The Catalonian wool context¶
MAPPING THE LOCAL ECOSYSTEM¶
Researching together about the heritage and life cycle of wool-making in your territory.¶
Catalonian has been one of the most important textile manufacturing regions in the XIX century. Wool industries were part of a larger industry that benefited from the industrial revolution using coal and water as fuel for manufacturing fabric and associated products. By visiting the museum of science and technology in Terrassa, we could immerse ourselves in the practices of wool production in the 19th century. From now on, Cataluña is producing around 500 tons of wool each year. Idescat, 2021. This number is decreasing over the years. Most of the old buildings have disappeared or are now mediating the industrial heritage and associated knowledge around textile production.
Local wool characteristics and typology¶
There are 3 main types of Catalonian sheeps with different wool quality and different existing structures to develop, maintain and sustain the practice of wool production: Xisqueta, Ripolesa, Aranesa. Close to Cataluña, was the birth of the merino wool. Even if the production has drastically reduced, merino value chains are still present in between France and Spain. MACOMERINOS: ORGANIC MERINO WOOL illustrates an original territorial cooperation between french farmers and catalan cooperative of knitters embedded in the heritage of textile industry. Other types of wool can be found, especially many forms of “waste” wool, but also smaller production coming from other animals, sometimes with higher wool properties. For instance, two projects with Alpacas have emerged in the territory: Alpaca Pirineu, and Mas Castanyer.
Key actors and active locations in the field¶
Remaining local production mainly comes from local cooperatives of artisans. One inspiring example is the cooperative Xisqueta, a local revitalization project which was founded in 2009 in order to remunerate the wool of Xisqueta sheep at a fair price for the shepherds and shepherdesses who keep this breed.
Obrador Xisqueta. Lana y desarrollo local / Llana i desenvolupament local from obradorxisqueta on Vimeo.
Xisqueta ended its activity during the project duration.
In Barcelona, we can also find some spinning companies such as Hilatura Arnau that keep on producing yarns from different types of fibers and are equipped for processing cleaned wool into yarns. The teixidors are a great example of knitter cooperatives working with local wool projects. Events like Festivalet or Barcelona Knits are ideal places for showcasing and bringing together designers and brands that play with wool.
Projects connected to wool¶
- Visit of local stakeholders with the Bask Design Center and the Icelandic Textile Center during Fabricademy bootcamps
- Squeeze the Orange from Remix El Barrio, created a biomaterial with orange peels and the local wool Xisqueta
- Lara Campos created a regenerative wool fabric, through her project Be grounded. She also creates spinning and weaving hand machines to create her piece.
- Petra Garajova initiated a project on wool waste creating a material with 3D printing technology.
- Tornem les esquells. Development of a new project with the wool of Collserola park. check link
Reflections¶
- What did you learn?
We learnt a lot from the visit of the exhibition Wool mills, for instance about:
- What are the "hot topics" to explore?
- What are the cultural specificity/gaps of the place?
- With whom collaborate for our little factory project?
For the short term, we worked with Xisqueta wool to test the Hilo spinning machine and cooperate with Petra Garajova, one of our local ambassadors to explore opportunities with waste wool. 2 opportunities rise up during the Wool Mondays: cooperating with Tornem les esquelles and working with catalonian rural area to explore possible learning experience onsite.