Capturing Value: With economic security, land management and animal welfare totally interlinked merino growers are capturing value by removing wool from the traditional commodity market.
Adding Value; through alternative business models like customisation and personalisation which digital print affords, the design-led project also highlights the financial and environmentally sustainable advantages of the digital print process on wool.
Abstract
Masters of Design Critical Research Paper
Merino Jersey and Digital Print; Capturing and adding value in the supply chain
This research posits that studio practice should begin with researching and procuring an environmentally sustainable and ethically sourced raw material and continue along a material’s supply chain laying down a framework which should follow into business practice. It articulates some of the latest technical and organizational developments in merino wool production and the advancements in digital printing specific to wool jersey. The studio practice and research develops within the parameters of the Textile Futures Research Centre, Chelsea College of Arts and Textile Environment Design's Ten Strategies for Sustainable Design and argues the product's real potential to be manufactured for a consumer market.
Focusing on the two biggest merino wool producing countries, New Zealand and Australia, this research details the steps that various stakeholders like New Zealand Merino, New Merino and Mumblebone Merino Stud Farm are taking to remove wool from an traditional but volatile commodity market in order to safeguard their economic futures. At the same time, they are improving environmental sustainability through better land management and increasing animal welfare by removing the controversial process of mulesing. Also considered, is the increased profitability of digital printing on wool compared with the traditional screen and rotary methods. This process lowers the environmental impacts through the use of reactive dyes in digital printing which requires purer, cleaner dyes on the drop-and-demand system. Alternative business models like customisation and personalisation are highlighted and demonstrated by the digitally engineered final prints designed to make the final prototypes.
Exploring the interaction of colour by utilizing a printed textile design methodology which navigates design tools and media which are both material and virtual, the research references the artist and Bauhaus teacher Johannes Itten's "Elements of Colour" and Sonia Delaunay's remark that “it is the relationships of colour that are the real objects of [her] studies," Concentrating on the cycling jersey and its long and colourful history, the researcher is exploring this design methodology for digital print.
