Homegrown Flax Experiments – Anna Wetzel

ArtEZ Practice Held in Common alumni Anna Wetzel conducted her master’s practice development in 2019 – 2020 within the context of the Linen Project Research Track. Anna’s practice has an ongoing link with the Linen Project, through her role in the subsequent establishment of a consortium focused on the development of a small scale (flax) spinning facility and associated processes. 

With a great passion for hands-on experimentation and learning from others, Anna’s research in 2019 involved growing flax in her family’s backyard together with her grandmother, parallel to participating in the cultivation activities being undertaken by the Linen Project. Her experiments, conducted in 1 x 1-metre plots, considered the impact of human intervention (or lack thereof), scale and weed pressure, in approaches to the cultivation process, including retting methods. 

Using her resulting flax harvest, Anna investigated different techniques for fibre and material processing, producing linen yarn by hand as well as with the use of various (hand-made) tools and machines. Her long-term aim is to contribute to creating possibilities to produce linen locally, sustainably and responsibly, within a linen ecosystem. Follow Anna’s explorations, including her in-depth investigation of linen, on her blog 15fingers.online.

Images courtesy of Anna Wetzel.