Exploring the world of wild fibers.
Join us, in print or in person.
Check out our Super Sale, up to 50% off some items. Shop now!
Current Issue
Travel to Russia's Wrangel Island, three hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. Known as the polar bear nursery of the world, approximately one thousand muskoxen live on this remote, yet surprisingly colorful tundra (in the summer.) Learn how muskox are adapting to climate change, and the soaring price of their precious qiviut.
other features:
* Where to find some of the finest American cashmere.
* Drop-spinning on a volcanic island in Indonesia
* Resurrecting flax in the Pacific northwest
* Valais blacknose sheep, the "cutest sheep in the world"
* Looking back fifty years with Schacht Spindle Co. and Oomingmak, The Musk Ox Producers Co-op
* and so much more
What is Wild Fibers about?
Spend 90-seconds with Wild Fibers editor Linda Cortright, learning how all aspects of the natural fiber industry shape and define the livelihoods of people throughout the world, many of whom live in exceptionally remote regions.
The Swiss Valais blacknose is called "the cutest sheep in the world" with a personality to match. Their million-dollar looks are commanding an equally precious price tag, and they are beginning to appear in American pastures thanks to the extraordinary efforts (and expense) by Martin and Joy Dally.
Swiss Valais Blacknose Sheep
Our feature on Wendy Pieh and Peter Goth's Springtide Farm in Bremen, Maine ,highlights the progress of American cashmere, and the extraordinary contributions they have made in developing the cashmer​​​​​e industry.
Springtide Farm's American Cashmere
Technology is the major driver in nearly every industry. When the first mechanized cotton gin arrived on the scene, flax lost its corner of the fiber market as cotton production and processing became more affordable. Around the country, farmers are once again beginning to tend fields of flax. The economic juggernaut still lies in the processing.
Flax:
Back to the Future
Wild fibers and whales seemingly make for strange bedfellows, unless you are visiting Indonesia’s Lembata Island.ritish textile experts Sue and David Richardson provide an insider’s view to the weaving and dyeing culture on this volcanic island, where whaling is still done the old-fashioned way, and so is their spinning, using the ubiquitous long-drop spindle.
Indonesia's
Lembata Island
British textile artist, Lindsey Tyson, began her career designing interiors for the automotive industry. She changed gears (did I really say that?) after starting a family, and now creates magnificent, felted items, which are finely printed with her stunning designs and complimented with a layer of chiffon that she has also designed..
Fiber Artist
Lindsey Tyson
Barry Schact, founder of Schacht Spindle Co., designed his first spindle for a Colorado sheep farmer, using a modified door knob. That prototype morphed into an order for 200 spindles and soon, Barry ( a self-proclaimed Jewish hippie from the Catskills) was in business, a business now known for some of the finest spinning wheels and looms in the industry.