New Headquarter

New Headquarter, un set su Flickr.

Some pictures of the new headquarter under costruction

Leonardo's Garden

At the Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan, from 17th to 22nd of April, during the "Fuori Salone del Mobile 2012", there was an event entitled "Leonardo's Garden".
Our fibers have been the set for the installation of the artist Svetlana Kuliskova, designer of Russian origin but  resident in Milan.

Thanks to Svetlana for the wonderful photos.

List of finalists out!

Main Street is now conveying the list of the 20 finalists, chosen from 249 participants to the public competition “DHG Art Factory, Prize for contemporary art”, intended to promote contemporary art and strengthen the link between industry and territory , in the name of research and creativity.

 “Quality, research, coherence with the subject, innovation and the state of being contemporary” as indicated in the announcement of public competition, (Article n. 11), were the basic judging critiria to pick out the finalists. The managers of the company declare:  “Just like the strenght of our materials , usable at any latitude, we chose the works with an immediate communicative strenght, able to join textile tradition – that is where we come from – together with our vision of this job, because Dyeinghousegallery is a work in progress that loves different cultural influences. We get convinced and seduced by what is new and different, by original points of view, because we want to develop and change, following new inspirations. It was a difficult selection, but what matters is that, whatever the professional Jury will decide, it will be definitely satisfactory, since each and every work has a strong personality. They were so satisfactory for us as to cherish the idea of proposing future cooperations to many of those artists”

 The 19 projects, selected by the Company, together with Anna Luana Tallarita’s – voted by ondine users, will be judged by a professional Jury, conprised of Gaia Gualtieri (Managing Director  of Main Street Srl) , Francesco Funghi (Director of the Vault Contemporary Art Gallery), Lorenzo Giusti (Curator of EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Firenze), Livia Savorelli (Editorial Manager of Espoarte Contemporary Art Magazine) and Massimiliano Tonelli (Director of Artribune). By April 24^th they will decide who the winner is. The publication on www.dyeinghousegallery.com/artfactory will have to be considered official .

“DHG Art Factory, Prize for contemporary art” constitutes just the first of a series of initiatives that will make DHG - dyeinghousegallery brand (www.dyeinghousegallery.com) meet the art and culture world, new ideas and possible links between industry and creativity.

The finalists are: Ben Brown, Richard Biancalani, Francesca Bruni, Bunker108, Carlo Colli, Fausto Della Villa, diLo - Eugenia, Di.Segno studio creativo, Daniele Fabiani, Ettore Favini, Giulia Gaccione, Dario Paolo Insabella, Lato Zanetti, Kate McCarthy, Franco Menicagli, Elena Piccolboni, Nicoletta Scilimati, Alessia Silvestrelli, Spogo and Anna Luana Tallarita.

The Wool

We decided to create some in-depth articles for each of our products. These articles will soon be available also on our website.

Australian Sheeps

We are going to start from fibres, obviously from wool.

Wool can be grouped into 3 big categories:

1)       Merino wool: short, extra-fine, very crimped and used for clothing.

2)       Crossbred wool: medium fine, not much crimped, used for the production of textiles for furnishings.

3)       Ordinary wool: long, bristled, used for particular products such as making mattresses.

Shearing

Sheep are typically shorn once a year and in some places twice.

Old-style Shearing

In the traditional way, still used in many countries, the woolen fleece of a sheep is cut off with blade shears or with machine shears (known as hand-pieces).  In Australia, big sheep farms can reach 10.00 head of cattle. Big flocks of sheep are shorn by machine shearing operating a power-driven toothed blade quickly and efficiently for a maximum shearing of the animal.

Once the fleece has been removed from the sheep, the fleece is collected and brought to another area for the selection. The first process is the skirting: the removal of pieces  which are placed in separate containers. Then the fleece is folded, rolled with its best part above and it is examined for its quality in a process known as wool classing considering fine crimp, length, colour and general conditions. 

Shear fleece is split up into:
- yolky wool: exactly as when cut from the animal;
- washed wool: sheep are washed prior to shearing;
- scoured wool: wool is washed after shearing (therefore wool maintains its natural grease, useful for preserving it;
- wool that has been washed thoroughly

Famous Lambswool is wool shorn from young sheep at around  the age of eight months that have been shorn for the first time. It is  a very good wool (19.5 micron), and a registered trademark (LAMBSWOOL) patented in 1984 by I.W.S (International Wool Secretariat) matched to the Woolmark brand to ensure the preservation of the extra-fine lamb's wool.

Characteristics and morphology

Raw fleece, called greasy wool, is made of fibres agglutinated by grease and sweat residue as well as dirt, straw and other fibres. The semi-grease wool, free from impurities, is made of long fibres from 4/6 to 40 cm.

 It is a poor heat conductor, therefore it is very much appreciated for making warm fabrics. Wool is actually very nonconducting and protecting because of its structure that allows to keep air in the tangle of its elementary fibres.

Wool fiber has the highest degree of moisture absorption, but in the meantime it is highly water-repellent. If a drop of water falls on a wool fabric, once it has been removed, it does not leave any damp. Wool can absorb moisture almost up to the 33per cent of its own weight without giving the feeling of dampness. The reason is a chemical reaction: the fiber gives off heat while its molecules absorb moist – therefore the human body is best protected against any sudden jumps in temperature.

Wool fiber is the less inflammable fiber overall, it has low heat of combustion, when it burns it forms a  swollen and spongy char which is insulating and self-extinguishing.

 

Under the microscope, three basic layers are shown:

- The outer layer, made of very small flat cells in the shape of scales, lied like flat roof tiles.

- The middle layer, made of thin fusiform cells.

- The inner layer, the medulla, that can, sometimes be not present, leaving a hollow canal.

Wool is made of keratin, a protein rich in sulfur, an essential constituent of nails, hair and horns and by fats that – once purified – are known as lanolin. 

The quality and use of wool is determined by its fiber diameter, length  crimp,  elasticity, tensile strength and colour. Fiber diameter is the single most important wool characteristic determining its spinnable grade, that is the length of a spun yarn obtainable with a certain weight of wool. Therefore, the finer the wool, the richer it is.

The finest wool are also shorter and more crimp, such as Merino wool.

Short fibres are typically 6-7 cm in length, while long fibres are superior (English long-wools can reach up to 40 cm!).

Crimp gives wool softness, smoothness, elasticity, adhesion in spinning. The finer the wool, the more frequent and regular is its crimp.

The most common colour is ivory white, but there are also gray, dark, black and reddish sheep.

DHG Art Factory Prize Public competition closed - selections are starting

DHG lands in Finland

We cannot avoid to navigate the 7 seas and the 5 continents. We can never disconnect from the world around us if we wish to do our job well and, then, how beautiful it is to travel, know new places and people, dive into other cultures.

Now the DHG BLOG is born and we have the chance to “bring” you with us. A little reportage for each journey. Let’s go!

6-11 December 2011 Finland

6 unique and fantastic days spent in part together with Leena, Piia and Sirpa, big friends and DHG partners. From 2012 they will be, in fact, the DHG testimonials in Finland and we are going to develop new projects with them...

On the left Sirpa, Leena on the right

They came to meet us first. It was last May:  they came to meet us at our Company offices with Eva (Basile) and Cristiana (Di Nardo) even if the weather was terribly hot and damp those days. Maybe just for this reason –tit for tat – (of course, we are joking!) they invited us to Finland... in December!

We had never been to Finland before and we just fell in love with it. You can feel the power of nature in every corner, people are really hospitable.. and also food is excellent! Then how about the healthy and marvellous habit of taking a sauna?

All and all, it was not so cold, even if the snow was not missing, luckily, and believe me, it was amazing to see Santa Claus’ Country under the snow!

Maybe the only problem was to get used to having only a few hours of light per day, as when the sun rises, it’s 10 in the morning and it already sets at 2 pm.

Obviously, it is impossible to see everything in 6 days, but we were on the move all the time. We spent some days in Helsinki, the capital, which is like a little treat of about 600,000 people, overlooking the Gulf of Finland. The first day, the 6^th December, it was National Holiday, so almost all shops and public places were closed, but the next two days we really had fun. The city is very clean, well organized and it is easy to wander around. Helsinki is the world capital of Design for 2012 and it is just ready for the role. We stayed in the Design District  and it was wonderful to go around the beautiful streets full of shops, cafés and art galleries. Prices were not so moderate for us, but sometimes just seeing the beautiful scenery around is enough.

 

We spent another three days in the nice city called Jyväskylä where Leena and Piia’s company, Papiina, is located. Papiina is specialised in the production of clothes made of felt (www.papiina.com). This city is  famous for its universities and because it is the home town of Alvar Alto, the most famous Finnish architect; it is about 600 kilometers from Helsinki. Trains run fast through the infinite countryside and iced lakes and we would have wished to stop at every moment to take some decent photos of the places unfolding before our eyes.

When we arrived, we spent the entire day at Papiina and we were able to see how these two energic women manage their company. It was beautiful to spend some time with them. See how their product are born, learn what their problems are and dream of new adventures. Then, they spoiled me so much: it was wonderful to work having a cup of tea, Christmas sweets and salmon cake in an ambient which I would define Jamaican-like. Total relax!

Another day we met Sirpa too and we visited Jämsä, maybe the “capital” of Finnish felt. Sirpa lives there so we started from there and visited some farms where they work Finnish wool and sell wool products: Christmas decorations, boots, sippers and bags of high design. Design and craftsmanship in a fine mix coming from the same place. It’s fantastic!

Then, in the middle of nowhere, we found ourselves on a wonderful lake where a little rebuilt house made of red bricks houses one of the highest level galleries of handicrafts we have ever seen. It really is worthy of big cities like London or New York. Here you can find felt but also metal and ceramic handicrafts. Amazing  handicrafts that made you want to write a letter to Santa Claus.

What more? We should write more pages, but still it would not be enough. We stop here and give voice to the images. We hope they arrive where our words did not.

DHG Art Factory, Prize for contemporary art!...

New year new office…and there’s no better way to start it than calling a competition  for a new façade for the company… the competition, called “DHG Art Factory, Prize for contemporary art!” will end on the 29^th February and will allow all the artist to put themselves on the test with us. You can view and vote on the works in the competition on the website www.dyeinghousegallery.com and a Jury of art experts and managers of the company will judge them. The winner will receive a work contract for the realization of his/her idea and therefore the possibility to show his/her work on an entire façade!

The competition is still open, so if there is anybody among you who wish to have his/her occasion, we invite you to read the announcement of the public competition on the webpage www.dyeinghousegallery.com/artfactory  and send us your ideas.

Please visit us on Facebook too: www.facebook.com/dhgprize