GROWING, HARVESTING AND PROCESSING FLAX TO INSTIGATE FIBRE, MATERIAL AWARENESS, COMMUNITY AND CHANGE

With the climate in crisis, designers and creative thinkers have a huge responsibility and opportunity to create a positive impact on the world. In this context, the paper addresses the correlation between soil and textile, following and evaluating the growth of flax as a regenerative fibre that can seek to demonstrate the benefits of natural and local materials, drive exnovative design responses, promote considered use of materials and serve as a vehicle for community evolution and wellbeing. To that end, we explore the growing and processing of flax by hand in Scotland, with the purpose of sharing the process with a broader local community to improve awareness of the connection between the textile product and its modest but rich origins. As part of this process, we engaged with design students and designers to enable initial exploration through hand spinning and sample weaving with the fibre, including introducing the concept of mono-materials to develop a range of textile qualities from flax, as well as taking a circular and zero waste approach from the outset. Preliminary results indicate positive community experience and feedback along with heightened awareness towards material and colour decisions. Exploratory woven linen samples have been created that demonstrate the versatility and exciting potential of flax.