The one sentence version
Wipe it with a damp cloth, never wash it, dry it flat away from heat, brush it when dry. That covers almost every question a customer will bring back to the counter.
### Guide ###
How to wash alpaca fur
Do not put it in a machine and do not soak it. Alpaca fur is fibre on skin, and skin that is wetted through and then dried stiffens and will not go back. Clean the surface, use cool water and a little wool detergent, press the water out rather than wringing, dry flat away from any heat, and brush it when it is dry.
### Step by step ###
A mark, and the whole piece
A mark, which is most of what happens
Take it off before it dries in. Lift what is sitting on the surface with a dry cloth first, working with the way the fibre lies rather than against it, because rubbing a mark in a circle is how a mark becomes a felted patch.
Then a cloth wrung out in cool water with a drop of wool detergent in it. Damp, not wet: the point is to clean the fibre and leave the skin underneath dry. Wipe the way the fibre lies, rinse the cloth, go over it once more with water alone, and let it dry in the air.
The whole piece
Only if it needs it. Cool water, a wool detergent, and as little of both as will do the job. Never hot water, never a machine, never a tumble dryer, and no bleach or anything with a solvent in it.
Press the water out between towels. Do not wring it and do not hang it, because a wet pelt carries its own weight and will pull out of shape and stay that way. Lay it flat, shape it with your hands while it is damp, and leave it out of the sun and away from a radiator. It will take a day or more, and rushing that with heat is the one mistake that cannot be undone.
When it is dry
Brush it out. A soft brush or a wide comb, in the direction the fibre grows, which lifts the pile and puts the shine back. Alpaca fur that looks tired has almost always just been flattened.
A rug
Shake it and air it, and that is most of the maintenance. Vacuum on the lowest setting with no beater bar, in the direction of the pile. For anything worse than a spill, a cleaner who handles sheepskin will handle alpaca: it is the same problem, fibre on a skin that must not be soaked.
### Do not ###
The five that ruin it
- A washing machine. Agitation felts the fibre and the drum soaks the skin. Both are permanent.
- Hot water. Heat and movement together are how felt is made on purpose.
- A tumble dryer or a radiator. Skin dried fast goes hard and curls at the edges.
- Wringing or hanging it wet. It stretches and keeps the shape it dried in.
- Bleach, solvents or anything enzymatic. Wool detergent, or nothing.
None of this is unusual for a natural fibre on a skin. The rule that covers all five is that fur wants to be cleaned on the surface and dried slowly.
### For shops ###
What to tell a customer
On the hangtag
Care wording goes on the tag in the language of your market, and it is one of the things a private label order settles before production. Private label and OEM.
What it is made of
Real alpaca fur, hand cut and hand sewn, tested to the standards your market names. Compliance.
Questions, meet Answers
No. The agitation felts the fibre and the drum soaks the skin underneath, and both of those are permanent. Clean the surface with a cloth wrung out in cool water with a little wool detergent in it, and let it dry in the air.
Lift what is on the surface with a dry cloth first, working the way the fibre lies. Then a cloth wrung out in cool water with a drop of wool detergent, damp rather than wet, so the fibre is cleaned and the skin stays dry. Wipe it again with water alone, dry it flat away from heat, and brush it when it is dry.
Shake it and air it, which is most of the maintenance. Vacuum on the lowest setting with no beater bar, in the direction of the pile. For anything worse than a spill, a cleaner who handles sheepskin will handle alpaca: it is the same problem, fibre on a skin that must not be soaked.
Heat and water together. A pelt that is soaked through and then dried quickly, on a radiator or in a tumble dryer, goes hard and curls at the edges, and that cannot be undone. Dry it flat, in the air, out of the sun, and give it the day or more it needs.
### Real alpaca fur · from 50 pieces ###
Build the mix. The quotation comes back within 24 hours.