AlpacaMagic - LlamaMagic

SHEARING & FLEECE

Ian adjusts his hand piece while Bruce trims some toe nails and Trudy restrains the alpaca

Alpaca and Llama are a wonderfully light, warm and strong fibre. Both are lighter and warmer than (sheep’s) wool. This fibre come in many shades – white, fawn, brown, grey and black

There is a Producer’s Co-Operative that buys fleece and sells both the raw fibre and processed fibre to national and international markets.

The raw fibre can be hand spun, hand felted and used for a variety of craft work. There are sections in many Agricultural Shows for handicrafts made from alpaca and/or llama.

Lower quality fibre (from belly & leg wool) can be used for hat making, doonas, and stuffing of soft toys etc.

Ian takes the fleece off the neck

Alpaca Magic has for sale:

Raw cria fleeces (the first and softest baby fleece)
Raw llama and alpaca fleece (in a variety of shades)
Carded alpaca & llama fleeces in a variety of shades
Knitting yarn made from our softest alpacas and llamas in a variety of shades
We are now a distributor for the famous Roberta Electronic Spinner & carders etc
We have workshops and classes on felting & spinning alpaca & llama fibre

For details, please look at our MERCHANDISE page.

Alpacas need to be shorn annually. A good time is before the grass seeds mature and contaminate the fleece.

For our client's convenience, Alpaca Magic invites them to bring their alpacas or llamas to Alpaca Magic for shearing each year.

Clients that are NOT agistees please see the Calendar and choose the date for "Shearing (stud males & wethers & clients)".

Agistees - you do not need to book your animals in for shearing. They will automatically be shorn in the October/November Shearing as part of the Alpaca Magic herd.

In order to have your animal shorn please download and print out the "shearing_form.doc", fill it in by hand and post or fax it to Alpaca Magic.

If you are not an Alpaca Magic Client you will find a list of shearers and their contact details below.

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Llama Shamrock is none too pleased with Ian's handy work

Ian with stud male llama Shamrock, ready to start shearing

Ian and Trudy shearing a young llama on the table

The fleece appears to just roll off this llama

MEET OUR SHEARER - IAN ELKINS

Ian was born and bred in Boorowa district of NSW. He began his (sheep) shearing career in 1980 at the age of 16. In 2000 Ian moved to Canberra and began shearing alpacas.

Ian is the winner of 110 open shearing competitions, including an International event in 1994 at Denver, Colorado USA. He has won the Australian Championship in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2000 and has been Australian Shearer of the year 6 times.

Ian also teaches novice shearers at the Dubbo TAFE and is a demonstration shearer at Sydney Royal and other venues.

Ian is reliable, gentle with the animals, yet accurate and quick. He is easy to work with, good natured and Alpaca Magic is delighted to be able to call Ian "our shearer", and suggest he deserves the award for just being a all round nice guy with an exceptional talent as a shearer. We recommend Ian to anyone with alpacas to be shorn.

In our 2006 shearing, Ian shore 80 alpacas in one day (4 x 2 hour runs). We are impressed!

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Ian shearing stud male llama Shamrock with Bruce

Ian with Bruce assisting shearing a llama

Ian with Bruce assisting shearing llama

Ian shearing Llama Roberto

List of Shearers

It is a good idea to contact your proposed shearer several months before you wish to have your alpaca shorn. These shearers are available in the Southern Tablelands region to shear alpacas:

Emergency alpaca coat made of bubble wrap held in place with packaging tape girth & chest fastening

Shearers	Phone	Mobile
James Dixon	4257 0120	0403 402 114
Ian Elkins (Alpaca Magic uses Ian as our shearer)	6282 6746	0417 496 815
David Lilleth	6297 5202	0413 426 290
Bernie McInerney	4821 6298	0429 668 240
Les White	6227 6113	0413 045 047
Blake Robertson	4835 6333	0419 488 302

For more information about getting your alpacas and llamas shorn, fleece, yarn and using fleece in craft, please phone Glynda on (02) 6230 3311, or complete the on-line form, or contact us by email.

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