Every once in a while I spend a day in Prato at the DHG headquarters. I find any excuse to linger in the warehouse: the sight of all those hues and those shelves adorned in multi colored wools makes me happy! I wander from one corridor to the next and I ask questions as I indulge in the many tones in which the different kinds of wool, plant fibers and fabrics are available. Idling is never an end to itself because contemplation breeds new ideas and I am not ashamed of it. A bit too ‘neutral’ for my taste is the corner where we find the Bergschaf, the amazing Alpine wool that molds like clay!
It is at the end of a long shelf of Maori wool where I rarely end up. Out of all of the different Bergschafs, my favorite without a doubt is the grey. I have always loved mixed tones. I have an artisanal soul. There are times when my hands just can’t stay still: so one day, I don’t even remember which, I took a few pieces of wool. I began to combine the colors and to mix them with the beautiful and beloved grey Bergschaf, which is already a hybrid. I pulled off a tuft of Maori here, another there and I mixed them together then with the warm Alpine wool. On a piece of paper I wrote down 1/3 cobalt, 1/3 chlorophyll... I brought everything upstairs, to the offices and we talked it over together.
Will it felt well? Hand carding didn’t give great results, but it was worth passing to the next fateful test: the water + soap + elbow grease test. We didn’t have a lot of wool prepared like this, for obvious reasons, and we needed to experiment with it on something small. Coincidentally in those same days I was working on a commission, some containers. I cut out a small model and I carried out a first test. I told myself, “Ok, it is possible. It’s easy to work with.
The result a true mix: ‘dryer’ and more stable than the felt made with Maori, colored just like I like it with a touch more softness. I am a bit methodical as well: I tried to put the Bergschaf on the bottom and the color on top, to use the mix only on the outside, to use one fiber on the right side and another on the left. It was all very informative. I never stop learning. Then, at some point, I was missing that little bit of wool that I needed to complete the last object and I had to add a different color. So, considering that fate was on my side, that is how the little woolen containers with contrasting ‘mouths’ were born!
Long live this meeting between Bergschaf, the rough mountain wool, and Maori, the more delicate and exotic fiber from New Zealand: may it be a colorful and durable marriage!
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