of adding another aspect to my business and dub it "Ugly Duckling Carding Services". However, the smaller the amount of fiber, the trickier the job becomes. The more colors and textures you have to choose from, the better your chances at creating something really inspired and beautiful. Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?
