QUEST:
Since embarking on this adventure in the fall of 2008, we have successfully touched thousands of lives, created many jobs and stimulated a demand for raw materials that were previously sent to land fills. Our story has been picked up in magazine articles, radio and blogs.
Daily, we strive to find ways to improve, create more beauty and dazzle our audience with the wonder of these fibers, the raw horn ebony and a myriad of new products yet to debut.
We believe that people will listen to our story, be inspired, share our story and take our buffalo gifts home to enjoy the ever giving beauty and wisdom of the spirit that flows thru them.
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FOUR CYCLES OF LIFE: Creating the Bison Wool Weavings FIRST CYCLE: JOURNEY TO THE MILL Buffalo wool is only available at winters end when they begin to shed their heavy coats for Spring and Summer. The wool is shipped to our Mill in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The Lonesome Stone Natural Fiber Mill (www.lonesomestonefiber.com) is also an Alpaca farm. Marv and Linda Dewey, the owners are famed for their rich yarns and commitment to excellence. As there are no Buffalo wool mills, we went to Marv and Linda. They examined our rare, expensive, unknown, precious fiber with the reverence of a new born. Would they be willing or able to card and spin it? They wholeheartedly embraced the adventure.
The Buffalo and Alpaca wool is now spun and ready to weave, everyone elated with the piles of rich downy soft skeins. The yarn is shipped directly to the homes of the weavers. Here it is woven on large hand looms into intricate patterns and blended with color to create the designs for the blankets and pillows. Each blanket and pillow is done by hand, finished and fringed by hand, and created with the joy of working with such a rare fiber, from such a Sacred animal in the tradition of weaving handed down through the centuries.
Alice Selby, Gunnel Oresjo, and others, also based in Colorado, continue to blaze the way as they create these beautiful works of art. Before the prototypes were complete, Handwoven Magazine (May/June 2009) picked up the story.
Native Vogue supplies retailers, museums and sells directly through the internet.
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Blending the Buffalo wool with Alpaca adds a greater softness and expands the limited quantity that can be obtained until this renewable resource becomes a highly sought after fiber in the marketplace. We honor the gift of the Alpaca, as it too is an icon of sustainability, relied upon for centuries by the indigenous of South America.
Sometimes called “the moccasin telegraph” or “word of mouth” began to spread the news. Friends and family were the first in line to scoop up these sacred treasures. The goal was to weave the traditions and spirit of the buffalo into the lives of people around the world. They have now reached across the ocean into Europe.