Since 2011, with the Sandach legislation, so-called dirty wool (direct from shearing) is considered waste, on the same level as waste from a slaughterhouse. The strict regulation that this implies in terms of storage, handling, transportation and destruction has put an end to a series of traditions and trades that for centuries gave luster to the white gold business. Mayorales, shepherds, shepherds, shepherds, arrimadores, sorters, washerwomen, dyers, weavers, spinners, pelaires, tundidores… It sounds like the past, but what if it were actually the future?
“More than 70 wool laundries were counted here, most of them distributed in what is now called emptied Spain. Since then, there are only three of us left, fighting to maintain the tradition and give wool the place it deserves,” says Ramón Cobo, founder of Wooldreamers, a company from La Mancha that has modernized the tradition, establishing a genuine national network of shepherds. “Thanks to the rise of weaving communities and the current knitting boom, which includes a large number of trades, it is possible to fight for this dream,” he continues. His next step has been to launch the Wool4Life line with items already produced.
“In this way we want to explore new opportunities and help more local flocks,” he explains. The preservation of native sheep breeds and giving visibility to the different qualities of wool is a priority: “The selection and classification of fleeces is an art, a craft in danger of extinction. “There is no machine that can classify and understand fleeces effectively and productively other than human ability.”
An emblematic material of luxury, wool stopped being a business for these payments a long time ago. And the Iberian Peninsula is the origin of what is probably still the most appreciated hair –with the permission of the cashmere–, that of the Merino sheep. Australia and New Zealand have taken note. In the Soria countryside, María Martínez Azeña is determined to recover it with her project, Merynadas, focused on the preservation and transmission of ancient textile knowledge, working with fleece (from her own flock) from shearing to the loom.
“When I started to investigate, asking older women about how they used to transform dirty wool into a ball, I discovered that the process is barely remembered,” she explains. “That made me reflect on how during the 20th century such knowledge, which was previously passed from generation to generation, was neglected, and the need arose to recover the popular culture around this wonderful raw material: it is ecological, biodegradable and renewable, with unique properties that no synthetic fiber has managed to match.”
That many of these initiatives that unite business and culture are promoted by women is not surprising. “I think wool is in the female genetic memory. We have been the ones who have worked on it almost since the world began,” concedes the creator of Merynadas. In Salamanca’s Sierra de Francia, for example, Hilando Hebra operates, an association focused on textile crafts made from natural fibers and the recovery of traditional crafts derived from wool directed by seven women. “Our concern led us to approach local ranchers who did not know what to do with the wool. They gave it to us and, from there, we started working with the help of nine other partners,” says Hiromi Sato.
The work of this group is not limited only to the transformation of wool, but also to experimentation. “We have dyed fleeces with different dye plants, and even with onion peel, and the results have been surprising. There is a lot to investigate,” says Sato. To top it all off, they are also in charge of disseminating their findings, organizing courses and workshops ranging from spindle spinning to washing or carding demonstrations. “We try to encourage concern so that these types of jobs are felt and understood as possible today,” he concludes.
Associations such as Laneras, organizer of the Wool Festival in the Ambroz Valley (Cáceres), or Fibershed España, which works to establish a collective of producers, processors and manufacturers that supports regional systems, also contribute to the cause. “It is necessary that dirty wool stops being classified as a by-product and recovers its value as a raw material,” says María Martínez, herself in the process of setting up her own wool association, La Tarabilla, which takes its name from a type of ancestral spindle. Soriano. “We use synthetic materials while we waste the potential and value of natural ones,” says Ramón Cobo.
“It is time to redefine the concepts of design, value or even luxury. And go deeper by addressing the impact we are making by choosing wool, which is social, environmental and cultural. This is what will truly determine the value of creation.”