About wool, felting and our choices
ABOUT US
Manja ten Donkelaar and Sophie van der Lubbe: makers, thinkers, entrepreneurs and sisters-in-law. Home base: the Dutch countryside.
Our roots are in art education (Manja), biology and tailoring (Sophie) . We have found each other in our shared love of nature, textiles and design. We have a mutual fascination for employing traditional techniques with a contemporary twist. A 'wabi-sabi' jacket, because what we love is the beauty of imperfection.
OUR MATERIAL / SUSTAINABLE, ORGANIC & HOME GROWN
Wool felt is the starting point for all designs. How the wool behaves, the edges of what it can tolerate and how the nature of the felting process invites us to slow down/work mindfully. (how it noticeably slows down our work process.)
The wool we use comes from European merino sheep. We obtain our wool from farmers who work organically and sustainably. In addition, we felt with biodegradable soap and hot water obtained from our solar heating panel, Solar panels provide us with electricity.
The bulk of the pigments that color our designs is from our own dye garden, right behind the workshop. Walnut, goldenrod, cow parsley and many other plants provide us with colours varying from deep dark brown to bright yellow-green. For red pigments we have even put up a special ecosystem box with Frisian clay that allows us to grow madder root.
The peels of onions and avocados from our kitchens firstdonate their pigments to our paint baths before reaching the compost heap.
OUR COMPANY
The first wool lamp was felted under the experienced hands of Manja in 2016. Sophie enthousiastically joined in on the experiment and brought along her knowledge of plants and natural processes. Little over a year later, ‘LumaLano’ was born.
LumaLano is a small business, intertwined with our lives. We are committed to do our work with minimal strain on the planet. Running a business sometimes clashes with our strong beliefs around sustainability. We secretly prefer people nót to buy anything new. Not really convenient if you have a new product to sell, right ?! This dichotomy we experience is a continuous invitation to review and improve LumaLano’s sustainability where we can. We are motivated to maintain a transparent production process, to have ownership of all decisions and to work - for example - towards 'footprint less' sending.
Another way to promote sustainability is the wellness treatment we have recently started offering. Lampshades that have sustained a spot, or have had a hard time, can be sent back to us (folded in an envelope, yes really!), LumaLano’s wellness treatment will completely renew your lampshade and you will receive your beloved lampshade refreshed to it’s original state/ in optima forma. This way we maximize the lifetime and durability of our lampshades
