by Linda Berry Walker

Black is the quintessential color in women’s fashion! It’s long term popularity encompasses everything from evening wear to lingerie as well as outerwear and jeans.

Despite sophisticated multi-million dollar marketing to create demand for each new season’s colors and styles, women continue to buy and demand black. A fact that few see reversing in the foreseeable future! Thus, an unprecedented opportunity exists for purveyors of black breeding stock!

You may be wondering why black fiber would be any better than white fiber dyed black.¹ The answer requires an understanding of textile processing and specifically dyeing. Dyeing fiber any color is not an inexpensive proposition. It involves multiple-step processing utilizing thousands of gallons of water, which have to be heated to temperatures ranging from 180 to 205 degrees. This process now comes under a wide array of environmental restrictions for cooling and disposing of that water, creating even more expense. Add the cost of many man-hours to this process and you can begin to calculate the cost of dyeing fiber any color!

Black is the most difficult color to successfully impregnate onto natural fibers. The saturation process required to dye fibers black only increases the above costs. Starting from a base of white, it is usually a multi-step process to achieve sufficient saturation for natural fibers to look black versus a range of charcoal or greys. These multiplicitous steps also make a negative impact on the handle of the fiber, thus you not only have higher costs associated with creating dyed black fibers, but a lessening of qualitative fiber characteristics such as handle. With fiber that is “bred black”, textile processors can utilize a more simplistic dyeing process analogous to a rinse, to even out any natural variation in the “bred black” fiber. By utilizing “bred black” fiber, textile processors not only save money, but also have minimized the negative effects dyeing has on fiber quality.

The existing problem with “bred black” fibers is one of supply, which is totally insufficient to meet the demand! But time, and time again, in the last two decades, I’ve seen “bred black” fibers command an excellent price on the international market when there is a supply available. The difference in processing costs to dye white fiber black versus “bred black” fiber can result in a premium price for the grower.

Tips for Breeding Black Fleeces

• Purveyors of black breeding stock want to select animals who have a solid black, prime blanket area. Random white fibers in the prime fleece area are considered a serious fault from a textile point of view—those animals should be used in grey breeding programs and the fleece graded in with greys.
• Black animals with white on the extremities are perfectly fine in a “bred black” program, as you are not grading the fiber from the neck, belly, legs, or face with the blanket area. The genetic mechanism known as penetrance and expressivity allows for an extremity to be a different color in an animal who is genetically black; thus do not assume that an animal is not genetically black simply because of a white extremit.
• Some injuries to the skin can result in the loss of melanin production and cause a white spot on a black animal. Usually these spots with loss of pigmentation will range in size from a nickel to a quarter. These spots are easily removed at time of shearing when sorting the fleece to preserve the highest textile value of the black fleece.
• Some breeders distinguish between bay black and true black with the former having tips that are somewhat lighter and often referred to as sun-faded. From a textile processing point of view, this is a moot point, as most tips are “broken off” in the processing and combed out. Remember to have “bred black” fiber become commercially viable, a decent supply is required, thus combining bay black or true black, or black camelid fibers such as suri llama and suri alpaca, will help create greater volumes and thus more commercial viability.

¹ Discussion of dyeing fibers black is based on Linda Berry Walker’s years of dyeing experience with natural fibers ranging from 17 to 30 microns. It may or may not be relevant to synthetic/natural fiber blends, or true in every application of dyeing black, but is certainly true in fiber categorized as wool or hair fibers, which encompasses both alpacas and suri llamas.

If black is the quintessential fashion color, then pure snow-white is the quintessential textile color. Without a doubt, more white fiber is produced by fiber-producing livestock around the world, than any other color. For species like sheep and angora goats (which produce wool and mohair), white is the norm, both today and historically. For species like alpaca and llama, white was not the historical norm. The whitening of the national Peruvian alpaca herd, for example, began after World War II when an international post-war consumerism of bright colors was fueled (literally) by cheap petroleum, which was required for the dyeing process.

When changing a herd from color to white, several things can occur which are undesirable from a textile viewpoint. Before discussing those undesirable characteristics, let’s examine how textile manufacturers view white fibers.

If you analyze fashion trends, you will note specific years with bright colors, other years featuring more somber and subdued colors, and yet other years in which designers showcase clear pastels. The basis for the clarity of the color, from pastel to bright, is the color of the fiber, to which the dye is applied. Just as at the paint store, white can be as varied as any other color. From chalk white to creamy white, whites can range from cool to warm. Fibers like beige alpaca and cremello llama certainly overdye well, but gives the finished piece a muddier shade of the color, versus the bright clarity of a textile dyed from a snow-white fiber. This is not so much a value judgment on the fiber, but a statement of the realities of the textile world. When designers want bright clear colors they will demand snow-white fiber, just as they will accept beige fiber when their color palette dictates colors be more subtle and subdued. To create consumer demand, particularly in women’s fashion, designers continually change what’s “in-fashion” as well as what’s not!

So what would be a fashion faux pax for fiber producers that is often seen in breeding stock? The following list deals with color characteristics only, and does not include any other information on qualitative fiber traits such as fineness, uniformity, medullation or luster, which could affect how the fiber will dye.

Tips for Breeding White Fleeces

• In both llamas and alpacas, you will see animals that are white who have an occasional random black or brown fiber mixed in the prime blanket area. Indeed, the international alpaca color chart with 22 colors contain a streaky white with black fiber, so this is not an uncommon occurrence. In breeding white it would be considered a serious fault to have a white fleece with occasional, individual dark fibers. This fleece should not be graded with other whites, but rather put with grey or fancy lots. Of lesser concern would be a white fleece with a spot of color. If only one colored spot is in the fleece, it can be extracted easily enough at time of shearing, and sorting, but still not the ideal in a pure white breeding program.
• Less obvious than the above, is the combination of both white and beige or cremello in one fleece. It is not unusual to see white and beige mixed in the same fleece. It can be as little as a beige dorsal stripe in a white fleece, or a very dilute appaloosa. Now you have a white/beige mix, which is equally a problem of color contamination in the fiber, as it means that fleece will not dye uniformly. The dorsal stripe can be most easily observed at birth, or at shearing. Purveyors of pure white breeding stock should seek to remove these animals from their white breeding program, and place them in a fawn, brown, or fancy breeding program.
• Be sure to protect the value of your white clip at time of shearing. The best white fleeces can lose most of their textile value by being improperly handled at shearing! Shear your whites first to avoid cross contamination with darker colored fleeces! To further maximize the value of your clip, be sure to sort out the coarser, more medullated fiber from the axillary area, apron, belly, tail, and legs from the prime blanket fleece as coarser medullated fiber will accept dye differently.
• If your goal is breeding beautiful white fleece for textile use, then you will want to select animals who are only white on the blanket and neck. Face and leg coloration on your white breeding stock should not be a major problem as long as the prime fleece is without any other colored fibers. A herd of well-bred white llamas with beautiful fleeces may well be the ultimate textile breeding program!

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by Linda Berry Walker

Bicolors, tricolors, spots of one color, patches of another color—are they a fashion faux pax? Hardly! They are simply the forté of the entrepreneurial mavericks who over the years have helped put new trends into motion. Just as “big business” uniformly rolls out their consistent lines of color, so too, can smaller textile businesses identify a niche market. Historically, many of these niches started by trailblazing entrepreneurs became so popular, big business sought to emulate them. There will always be niche markets in fashion! With everything from trendy boutiques to the limited edition couture lines, fashion is always looking for something different—a twist of color, if you will. In totality, this market is no small industry! It can carry premium prices, and great reward, but takes a certain savvy and fashion flair to be successful.

Cottage-sized businesses can also do very well with the cadre of colors paint and appaloosa animals provide. Here, smaller amounts of unique colors can be fully appreciated and utilized, which in turn creates a broader palette of colors.

Either way, the purveyor of multi-colored animals generally must have a better knowledge of fleece sorting and fiber grading to be successful with their fleeces. Without doubt, the eye appeal of the multiple colors “on the hoof” will be considerable!

Tips for Breeding Multi-Color Fleeces

• The genetics of multi-colored animals vary widely, and are not necessarily related. Evaluate your strategy from a genetic point of view, so you can replicate your desired color pattern.
• Pay special attention to the qualitative fiber characteristics in your herd. You will want to select foundation animals with as much similarity in characteristics like fineness and staple length as possible, as well as those of particular importance to your end use product. If your chosen multi-color pattern is so unusual that you must first select for the pattern with no regard to fiber qualities,make every
  effort to use herdsires with the best possible fiber qualities in your chosen color pattern, and breed to improve the fiber.
• Look for either white or dark animals who can produce the color pattern you want, but who will also provide you with the fleece qualities you need. Select the dark color based on whether your overall color palette is cool or warm. By adding the white or dark fleece to your multicolors, you can create an even broader palette of shade in your raw fiber pool.
• Learn how to sort fleece and grade fiber! Your success will depend on this skill. To maximize the value of your clip, hire someone with expertise in fleece grading as well as niche markets to help you get started!

©2006 WoodsEdge Wools Farm LLC

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