The materials
The foundation of BROL
from needle to thread
Find out all about the yarns and materials used in production.
Everything that passes through our hands and reaches the customer is explained here. To inform you and remind ourselves of what we stand for.
Not only the yarn, but also the printing, for example, is explained. No secrets here, everything is on the table.
Yarns
Below is a brief description of the different yarns used in BROL. Want to know more? Click further or take a look in the menu 'More BROL'.
DutchMerino
The name says it all: Merino from the Netherlands. This wool comes from the merino sheep of woolfarm Blij Bezuiden, just across the Belgian border with the Netherlands, where they are cared for by Janny Wijna and Jean-Paul van den Bunder. After shearing, the wool is sent to Italy to be washed, spun and dyed. Each time according to GOTS standards. The spun wool is sent again to Blij Bezuiden and sold in their (online) shop. This merino is just as soft as the Australian and New Zealand variety, but doesn't travel as much distance and is guaranteed mulesing-free.
Why is this Brol? Because the sheep you see at our place are almost exclusively used for the meat. Their fleeces are seen as residual products, hardly worth anything, and therefore often lost. By supporting projects such as DutchMerino, we want to bring our wool culture back into the picture and focus strongly on the local aspect.
Want to read more about DutchMerino? You can do so here. And do you want to know what mulesing is? Then read this article by Sarah Vandoorne in MO* Magazine.
Finishing
Below is a brief description of the various materials used to finish each piece of Brol.
Tags
In the absence of a better alternative, the labels are made from cotton waste that is mainly collected from fabric shops. These are printed in the studio, cut to size and sewn on with organic cotton thread.
Press-work
All printing is ordered at Zwartopwit. This printing company is 100% CO2 neutral, with green electricity, vegetal inks, recycled paper as a standard and optimised transport.
The business cards are multi-purpose and also function partly as hangtags. They are printed on paper made from recycled pulp. The hangtags are printed on grass paper or 100% recycled paper, depending on stock levels, just like the thank-you cards.
Packaging
As much packaging as possible is reused for packaging and shipping. New packaging material always consists of 100% recycled cardboard or paper. So no personalised packaging boxes, but it's the content that counts.
Read more about BROL?
Discover the different facets below - from the origins and why to the choice of materials and production.