About a decade ago, I started spinning my own yarn for my works/projects to be made.

In the old techniques, I developed and spun yarns manually. I started spinning from fur wool but soon moved to spinning from raw furs, which I still do today. The main principle in making yarns was that ultimately the structure of the original fleece should be visible and “preserved”.

There are more than 400 sheep breeds, all with their unique coats, curls, long locks. If made into a thread by machine, carded and spun, not much remains of these external features of the structure of the fleece. I thought this was a shame and saw it as a challenge to make the yarn in such a way that the external features of the coat remain visible. It can be done, but it is a labour-intensive process www.akaratos.nl/natuurlijk-textiel/.

This project was selected for Dutch Design Week 2019 in Eindhoven and was exhibited at St Catherine’s Church: https://ddw.nl/en/programme/1547/3d-designs-in-various-textile-techniques-by-marjan 

Spinning yarn put me in touch with Sjraar van Beek. Sjraar has owned Landschapsbeheer De Wassum a grazing company that deploys sheep herds to manage nature reserves since 1988. The working area is North and Central Limburg and the eastern part of Brabant. Currently, the company has over 2,000 sheep and more than ten shepherds are active on De Meinweg, the Beegder Heide, the Maasduinen and the Strabrechtse Heide, among others. The sheep are Kempische Heideschapen, which used to roam the Brabant and Limburg Heaths in large numbers. Several places used to have thriving trade in wool products like Roermond, Geldrop and Mierlo.

A few years ago, it was decided to get back to better wool by mating with rams with proven good wool. From the potential rams, the wool was examined for fineness and comfort. The new breeding lines again had much finer wool (below 30 microns and sometimes even below 25 microns). Wool below 30 microns is considered comfortably wearable. This improved wool A choice is again suitable for spinning and felting. Numerous marketing projects have now started: www.wassum.nl

I made a plan with a number of objects as decoration for the estate. Sjraar chose three that will be executed and placed at the Beatixhoeve in Roermond. For the outdoor art project The WOLOASE, I use the lesser wool qualities.