Research internship part 1

Hi everyone!

Today marks my first three weeks as a research intern at the University of Borås, and I would like to give a small account of what I did these days.

The research project I am working on is called Forest Fabrics, and deals with topics such as bioeconomy and production. In particular, my main subject is paper yarn and woven fabrics made of this peculiar material. The final objective of my research internship is to determine whether a production with paper yarn can be economically feasible or not.

For the past three weeks, I tackled tasks such as getting to know the partner company with whom the group has been working on, researching on paper yarn and its weaving characteristics, and in general accumulating knowledge on how weaving technically works; since I do not have any previous textile education.

Summing up, I have spent these last three weeks doing desktop research to lay the foundation for the next phase of the project, which will start in May and will allow me to visit the partner company and gather more data.

While desktop research may sound monotonous when described like this, it actually gave me the possibility of discovering a whole new world of textiles, revolving around mass produced crafts. As a matter of fact, using paper yarn for high quality and luxurious fabrics is an ancient Japanese tradition. While in Japan paper yarn is made mostly from mulberry and used for exquisite kimonos; here in Sweden the yarn is made from the extensive forests (thus the name of the project) in the Värmland region and is mostly used for woven interior textiles. The project, together with the partner company, is trying to match mass production with an ancient craft.

Moreover, this kind of yarn and fabrics could have extensive repercussions on how raw material consumption will be perceived in the next years. As a matter of fact, the overall goal of the project is to show that it is indeed possible to use renewable resources for textile production, while keeping the same properties and high quality of final fabrics.

Already after three weeks I feel like I have learnt a lot; the topic is exciting and I have received great support from the project supervisor when I had questions or doubts.

In the next weeks the second phase of the research will start, and I will be able to visit the partner company. I look forward to see the practises I have read about in a life-like setting and to see and feel what the fabrics are like.

I'll keep you posted on the future developments!

Sara