I am thinking of starting to market my satin angora fiber and a few hand made product. Starting with a fiber festival in Monroe Oct 18th and 19th then passably holiday craft shows in November and December. How do I attract customers that understand this maybe a labor of love but it is also very time consuming and expensive as well? I have been collecting wool for more than 10 years now about 1/2 to 3/4 of the prime gets spun up right away, but every thing ells has been piling up, baby coats, short wool from summer and and of course the lightly matter or webbing. About 2 or 3 times a year I go through the last several months worth of fiber I weigh it, vacuum seal then label with weight color and condition all the unused fiber for latter, thinking I will use it once I run out of fiber to spin :) As any one with more than a dozen angoras a child and a farm knows, Its hard to use it all LoL. But it was also very expensive and time consuming to produce and in the past the few people that have inquired about purchasing satin angora fiber from me have said any thing over $5/ounce is just over priced. I know this is not true because most none satin angora fiber sell for $6 to $8 per ounce. I dont mind selling satin angora seconds (for felting or blending) for $5/ounce but pure satin is more difficult, time consuming and expensive to raise/produce and even $8 per ounce doesnt even cover the 2 to 4 hours it takes to harvest the 2 ounce of wool I normal get per shedding. Also because many satin angoras grow multiple coats at once only releasing one at a time pluck or comb is my only option for them. I am working on a 50/50 Satin German hybrid line So I can produce more wool with less work that still has bright colors and a nice shin. How ever even a satin German Hybrid will not produce as much wool as most angoras that are not satinized since the satin mutation makes the individual hairs finer.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 03:00:13 +0000