Paper can be woven, pleated, and hung as paper yarn curtains. Rosa Lützen, a graduate of the Master’s program in Textile Design at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, is testing how far that idea can go.
Structure and form
In Unfolding Paper, Lützen examines how the structure of paper yarn gives fabric dimensional stability. That stability allows three-dimensional forms. In later designs, she combines paper yarn with natural fibers such as wool, carrying the qualities of each material into new textiles.
Her production work starts with an open paper-yarn structure woven on an industrial shaft loom. The fabric is double-layered and forms a tube, which is then pleated. Paper yarn is transparent and light, yet it keeps a natural rigidity that holds the folds in place.
The finished curtains can be opened and closed without losing their sculptural shape. For interiors, Lützen sees this flexibility as the material’s main advantage. “A curtain can be used in many different ways,” she says. Transparent versions could serve as room dividers, creating shifting transitions between spaces.
From pulp to yarn
Paper yarn begins as cellulose pulp. The pulp is processed into sheets of paper, the sheets are cut into narrow strips, and the strips are twisted into yarn. According to Lützen, the industrial method draws on traditional handmade Japanese paper yarn.
Paper’s potential reaches beyond textiles into building, as Swinburne Students Rethink Papermaking for Flexible Urban Housing shows through its papermaking-driven spatial ideas.
The technique was used more extensively during the World Wars, when cotton was available only in limited quantities.
Color, pattern, and the digital loom
For Woven Paper Landscapes, Lützen transformed her own landscape photographs into woven textiles. She used a digital Jacquard loom, a machine that lifts individual threads according to a digital pattern. Each pixel in the photograph became one thread.
The project balances the strict rules of weaving with a looser, painterly sense of color. A central question for Lützen was how yarn colors blend and interact with one another.
For another take on yarn becoming sculpture, TU Delft’s FilaLoom Weaves Yarn into Sculptural Forms blends 3D printing with weaving to produce three-dimensional geometry.
She produces each layer of fabric in a different color, which creates overlapping compositions. The perceived intensity of the colors shifts as the viewer changes position.
For dyeing, Lützen drew on shibori, a Japanese resist-dyeing technique. Shibori leaves parts of the cloth undyed through folding, wrapping, and binding. The irregular structures that result add depth to the surface.
Next steps for paper yarn curtains
Lützen aims to raise awareness of textile production processes. She also wants to help bring textile manufacturing back to Europe. Her next goal is a woven paper curtain developed on a larger industrial scale.
She plans to deepen her knowledge of how paper yarn is made, including through collaboration with Woodnotes, a Finnish design brand. Woodnotes was the first company in the world to use paper yarn for modern carpets and home textiles.
The project connects material research, weaving technology, and interior use through paper yarn textiles. Its strongest case is practical: a paper textile that folds, opens, and keeps its shape.
Via stylepark.com
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