Anyone else collect rabbit fur?

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briemommy

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I tried a while ago to collect the fur I brushed off of Brie, thinking maybe in a few years I'd have enough for knit a glove. :laughsmiley:

Anyone else here do this? Have done it? Is successful making things out of the shed fur?

I haven't looked up the process yet, just curious about experiences.
 
It must work/be possible because someone near me spins yarn after collecting from angora rabbits!
 
When I had my rabbitry, I would save the fur from when I groomed rabbits. I saved it so that I could help rabbits make nests if they had not pulled enough or if I had to redo a nest for some reason. I kept a 1g zippie bag next to my grooming table for it. I could fill the bag in a day sometimes. (I only had at most 20-30 rabbits counting babies at any one time ever).

With Beauty I forget to toss the HUGE pile of fur that I get off of her each time I groom her. (I groom her at least 1x a week and the pile is as big as her). It is really hard for me to toss her fur because the shed fur is soooo soft. (Beauty is a Jersey Wooly).
 
the wool breeds were designed for spinning, so your Angoras, Jerseys, and Lionhead fuzz would totally work for making yarn and subsequently mittens.

I wish we could get enough wool from Swiffer for a nice pair of mittens! <3
 
We have a whole ziploc bag full of Twig's fur. My sister get's natural wool and makes things out of it like little animals. She is going to make my daughter a bunny out of bunny fur. We'll see how it turns out.
 
briemommy, I don't know if rabbit fiber breeders card the wool, but I know sheep people do to remove the debris
 
This has given me an idea! I might start saving fur, and stuff a tiny pillow or similar with it, and embroider it with Reuben and Nermal's names. So I always have something of them.

Apart from embroidery and pottery, I'm not that crafty; I'd like to try felting though, and see if I can make a rabbit.
 
I keep the tufts of Monty's fluff that I'm able to pluck out along her molt line. I'm saving it in a paper lunch bag because I never saved up enough of my kitty's fur, and I had always wanted to. Almost a year before Belle (my heart kitty) passed away, I was watching my friend's cat for a couple weekends and brushed him a lot. I had a pile of fur and decided to sew a felt replica of his face, and stuffed it with his fur. His name is Spaz so I named the stuffie a "Spazoid" and gave it to his mommy as a little token of him she could carry around. Now I make them look like different kitties, but just stuff them with standard fiberfill. I have a "Belle" Spazoid that has a rice pouch inside so I can heat it and have it in my coat pocket for warmth.

Since my first interest in bunnies was having an Angora and having yarn made, I'm keeping all of Monty's fur that I can get a hold of so maybe someday I'll have enough to knit something from Monty-blend yarn :)
 
Awesome idea, Holyhandgrenade! I wish I'd kept minion or Harold's for that reason too. I could've made an extra plush minion from Harold! I miss those guys.

It'd be something to consider for my Swiffer plush I'm eventually making though.
 
How cool would it be to find a way to incorporate bun fur to a pottery piece? Not pieces you'd eat or drink off of, but like a bun figurine or something. Wonder about the firing though.

Here's an issue I'm coming across- Brie only has one M gene so her "mane" fur is different from her body. Do y'all who collect fur have the slick, straight, short fur, or the somewhat wooly, kinky stuffs?
 
Ooh, probably could at that! Mixing it into paper clay might work(clay that has cellulose fibers worked into it). It wouldn't give much strength, but it'd be there! I should try getting back into pottery, I miss it.

I'm not sure if there's any other way to incorporate it without it just getting destroyed in the firing, though. I suppose horse hair raku would work(basically decorating the red-hot surface with horse hair, or similar, which leaves a sort-of smoke pattern), although it wouldn't contain any of the fur. I love raku anyway, would be a good excuse to do it again! I haven't done horsehair before...

Can people point me in the direction of a good website for beginning felting?
 
I keep my bunnies' fur when I brush them! None of them are Angoras, I'm just crazy and want to keep their fur :D It doesn't ALL get saved, but I do have a bag of each bun's fur. After they pass away, it helps me remember them. Not that I could ever forget, but it's nice to have a bit of their fluff to pet. Making myself sound even crazier, aren't I?! Oh and when I lived overseas, whenever my brother would write me a letter, he would include a little bit of fur from our bunny :D
 

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