Bison hides for fiber harvesting.

The smaller hide is not really that much smaller.

Don't worry, it wasn't a baby. It's just the wide-angle lens.

A detail of the hide

On Thursday (4/22/2011) I went up to Sandhill Wildlife Area to collect FIber from two bison that had been culled from the managed herd.


Thanks to my spinny godmother, I had a little bit of an idea of what I was looking for, but  was pretty much making it up.

I brought a St. Bernard-sized furminator, a cat comb and a dog's slicker brush. Furminator worked best, and I was able to hand pick some areas.

I ordered a set of Clemes & Clemes cotton hand carders (recommended by the above mentioned spinny godmother), which should arrive next week, and then I'll start learning how to process the fiber!

The larger hide. It was a very large bull.