wedding rings

While waiting for my longer story about my rabbits, I thought I would show you what I have been struggling on for the last couple of weeks.
Some of our best friends were getting married and wanted me to do the rings, which I gladly acceptet, feeling honoured. And I did manage in the end – Problem is when one has been away from ones trade for a number of years, you don’t have the routine in your hands anymore – so things take a lot longer and more OOps’s occur underway. But I went well, I mean, I can see all the things I would have done different – but the happy couple loved the rings, so it can’t be that bad.
Here they are, as best as I could photograph them – it is very difficult without the right equipment…..

The middle ring is made of white gold and the side rings in yellow gold. The surface is hammered and the couple had their names engraved in runes on the outside.

Nice, if I say so myself…

Rabbits, part one

I have promised you to show and tell about my rabbits, so here goes chapter one.

For a few years I have had a few Danish angoras at the time, I call them so as I am not sure what category to put them under – German, French or…… but I can tell you they weigh about 4 – 4,5 kilo as adults, and yield up to 500 g wool per shearing, which is every three months.
The coloured ones make considerably less, mine does about 200 g pr shearing, which I think is normal.

Here is three typical Danish angoras:

I have three of those, first Lucy III, a black female and this years supermom – she has produced 19 babies within 32 days, breastfed them all and STILL managed to keep up her own weight! 3 weeks after giving birth to the last litter, she was shorn and weighed – 4.1 kilo. Not much wool though – it had mostly been used for nesting…

Here she is, with some of the little ones, who by the way are for sale….

Last year I heard about Satin angoras for the first time, I got curious and wanted to see what that was all about, and as I found a breeder in Germany not too far away from me, I sent for some samples – and I was completely sold!
The wool is quite different in structure, it reminds me more of cashmere – and it has sheen!

Here you see the samples i spun:

It is difficult to see the sheen on this picture, unfortunately.

This lovely fiber is quite different to work with, easier to spin, not flying around so much – I just had to have some of those rabbits…..

So I asked Helke http://www.koppelnet.de/ to sell me some breeding animals, and this February it all finally was possible to visit her and bring home a selection of rabbits.

My plan is to crossbreed them with the danish angoras, hoping to increase the size and yield but maintain the satin hair structure and sheen.

Interesting to see what happens!

Here you see Grethe, a copper female who just gave birth to 5 little ones, sired by Sofus, my Danish white:

And here is a peep into her wool:

Here you see the little ones – the whites has a silken sheen, can’t wait to see them grow up!

They are 3 days old.

I’ll round up this first chapter with a picture of our “rabbit hill”, taken today – Lucy and her many little ones (now 16) is having a great time in there!