Have you ever done macrame with wool?
Well, up until August I had never done it myself either. And I have to say that it has been the most pleasant experience.
The wool for this project felt much lighter than my normal go to recycled cotton, but the definition of the knots was perfect and a great pleasure to work with.
The feeling of the wool on my hands, the smell of it, almost brought me back to when I was a kid and flocks of sheep would walk through the village once a week on their journey to the next fields for the to graze.
So how did I come to work with wool and create this beautiful macrame piece?
As lots of things in life… it happened by chance.
While I was on holidays in Spain, the founder of Charity Organisation IAIA (Concepcion Rey Mejias), and a really good friend of mine, contacted me to attend a meeting with IAIA in my village.
La IAIA is a non-profit organisation that connects people that want to help by knit and crochet with various charitable causes around the world. Their mission is to help you help others. Just by knitting. From care homes, to schools, or to community groups IAIA has become a reference in the industry, not just for helping other, but for creating sustainable economies and supporting local communities.
And there I was, listening to Concha talk with the Counsellor of Education in my small village and then meeting Ramon the CEO of Wooldreamers about her inspiring project.
Wooldreamers is a wool company that has been operating in my village for many years and that wanted to donate wool to IAIA.
Ramon showed us around the wool factory and how they are trying to make a difference not just to the market and its sustainability, but to the small farmers that otherwise wouldn’t make a decent living wage.
Both IAIA and Wooldreamers are on sync with their love for sustainable wool and for making a true difference to their communities and society as a whole and they start with their day-to-day business.
Ramon donated some wool to me, so I could do some macrame art with it. For him it was important as some of the wool that he produces is not the best for knitting, or is not merino wool, so looking for a market for it was super important.
The colours I chose for this piece are inspired in the colours of the land where Wooldreamers is set. La Mancha’s Fields show the gentle waves of its landscape and the colour of the land, and its olive trees and vines.
This wool comes from the North of Spain, from the lands of Navarra where the sheep grace throughout the valleys and mountains of Urbasa and Andia.
Its white colour with shades of grey is originated from a secret recipe created in the mill where this thread was made. This Mill has 100 years of history and 4 generations trying to promote and increase the value of Spanish wool.
Wooldreamers mission is to build bridges between the artisan community, and the farmers so we can get total transparency and traceability of the original product and reduce costs with the middleman so the farmers get bigger margins and can put the wellness and quality of the flock.
Wool is much lighter than wool to work as a macrame artist, and next week I will share with you the benefits of having wool in your artwork in the home. Some are shared with Cotton, but other aren’t.
If you would to discover more about them? Check the links (Note Websites that La IAIA's website is just in Spanish)
Asociación IAIA: https://www.laiaia.org/
Wooldreamers: https://wooldreamers.com/en/