Northern California Angora Guild: 7/5/20

My Little Show Barn

Here are 8 of my main show rabbits this season. Normally they are spread out in my main barn that has a swamp cooler. Now they are all put together in one barn, why?

After 4 months of shutdown and show cancellations, there will be a show date soon. It's exciting but it's also very scary. There is the human virus COVID19 pandemic, there is the rabbit virus RHD2 in the southeast regions, ... I can either make the decision of shutting myself and rabbits from the outside world, or I can take the risk but do try to minimize it. This is what I decide to do, put all the show rabbits into one area. I cleaned and power-washed these cages and put in the juniors and young seniors that were born this year, they had never been to a show.

The top section are all English Angora, from left to right are white doe Graceann, tort buck Aabel, tort doe Susanna and tort doe Joanna. The bottom row are English Angora white buck Mika, French Angora tort doe Simone, French Angora fawn doe Monique and French Angora fawn buck Billy. This little barn uses the mister that is attached to the top edge as the cooling tool during the hot days. There is not enough space to install a swamp cooler. Mister is not the best for the show coat, but with the current situation, I'll just have to try it out. Why is this barn so small? stay tuned.

Angora Past: A Very Old Angora Book

Since I started raising English Angora in 1982, I either actively collected or people gifted me many old books about Angora. This is an old one.

This book was published in the UK at Bradford. Bradford is still the center for rabbit shows and the Furs and Feathers Magazine today. Interestingly enough this book does not have a publication date.

This is one of the bunny pictures in the book.

Though there's no publication date, we can infer that the book was published in the mid to late 1940s as the standard for Angora was recognized in February 1946.

The standard was quite detailed, these are the second and third page of the standard.

Page 20 is the 4th page of the standard. We'll find the sentence "Wool quality as silky as possible..." is very similar to the wordings used in the US standard for English Angora all the way into the 1990s. Or we should say that the US standard took after the old UK standard for quite a long time.

Here are some photos about grooming and an article about hand spinning.

This is the back cover showing the publish list of the Fur & Feathers magazine. By the way, I checked the Fur and Feathers magazine website, none of these books including this old Angora book is currently available anymore.

Convention Memories: 2001 ARBA Convention Group Winner

In the 2001 ARBA Convention at the San Diego County Fairgrounds at Del Mar, my English Angora once again became a finalist on the Best In Show table. Her name is Chu's Vera, a white senior doe.

From the start of the ARBA convention up to 1995, there were 2 finalists on the Best In Show table: Best 6 class and Best 4 Class. The two rabbits representing the heavy weight and light weight would compete for the top honor of Best In Show. In 1996, the "weight" division was scratched. Instead, the rabbits were divided into groups. Though some years there were a slight variation, most of the conventions divide the rabbits into four groups, mostly by random order. In 2001, the four group winners, or the 4 finalists, were Mini Rex, English Angora, Netherland Dwarf and New Zealand. I am very fortunate to be the breeder of the English Angora that won the group 2.

Vera and I at the National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club booth.

My white buck Chu's Rolex won the Best Opposite Sex of the Breed in the same year.

Carolyn's Ichimatsu Doll

Carolyn shares her most recent creation:

"Here are photos of my latest Kimekomi doll. She is a different style from previous ones I have created. This one is an Ichimatsu doll, which represents little girls or boys, usually with glass eyes and flesh-colored skin, made of gofun, a smooth porcelain-like substance from ground oyster shell. The substance is very delicate. If touched directly by hand, oils from our skin will stain it. In 1927 these dolls became popular with the Friendship Exchange of dolls from Japan to the U.S. The doll I made is a modern interpretation, with her wavy hair. The traditional doll has straight hair"