Composite material producer Solidwool has been named as one if this year’s Innovation in Wool Awards winners, with each winning £10,000.
Solidwool is a unique, composite material made with wool – a natural, sustainable and beautiful fibre with bio-resin as the binder – think fibreglass but with wool. Herdwick or Welsh Mountain wool and bio-resin are combined to create sheets that can be crafted into products, including chairs and tables.
‘We are extremely honoured that Solidwool has been recognised for an Innovation In Wool Award. Since the inception of Solidwool more than 10 years ago this unique material has been forging a path in which wool is considered in a new light. By taking undervalued wools and turning them into beautiful new materials and products, we have made it our mission to rejuvenate how consumers and the design community perceive wool,’ says Andy Guard, Solidwood creative director.
‘Solidwool as a material has boundless potential, and this award will help us push our mission forward. Every stage of Solidwool development we reach opens up further questions and possibilities of the material. In the next 12 months, we intend to use the funds and support of this award to focus on the technical parameters and production of Solidwool sheet material in all its forms. This area has the greatest potential to reach the widest possible audience with many applications we are continually discovering for Solidwool. As we grow Solidwool we hope to inspire other designers, artists and companies to consider wool as an untapped resource when looking towards a more sustainable future.
The other winners were Twool and Natural Dales Wool Products.
Twool makes sustainable garden and marine nets manufactured from award-winning twine and provide a valuable route to market for Dartmoor farmers’ wool which is collected at source and processed in the north of the UK. Using a blend of rare breed Whiteface Dartmoor wool and a natural colourised wool, Twool has developed a robust and durable net that has a natural granite colour.
Natural Dales Wool Products makes sustainable products made with Swaledale wool used for peat restoration and geotextile purposes. Needled wool felt and wool logs made from a felt bag are stuffed with scoured Swaledale wool. These products are manufactured from a sustainable fibre, returning carbon to the land whilst paying farmers a fair price.
‘This year’s competition built on the success of last year’s in demonstrating further innovative and commercially feasible uses of the wonder material that is wool. Often overlooked, this age-old fibre provides circularity in the number of uses and re-purposing options, as well as its benefits for the planet through biodegrading at the end of its lifecycle and not adding to the mounting global issue of plastic/man-made fibres in landfill,’ says Dame Mary Archer, chair of the judging panel.
The awards support special commercial projects that showcase wool used in a new, novel, inspirational or innovative way, inviting applicants from a wide range of sectors including the clothing, interiors, building industry, insulation, agricultural, aquaculture and other scientific wool applications and is a joint initiative between The Worshipful Company of Woolmen Charitable Trust, The Company of the Merchants of the Staple of England Charitable Trust and The Worshipful Company of Clothiers, Worcester, supported by the Campaign for Wool.
The three principal criteria for assessing entries for the awards are: the relevance to the wool industry and sheep; involvement with the wool textile industry in the UK and other areas in the world where wool textile production is undertaken and any further work required to commercialise the innovation project undertaken in the UK.
