We’re regenerating the earth, our communities, and our textile systems.
Flax = Linen. And we are making local linen.
The Rust Belt Linen Project: a Community-Grow Project
Over the past five years, farmers, artisans, and community members have worked together to experiment with growing and processing the Flax plant in order to make local linen.
This year, we are hoping to grow at least 50 different flax plots all over our bioregion.
The Original Project: The Cleveland Flax Project of 2019-2020
In 2018, we partnered with Frayed Knot Farm , a regenerative flower farm just outside of Cleveland, OH, to grow 1/5 acre of flax to be processed into linen. We’ve been iterating on this project for 5 years now, and every year we’ve seen different impact taking different forms in our communities.
Throughout the course of this project, we’ve had deep and meaningful conversations with so many community members on the importance of “materialism” in the sense of being connected to the materials we use and their origins, as well as establish a baseline of data for appropriate seed varieties, generating interest amongst farmers, other producers ,and funders, and the potential of full-scale, regenerative flax industry in the future of this fibershed.
As makers in our area continue to use the linen yarn in their One Year, One Outfit projects, we are seeing a greater interest surging in the flax-to-linen process.
Currently, there is no commercial bast fiber being grown in our fibershed. Our region is ripe with alpaca and other protein-based fibers, which provide a great clothing option in the cooler months, but our region also has warm summers where local linen would provide a light-weight option that takes up natural dyes well.
What if textiles could be the next steel in our Rust Belt Region?
It’s a strong possibility, and we welcome a collaborative approach to make it Local Linen a reality!
Whether you are a farmer, fiber enthusiasts, designer/maker, or interested consumer… if you’d like to hear more about the future of local linen in our area, we would LOVE to invite you to be a part of that conversation!