INNOVATION IN WOOL AWARDS 2023 – WINNERS ANNOUNCED
RECOGNISING NEW TEXTILE INNOVATIONS FOR WOOL USAGE FIT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

 

The Innovation in Wool Awards 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. This unique award platform was explicitly created with the goal to draw attention to wool as a sustainable and biodegradable fibre that deserves its place in the 21st century.

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 apparel, interior, building industry, insulation, agricultural, aquaculture and other scientific wool applications.

Three companies will jointly share this year’s awards, following an initial shortlist of companies and rigorous interviews with the judging panel. 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
• 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.

Natural Dales Wool Products – Ruth Lindsay – Sustainable products made with Swaledale wool used for peat restoration and geotextile purposes. Needled wool felt and wool logs made from a felt bag stuffed with scoured Swaledale wool. These products are manufactured from a sustainable fibre, returning carbon to the land whilst paying farmers a fair price.

“Receiving this Award means that I will now be able to develop the busines’s infrastructure and pay for the processing of new types of felt. In addition, it means that I can further reach the farming community that provides the backbone to much of this country that has long been forgotten.” Ruth Lindsay

Solidwool – Andy Guard – A unique, composite material made with wool – a natural, sustainable and beautiful fibre with bio-resin as the binder; think fibreglass but with wool. Made using either Herdwick or Welsh Mountain Wool, these two beautiful materials take British Wool fibres and reengineer them using bio-resin into sheets that can be crafted into a various products, including chairs and tables. What were once course and wiry fibres are subsequently transformed into beautiful interior products that celebrate the unique characteristics of these British fibres.

“We are extremely honoured that Solidwool has been recognised for an Innovation In Wool Award. Since the inception of Solidwool over 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.

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.” Andy Guard

Twool – Kim Stead – Twool sustainable garden and marine nets are 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.

“Winning an industry award from Innovation in Wool is a tremendous honour and one we are extremely proud. The award will help us achieve our maximum potential in the product’s initial output and help us promote and market our nets not only to the industries we currently work with, but far beyond. We have already had an incredible response to our products across other sectors of industry and look forward to promoting our garden range of nets at a garden press event in London in February 2024.” Kim Stead

The Innovation in Wool Awards are for commercially ready innovation projects or businesses using wool as one of Nature’s most planet friendly fibres – Natural, Bio-Degradable, and Renewable. This annual award is gifted to the individual(s) who show the most innovative use of wool, demonstrating a valid and commercially viable application. This year, with an increased monetary value of up to £30,000 awarded across 1 to 3 winning project submissions, the winner’s also receive a certificate of merit, an invitation to a City Livery networking dinner, a tailored business mentoring program from a Livery member, and media support.

Chief Judge for 2023 was once again Dame Mary Archer who said, “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.” Dame Mary Archer