2022
bergauf, bergab
Master
Conceptual Textile Design
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bergauf, bergab showcases a collection of functional textiles made from wool. The reason for developing functional textiles from regionally available fibers was to shorten supply chains, find a use for unused material and develop plastic-free, compostable functional textiles. Wool offers ideal properties for functional textiles. It can warm up or cool down the body depending on outside temperatures. Wool fibers are water-repellent and can absorb a third of their volume in moisture without feeling wet. Textiles made of wool are self-cleaning and easily repairable using simple techniques like felting and darning.
One reason for its rare use is that much of the regional wool does not meet the desired quality for the clothing industry and is unjustly labeled as inferior. This wool is mainly burned or used for downcycling processes.
However, local wool is not inferior but a valuable resource. Sheep farming can increase biodiversity on grasslands and promote humus formation. Regional availability significantly reduces transportation distances.
Besides the lack of fiber fineness, gaps in the processing chain pose a challenge for processors of local wool. Currently in Germany, freshly shorn wool must be transported to Belgium or Poland for washing before it can be processed into yarn at one of the few spinning mills back in Germany.
Nevertheless, the situation is not entirely hopeless: there are people committed to processing and utilizing available wool. For bergauf, bergab, I searched for these individuals and found various projects, companies, and yarn qualities. In addition to many hand-knitting yarns, I even came across industrial yarn made from regional wool. Additionally, I worked with placeholder yarns that will hopefully be replaced in the future by regional, sustainably produced yarns.
In developing the fabrics, my focus was on constructing double weaves. By building multiple layers and combining different yarn qualities, multiple functions can be bundled in one single fabric.
The yarns were dyed exclusively with vegetable dyes. White Tencel, gray wool and natural wool were dyed with madder and reseda without prior bleaching. These dyes are particularly suitable for sustainable functional textiles as they can be grown in Germany. As a renewable raw material, both plants can be easily integrated into crop rotation.
In the future, I would like to develop the textiles further in order to produce them on machine flat looms as well as on Jacquard looms. This could result in technically denser fabrics. Jacquard designs also offer the possibility of responding even more specifically to the patterns for functional clothing. In addition, a yarn development of a very fine yarn made from local wool would be desirable in order to produce even lighter fabrics. The material combination of wool with other regionally available natural fibers also offers interesting potential. Overall, I consider the entire value chain of regional wool to be in need of improvement. Starting with the breeding of sheep and goats with a focus on fiber quality, through local processing, to long-term cooperation between farmers and the textile industry. A system change is needed that understands value creation as a cycle.