How to Care for Your OhmGnome!

Lucky for us, Wool is very durable!

Wool is naturally water repellant, flame retardant, dirt and smell resistant, anti bacterial and microbial, home compostable, body temperature regulating, EMF blocking, and lifelong!

Despite its seeming indestrucability, your OhmGnomes Hat, Clothes, Bag, and Textile will find itself needing a bit of scub down every once in a good while depending on how dirty you get your Gnomie. Cleaning up your dirty treassure is as simple as these 5 words: 

SPOT CLEAN & AIR DRY!

Wool Hat & Clothing Care:

Wool Felt Hats and Clothes like ours are produced through “Wet Felting” or a process of using soap, warm water, and agitation, so they’re assuredly not afraid of water. BUT BE CAREFUL! Too Hot of water, too much agitation (especially when wet), and too much soap can be NO BUENO, not good, for your Wool Friend. Each of our felted treasures can surely take a beating and heavy washing, but there’s always the risk that you could SHRINK your piece with too much of it to the point of it being unusable for anyone other than... well a gnome. So we suggest Spot Cleaning for all your dirty deeds and then a nice air dry with your Hat propped open and clothes hung on a hanger.

Woven Wool Bags

Our woven wool bags have much of the same durability features of our felt hats and clothes but with a slightly more delicate spin. You see, our bags are crafted from spun strands of wool which make cleaning a slightly more delicate task compared to the firmly felted wool items we just spoke of. Spot Cleaning is even more advised here as even the slightest over bearing agitation can pull threads, felt the fiber, and permanently misshape your treasure. Your bag will last a lifetime but it requires a gentle cleaning hand and a bit of extra care to ensure it always stays gorgeous! Hang on a hanger to let it air dry!

Textile Care

Treasures like our Shipibo Textiles are challenging to clean once soiled. The embroidered and painted pieces use a cotton thread or natural clay when made. Unfortunately cotton is not as dirt resistant as wool, so dirt is likely to stick more pervasively. Spot Clean with hotter water on the cotton pieces and let that water set and soak in before applying any agitation. Clay Dyed pieces should avoid hot or even warmer water, relying more on cold to warm water at most, for cleaning. Multiple attempts to clean may be more necessary with Clay Dyed pieces.

What is Spot Cleaning?

Spot Cleaning is great! It is a localized form of cleaning an item where focus and agitation is isolated to just a particular dirty area on a piece. When Spot Cleaning:

1. Grab an old toothbrush of yours (not your roommates new one), a bit of warmer to hot-ish water, and a small rag for drying.
2. Give your treasure A GOOD SHAKE to easily remove built up dust and debris.
3. Locally apply some of your water onto the dirty spot in question and let it quickly soak in.
4. Take your handy toothbrush and begin to stroke the wet and dirty spot in either an up-down & side-to-side movement applying a liberal amount of pressure. Avoid circles unless necessary as it could cause certain areas of the piece to “pill” or come up from the fiber. 
5. Apply more water and gently proceed with your scrubbing until the spot has been scrubbed out!
6. Take your dry rag and spot dry the area by placing a mild amount of pressure where wet, removing some water and accompanying dirt in the process.
7. Pat yourself on the back for cleaning up a dirty gnome, it makes the world a better place! 

 

“Air Dry!? That’s going to take forever!”

Patience isn’t a typical trait of gnomes... or people... but let this be your lesson! DO NOT PUT WOOL IN THE DRYER. Now repeat after us... Please don’t harm your treasure by thinking it’s a good idea to put anything we share with you into a dryer. This will ruin your item and we will play you a sad song on the world’s tiniest Fairy Violin. Let your treasure dry in partial sun or in the shade until ready to head out on your next adventure with you!

 

SPECIAL CARE NOTES FOR OUR SHIPIBO EMBROIDERED HATS

 Our Limited Edition Shipibo Gnome Hats are especially unique in how they’re worn. Due to the beautiful embroidery on these hats, dirt and water must be managed a little bit more diligently. The cotton thread holds dirt differently than wool so you’ll notice that over time your embroidery will have transformed. Extra care to maintain the pristine nature of the embroidery is important if this sort of transformation is bothersome. Water and heavy agitation may fray the thread over years, so be gentle to your friend.