Design that doesn't follow the flock
What a delight to stumble upon a brilliant and truly new idea. Something that speaks to the issues of the day and resonates ingenuity. We found such a thing recently at DesignJunction, the contemporary interiors show at London's King's Cross. A chair made from bits of old wool.
Not wool as in upholstery but wool as in structural material. Not soft but hard as nails. Hence the company name Solidwool – run by a couple from Buckfastleigh in Devon who wanted to rekindle the heritage of the wool industry that disappeared from their town decades ago. Product designers Justin and Hannah Floyd learned that wool shorn from Herdwick sheep on scraggy northern uplands commanded low cachet and low market prices.
“A chair made from bits of old wool. Not wool as in upholstery but wool as in structural material. “
But take that wool, add resin and pour into a custom mould and you suddenly create a material that has a high textural aesthetic (it looks woolly) and is based on highly sustainable ethics (it avoids landfill). Make a chair to this formula, with a nod to Eames plasticity, and the Solidwool Hembury fits easily into today's mixed kitchen-dining set-ups.
At £395, it isn't the cheapest way to sit down. Nor by far the most expensive. But what price the story of supporting ingenious design? The Good Vikings loved the immaculate workmanship – and above all Solidwool's upcycling narrative. Those rough old Herdwicks may live on rainy hillsides oblivious to this story, but our human eyes and backsides are better for them.
