In a series of workshops / interactive performances and self experimentation I am researching and reconfiguring the
relationship between sourcing and making with wool, the landscape and the product, and the user to the material.
My current focus is on dyeing and felting, one of the oldest techniques of processing wool.
raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool raw wool
RAW WOOL
Basis Vinschgau Venosta
16 + 17 NOVEMBER 2019, 10:00 - 18:00
IN BASIS VINSCHGAU VENOSTA, EX-KASERNENAREAL SCHLANDERS, ENTER VIA KORTSCHERSTRASSE
RAW WOOL by Theresa Bader & muu-baa
This workshop is exploring the relationship between sourcing
and making with wool, as well as the surrounding elements and
the product. It intends to establish new relationships to the
local wool by experimenting with different techniques of
processing wool, colouring and felting.
Participants can choose the fleece of one sheep and will be
introduced to all the steps it needs to process raw wool.
Washing, colouring, carding, felting, ... until a final
product emerges.
All the steps will be performed in close relationship and
respect to the environment. Dye colours will get harvested in
the woods and the water for washing the wool taken from the
rain and river closeby.
We foster creativtiy throughout the workshop and can provide
professional advice in generating and accomplishing your
final products.
DAY 1: introduction / washing / colouring / carding raw wool + a product idea emerges
DAY 2: carding / felting + finishing the products
lichens from laste lichens from laste lichens from laste lichens from laste lichens from laste lichens from laste lichens from laste lichens from laste
working at openstudio progettoborca working at openstudio progettoborca working at openstudio progettoborca working at openstudio progettoborca
REFLECTING MY WORK AT
Progettoborca Dolomiti Contemporanee
The intension of my work / workshop during the Openstudio Progettoborca, on the 19th and 20th of October 2019, by Dolomiti Contemporanee is, to explore the relationship between sourcing and making with wool on site. By searching for planters dyes and food waste in the project and colouring local sheep wool with those plants, a specific colour palette of the location at that weekend emerges.
Furthermore the visitors will be invited in creating with the coloured wool. I believe that touching and working the material creates new relationships towards the wool. Through one of the oldest techniques of processing wool, the felting by hand, the space, the wool and the people connect to each other.
SOURCING
Colour plays an important role in the architecture of Gellner, who is the architect of the space. But also the surrounding nature holds secret colours that are not necessarily obvious and visible on first sight. Processing plants, rocks, earth and food waste in the right way, allows to create a brew to colour wool.
Therefore, I was curious about what kind of dyers plants and dying material I could find in and around the project, during the event of Openstudio.
Sleeping in the camp-site of Progettoborca brought me right to where I expected some dyers plants. An early morning walk through the needle trees finally let me find lichens, barks and pines.
On another walk around the main building I could find more pine cones and an old container of beetroot juice.
Furthermore, I asked the artists working in the project to collect the skin of onions and coffee grounds.
COLOURING
The first plant I was colouring with, was the lichens. Colouring with those plants is a very easy process, as no staining of the wool, or pre-cooking of the plant is necessary. The lichens and wool get layered in the pot (1:1), covered with water and then cooked for 1-2 hours. The colour that emerges is a golden brown.
Other colours I experimented with were brews out of pine cones, chestnuts and beetroot juice.
As I expected, the colours of the pine cons and chestnuts were very light (they need a longer time to extract the colour to the water), whereas the beet root wool took on some really nice pinkish colour.
CREATING
For processing wool with the visitors I choose the technique of wet felting. It is one of the easiest and oldest techniques of processing wool and does only require little tools, such as soap and warm water.
As visitors were staying around 20 to 30 minutes in our space, the felting of small little balls allowed me to show and explain them a little about processing wool.
A nice collection of small coloured balls resulted.
RESULTS
During the two days of work I was able to source 5 different colours from the surrounding forest, the project area and food waste of people.
The output of this work is a little installation. Raw wool got coloured with found material and processed to little balls by people passing by. By involving the visitors, they could learn a little bit about the steps of processing wool and the current challenges local wool is facing. Most of the people that came, didn’t know about the issues of the local and valuable resource and showed high interest to the project.
workshop: making wool futures workshop: making wool futures workshop: making wool futures workshop: making wool futures workshop: making wool futures
ADVERT
Mountain wool: New applications, products and perspectives
19 January 2019, 10.00 – 16.00
at Stanglerhof
This hands-on making workshop* is a collaboration between muu-baa and rewollte(Theresa Bader and Melissa Fröhle) focusing on the potential of 60 tonnes of waste sheep wool produced annually in South Tyrol for the generation of new materials, applications and products. Participants will be introduced to past and present experimental works by designers, artists and craftspeople in Europe to imagine and construct new concepts working with wool.
REFLECTIONS
on muu-baa
https://www.muu-baa.org/2019/02/reflections-on-explorations-03-making-wool-futures/
