Wool is many things. First and foremost, a warm covering for a sheep. Wool is cozy sweaters. Wool is grandma-vibes and knitting. But wool can also be a wasted resource, entrepreneurship, an artistic material, a medium for designers and artisans, and ultimately terroir-based, sustainable development of a rural district. This is at least the case in Odsherred. Here in Nykøbing Sjælland, you’ll find ‘The Wild Spinning Mill,’ a mini-spinning mill that has specialized in the not-so-simple handling of wool from sheep of historical breeds or those involved in nature and landscape management.

The wool is processed especially for designers and artisans who use the materials in various artistic projects that can be exhibited at the Spinning Mill. The value chain from sheep to art project involves a wide range of actors, from farmers to young artists, volunteers, and researchers, and thus helps stimulate life and development in the local area, while the art projects draw connections to urban families, bringing them closer to understanding rural life.

Wool in Abundance

The story of the ‘woolly’ development project begins in a closed-down cooperative store in the village of Unnerud, just south of Nykøbing Sjælland, where local forces bought the building and transformed it into a base for ‘wild design.’ Here, Pia Heike Johansen experienced how young artists coming to Unnerud from all over the world to be ‘artists in residence’ in the old store demanded local wool for their artworks and design projects.

‘I’m a former farmer myself and know that wool is something you, so to speak, get ‘dumped on you’ when it comes from smaller herds because there’s no economy and logistics for its use – especially when it’s wool from breeds that aren’t bred for wool but maybe are some more robust types typically used for grazing in nature and landscape management or kept for meat,’ explains Pia Heike Johansen.

The artisans’ inquiry inspired her to hop on her bike and embark on a longer odyssey around to the area’s sheep farmers to look at ‘ownerless’ wool that could be included in the artisans’ and designers’ works. However, the mission not only made demands on the breeders, the sheep, and their wool but also on the artisans and their flexibility and creativity.

‘There’s a huge difference in wool, depending on which of the over 1200 different breeds you look at. And most have a wool setting that’s difficult for ordinary, industrial spinning mills to handle and use commercially. It works better at a craft-driven spinning mill like the one we’ve established today. It works in such a way that we spin the wool from each animal separately, between one and five kilos, and thus we challenge both the fashion industry and textile craftsmen. Because it means that each batch is different in color.’

Small Spinning Mill – Big Success

The wool hunt inspired Pia Heike Johansen to seek funds to purchase a spinning mill, and after a long search, she managed to find the perfect spinning mill – in Canada.

‘The advantage of a mini-spinning mill is that it has simpler machines, and we control the production – not the machine. So it’s both the employees who wash, sort, card, and spin the wool, and our full-time designer who is involved in the process when spinning,’ explains Pia Heike Johansen.

The spinning mill is now established in a building on Havnevej in Nykøbing S. Here, they have a total of 360 m2, but only half is used for spinning – the rest is a textile workshop and exhibition space for the ‘artists in residence’ who are regularly associated with the spinning mill.

‘Our visiting artists are often young artists who don’t have much on their CV yet, but they get that here with us, where they can exhibit their works. We try to market our residency on the fact that here you can gain knowledge about wool – processing, colors, textures, practice incorporating wool into your work, study the diversity and changeability of wool,’ says Pia Heike Johansen.

Local Dynamics

While the visiting artists and designers often come from abroad, the local anchoring is incredibly strong when it comes to the other associates. In addition to a small group of employees, the spinning mill benefits from a good group of volunteers from the local community.

‘Both citizens and the municipality think that what we do is really cool, and everyone wants to be involved. They come and ask if they can volunteer, and we also think we can contribute something. We also collaborate with the municipality’s job center to take in people who need job clarification after a long sick leave due to stress or similar. And it works well because we are flexible with time and requirements for what people can do – and because citizens experience the work as meaningful – even if it might one day involve sorting wool with sheep droppings on it,’ laughs Pia Heike Johansen.

A large part of the drive to establish the spinning mill comes from Pia Heike Johansen’s personal and research focus on driving development in rural districts.

‘I experienced the demand for local wool and knew it was out there with the breeders. And then the challenge was to put my professional knowledge as a researcher into play and get it all systematized so that it could create jobs, business, and dynamics. It’s not new that local resources anchored in a specific geographical area can have a special value and create development – we know this from the terroir concept in gastronomy, where, for example, wine production is closely linked to the place. So the question is, can we do the same with textiles?’ she says.

Woolen Bridge Between City and Country

This question is partly answered when looking at the outcome of some of the artistic projects that have been initiated based on the spinning mill – and which hopefully will be followed by more in the future.

‘Research has shown that people in the countryside actually have a higher quality of life than people in cities. We are sensing beings, and in the countryside, you feel much more light and darkness, coolness and warmth, the scents of nature, and this contributes to our quality of life. And there we have used wool to convey the qualities of rural life to city people,’ explains Pia Heike Johansen.

‘We are working on implementing a year-long project where we, for example, create workshops for Copenhagen families with wool as the focal point. Here they will follow the rhythm of nature and wool through the sheep’s life, for example when they have lambs and when they are sheared. Then follows the processing and possibly plant dyeing of the wool. After that begins the work of the artisans and designers when they convert the products into objects that can be part of everyday life in the city… And finally, people will be involved in taking care of the objects and airing out the woolen clothes and mending holes in socks. All in all, we want to give participants a sense of the rhythm of nature and seasons and life in the countryside through wool, in the same way as has been done with, for example, meal boxes and food communities.’

Example to Follow

The Wild Spinning Mill has thus created plenty of local dynamics in the form of demand for sheep farmers’ wool, the establishment of the Spinning Mill itself, an artistic arena for young talents, the engagement of volunteers and citizens in resource programs, as well as some more intangible values such as the story of the locally anchored resource and the bridge-building between country and city.
The question now is whether Pia Heike Johansen can recommend establishing similar businesses elsewhere in the country. And she can.

‘I think it should be possible to establish between 100 and 150 mini-spinning mills across the country in rural districts – and we are happy to provide consulting advice on how. Of course, not everything is easy – it can be difficult to be seen and heard when the core of the work is wool, which for many has a somewhat unsexy grandma karma. But it creates local jobs, and in Denmark, the competition in the area is almost non-existent. So just do it!’

Further reading