Hasta La Ideas

Designers Not Tom have created an installation where coloured dye rises by capillary action out of paint tins and along tree branches wrapped in wool.

Dyed in The Wool is a collaboration between Not Tom and Loui Thomas for the Wool Modern exhibition at La Galleria on Pall Mall.

The movement of dye along each branch resembles the natural movement of water up trees.

The result is a gradient along each branch between the natural wool and the coloured dye.

Wrapping the 150 sticks and tree branches in wool took almost a month to complete.

The paint tins that the wool-wrapped branches sit in are arranged around the edges of the room. They are also installed in the gallery’s windows and can also be found in the windows of Pringle of Scotland’s shop on Sloane Street, London.

Other Dezeen stories involving wool include a system for mending holes in woollen fabric, knitted safety vases and wrapped furniture.

Following a successful exhibition from 7 to 28 September for Wool Modern at La Galleria the installation is touring the world for the next year. It is currently at Galleria KaufHof, Alexanderplatz, Berlin.

Harry Osborne from Not Tom gives some more information on the project here:

The show is part of Woolmark’s campaign for wool and coincides with Wool Week.

Not Tom was commisioned by Woolmark and show curator Charlotte Lurot to create an original piece for inclusion in the Wool Modern exhibition in La Galleria, Pall Mall.

Our response to the brief for a wool themed installation to surround a room was our piece “Dyed In The Wool”, created in collaboration with Loui Thomas.

The outside edges of the room are lined with assorted paint tins filled with various coloured dyes. Stood in each jar, and set at random angles are large sticks and sections of tree branches completely wrapped in natural wool top. If the wool is dampened, capillary action causes the coloured die to rise up the sticks, eventually forming a gradient from the natural colour of the wool to the bright colour of the dye.

The full effect of the installation is that of a strange woollen forest, with a subtle, colourful glow around the bottom of the room. We liked that the mummification in wool of the dead branches is juxtaposed by the capillary action re-creating the natural movement of water up a living branch. Meanwhile it acts as a demonstration of dyeing processes.

It was an arduous task to hand wrap the 150 sticks in wool, taking nearly a month to complete (and calling in lots of favours!) but we think the overall effect has been worth the effort.

The sticks have become something of a totem for the Campaign for Wool, with them also being installed in the gallery windows, the windows of Pringle of Scotland’s Sloane Street shop and included in the promotional video for the exhibition in association with Harrods.

See also:

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Ink Calendar by Oscar Diaz	Dejection-moulding by Manuel Jouvin	Avifauna by Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters