Inês Schertel: Wool Sheep, Tradition and Slowness for the Design that Goes Back to the Origins

Brazilian designer Inês Schertel presents her works at the exhibition Materica in Milan, charming examples of slow design made of sheep wool

Ines-schertel
Ines Schertel

 

Inês Schertel is a Brazilian architect and designer from Porto Alegre who has been living for many years on a farm in São Francisco de Paula, in Southern Brazil, with her husband. Her 300 sheep inspired her to produce exclusive woolen objects, so much so that she has been called the shepherdess of design.

Ines-schertel-oggetti-design-in-lana
The hand-felted Meu Bem basket (2018) reveals the natural color of sheep wool. The designer decided not to dye it and the result is represented by a color duo: brown and beige. Processing time: 2 weeks

Some of her works will be presented at Materica, the exhibition dedicated to unusual materials and common materials used in uncommon ways that takes place in the iconic spaces of the Nhow hotel in Milan, Via Tortona 35, from 16 May to 31 October 2019.

The Graxaim tapestry (2019) was created by processing the different parts individually and then dyeing them with vegetable pigments. Processing time: about 3 months. The designer uses copper, leaves, eucalyptus petals, seeds and herbs such as carqueja and raiz de São João. Steam allows natural pigments to fix colors

Inês Schertel, a representative of “slow design”, creates her works felting sheep wool and dyeing it with vegetable pigments, a 6,000 years old technique that the designer perfected during her journeys in Europe and Central Asia.

Porva stool (2018). Overlapping layers of wool become a comfortable seat “set” on the small backrest of this hand felted and dyed stool. Its legs are in certified Tauari wood. Processing time: 1 month

Wool is pressed by hand with water and olive-oil soap, creating different layers that blend harmoniously generating surprising effects. In this slow design process, Inês Schertel passes from the raw material to the end product, which allows her to calculate the impact of the whole process on the environment.

Ines Schertel at work. Truvisca stool (2017). The ivy-shaped leaves, individually felted by hand and dyed with vegetable pigments, become a comfortable seat. Processing time: 2 months

[Text Carlotta Russo]

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