Guest Author - Beverly Elrod
There are various mediums that people like to use to tat with. It is so easy to ruin natural fibers that I thought I’d use this opportunity to discuss way in which to protect them while they’re being stored. If you’ve thrown all your unused skeins of threads into a huge box or another type of jumble and have never had anything ruined, rotted, rusted or eaten then you’ve been fortunate. Today, I’ll discuss how to help prevent the loss of your wonderful fibers.
Natural fibers; which are natural products and therefore sensitive to a number of things, are one of the most fragile materials. Natural fibers will fade if exposed to direct or even indirect light and therefore it’s best if they’re stored in a closet or maybe even under a bed which is draped with a bed skirt. Natural products can also burn, singe color, collect rust, dissolve and rot. Therefore cotton also needs to be protected from chemicals, metals, liquids, open fire and anything that may pass it’s color to the natural fiber. Also being a fabric, your material subject to small animals wanting to eat it or gnaw it to shreds to make their bedding. So, you might want to store your natural fibers in something more solid (and even an unnatural product). Mice & rats easily chew threw paper sacks, cardboard boxes, wooden trunks, etc. And, although they will also chew on plastic, I’ve found that it is the best product to store my natural threads into (especially if you can find something with rounded edges and corners-this makes it more challenging for them to get their teeth into). I also like to throw in some cedar chips or mothballs. If nothing else, maybe the uninvited mice will find and enjoy the cedar chips or mothballs and I’ll discover them before they move onto my precious skeins of tatting thread. But, the mothballs will at least discourage the moths; another fiber predator.
To protect your natural fibers from rust, rot, dissolving and color spots, be sure to not stack anything like household cleaners, metal or liquids on top of the units which store your threads. Therefore, you’ll be eliminating the possibility of ruining your storage stock.
