Belonging to her From Insects collection, ‘Wooden Leather‘ by Marlène Huissoud is a lightweight material innovation made from silkworm cocoons. As a raw material, silkworm cocoons are made from hundreds of meters of silk threads held together with sericin, a natural glue material. When extracted, it is possible to re-active seracin by wetting and heating its fibres to create a strong material similar to paper. This paper is then layered and varnished to create a material that is similar to wood.

The varnish Huissoud uses is also her own biologically inspired creation and made from honey bee propolis. This is a resin like material that bees collect from trees and use as a sealant in their hives. It is ideal as a varnish because of its strength and glossy appearance.

Huissoud describes her wooden leather in this way: ‘The wooden aspect of the material comes from the thousands of thousands of fibres combined together in the silkworm’s paper. This new material can be used for different applications such as furniture design, fashion design and surface design.’

In addition to the From Insects collection, be sure to also take a look at her Automatic & Serendpt range of textiles.