In Search of Wool(s)

Bilge Merve Aktaş

This project explores the potential futures of wool. Despite being a significant craft material, wool has become a byproduct of sheep and lamb industry in most areas. In many places, fleece and wool use is in decline. Consistent with the global trend, wool production has also declined in the US since the 1940s . When wool is used in textile industries, merino wool from Australia and New Zealand often dominates the scene, thus contributing to the decline in local wool. As a result, large amounts of wool, a material with great qualities, becomes unwanted product and is discarded as a waste. A project about and with wool can bring new possibilities for the future of wool for producers and craftspeople. In this project, I will research wool's current situation around Asheville by visiting some farms and discussing with craftspeople. This research will draw on the current situation and start contextualizing how wool might be studied.

WOOL IN DIFFERENT PLACES

Wool is sheep's hair. But also material for humans to create shelter, cover bodies, and express themselves.

Wool becomes nests and dens for birds, wolves, moths, and rats.

It also lays in between bricks and walls to absorb heat and noise.

Now, I'm searching for many other things that wool can become.

PROLOGUE - WOOL AND I (and sheep and the world)

ABOUT THE PROJECT

This project studies how local wool has been used in Asheville as part of artistic and craft practices and explores ways of expanding its use areas.

Wool is a protein-based fiber. It is an extension of sheep that makes them touch the world, sense what is happening around them, and react if necessary. Wool fibers have different diameters depending on the sheep breed that grows them. The thickness, length, and other qualities affect the fineness of wool and shape its use areas. Fine wool is used for garments or accessories that touch the skin, while thicker wool is often used in other areas, such as carpet making, insulation material, or bedding.

Sheep breeding can be done for meat and milk production or for using its fibers. Depending on the sheep breed and the purpose of raising them, wool can become a valuable commodity or an unwanted byproduct that needs to be discarded. In this research, I explore how wool kinds that are often discarded can be reintroduced to the creative fields. Two initial approaches were to review the processesing mehtods and to pair them with other natural fibers.

WHAT IS ON THIS PLATFORM?

As part of my five-week-long researcher-in-residency program at the Center for Craft, Asheville, NC, during the summer of 2023, I explored the city, talked to artists and craftspeople, organized a workshop with textile enthusiasts, and experimented with some fibers. The information I collected throughout this process and my reflections are gathered here to share with the larger public.

NAVIGATING THIS PLATFORM

These findings and insights are structured into eight pages. Each page introduces different stages or different settings of the project. At the end of each page, links to other pages are placed. Although each page comes together to draw the larger picture of the project, they also can be visited separately depending on the viewer's interests.

Scroll down to see more.

MEETING WOOL

I don't remember how exactly I became a textile and wool lover. But I know that if I don't stay in touch with wool for a while, when I return to it, I feel like a missing piece finds its place.

I remember being very little and asking my mom to teach me how to knit. I also remember having bed mattresses filled with wool that we needed to care for every now and then. We would let it dry on our little balcony to prevent it from turning into a mat.

A more significant experience was when I had to wear woolen garments as a child. I especially remember the harsh scratches from a yellow scarf my grandma would use to cover most of my face when it snowed.

So wool was in my body's sensory repository - I knew its textures, how it smelled, looked like, and tangled. I was also informed early on how valuable wool was as my mom insisted on sleeping on a wool bed rather than a polyester mattress like the most common ones. Even when she didn't use the woolen mattresses anymore, she didn't feel comfortable discarding the ones with exquisite wool and storing them for decades.

I think these are the earliest memories I have of wool. These experiences formed into interests over time as textile making became my go-to practice. When I started my industrial design education, fibers, and textile practices, like embroidery and knitting, were my main tools and materials as much as the project allowed.

These interests became more structured and analytical with my master's thesis and doctoral dissertation.

MY RESEARCH

I am interested in materials and their power to shape their surrounding, including humans, in different ways. My research explores these different ways by looking into different contexts of materials. I have mainly studied crafting processes and examined materials as things that embed agencies to shape society. This view proposed that making is similar to negotiating with materials, where both parties, the maker and the material, try to convince each other of the emergence of a form that leads to new realities.

My material has been wool for almost a decade, and my methods are mostly textile practices.

Textile and artefact making:

1. transforming wool to yarn for woven, knitted, crocheted pieces.

2. working roving to make nonwoven felts

Soil support:

1. fertilizer when turned into mulch

2. protecting from wild plants when used as cover over soil

Insulation:

1. heat insulation used in construction, as woollen panels or wool as placed in between walls/bricks/stones.

2. sound insulation used usually as woollen panels for improving acoustic experiences

Healthcare with wool grease, lanolin :

1. used in vitamin D pills