To start September in the best way possible Lottozero was given the amazing opportunity to visit our fellow textile hub, Icelandic Textile Center. We are very similar hubs and we’ve been wanting to meet for a long time, this seemed the best way to get to know each other, exchange our best practices and start a long term collaboration- and it absolutely was!
MAIN OBJECTIVES:
– exchange best practices around managing the lab
– Get more familiar with the digital tools that they have and we will have soon
– Discuss about the best ways to use the respective rustic wool
MONDAY:
I arrived at the Textile Center on Sunday evening, at 9 on Monday morning we started our working week. As first thing Margret took me around to show me all the different parts of the facility, the offices, the main building with the general studios and the residency rooms, the dying lab, and finally the textile lab (where we spent most of our time). Here we had a long talk about the differences on how we manage the labs and the different machineries, how we rent them to the public and what’s the best way to give and promote workshops to the community. It’s been a special moment of exchange. In the afternoon we started to do the warp to set up the TC2 (digital weaving loom) which was one of the things I needed to do the most since we’re going to get one and I’ve never even seen one before.
TUESDAY:
The whole second day we spent it on setting up the loom (it’s a long long process :-))
WEDNESDAY:
In the morning I went to visit a Wool Washery (super interesting for me because in Prato we don’t have any) and in the afternoon we kept working on the loom and visited the event venue which happened the next day.
THURSDAY:
On Thursday morning I had the chance to use the other digital tool that was in my wishlist, the digital knitting machine (kniterate) and in the afternoon we prepared the event. The event started at 7pm and we all had a great time, we set up an exhibition on the respective rustic wools to promote the use of it and work towards a more sustainable world, then I made a presentation about Lottozero followed by a networking moment with the local community and the artists in residence.
FRIDAY:
On the last day I finally got to do some weaving on the loom, we had a last lunch together with all the team from The Icelandic textile center and in the afternoon I left.
It’s been an amazing, inspiring and super useful experience, I’m back at Lottozero with a lot of new ideas and project that will help our lab grow. We are forever grateful to ECHN for this opportunity , and to the staff from the Icelandic Textile Center, we’re sure that from now on we will collaborate on different projects and always trying to spread awareness on sustainability in textiles. All we can say is thank you and we can’t wait to replicate the experience at our hub in Prato!
