Horse! and wool!

[grygon.livejournal.com]

I had a 9some hour adventure yesterday traveling some 200miles and seeing a dozen or so abandonments and sites stopping at a lady's house to pick up the dead horse she's been saving for me for nearly a year. They kept her covered so the beetles and flies cleaned her up very good. I'm not sure how complete her legs are, and I know I am missing her tail bones, and I know for sure two of her hooves are missing (hind hooves). So instead of articulating her in whole I might just do a euro shoulder mount and save the rear bones for carving and stuff.

Anywho, the lady also cut her mane and tail for me. Today I experimented in cleaning some wool and I think it has partially felted on me despite me being as gentle as possible with it: I just put a handful of it in a mesh bag that we buy our oranges in ( http://wolfram.org/writing/howto/1.html ) and pushed it into the soapy water and pushed a rock on top. Once in a while I move the bag back and forth, but I guess even that much movement is bad. :( I did two soapy water changes when the hot hot water turned warm, then a 3rd of just plain hot water to let the soap leach out.

So I am wondering, since it clearly doesn't take much agitation at all to knot up fibers... how on earth can I clean this cut mane and tail without it becoming stubbornly knotted on me? It's folded into a bag so it might already be a little knotted. And for those who have used horse hair in jewelry or art, what do you do exactly- clamp it and braid?