Material and colour designer Noora Yau, material scientist Konrad Klockars, and fashion designer Anna Semi from Aalto University are the founders of Structural Colour Studio. Together, they have been developing Shimmering Wood for years, a wood-based dye that’s based on so-called structural colour, which means that the colour is created by nanostructures instead of pigments.
The timing could hardly have been better, with the European Union setting a target of reducing microplastics by 30% by 2030. During Aalto University’s annual Designs for a Cooler Planet exhibition at Helsinki Design Week, the studio presented a first prototype of its concept — a dress — called Shimmering Wood Crystals.
— We have long been exploring, together with our team, how to develop wood-based structural colours within the context of design. Today, structural colours are commercially produced mainly in the form of effect pigments. These are mostly based on non-renewable polymers, metals, and minerals, and are usually a combination of these, making recycling more challenging. Many of these pigments may cause microplastic issues, and some are downright toxic to the environment. However, in the fashion industry, there is currently an urgent need for alternative dyes to replace the environmentally harmful glitter pigments. This led us to the idea of a ’wood crystal,’ Yau explains, continuing,
— A wood crystal can be a fully wooden component of a textile or garment, which we colour to make it glitter and shine using wood. This would result in a product that is 100% wood. Alternatively, we have also been researching ways to incorporate wood-based biodegradable plastics into the crystal. In this case, we would use wood to dye the biodegradable plastic.
— The base of the Shimmering Wood Crystals dress is silk, onto which the wood crystals have been 3D-printed. Since this is an innovative material, the garment has been designed according to the material’s specific requirements. When working with new materials, there are always certain limitations in terms of how they can be implemented. In this case, the dress is made from several smaller pieces, as combining the material with the fabric on a smaller scale proved to be more practical.
If wood is broken down into tiny, tiny fragments, Noora Yau explains, it becomes nano cellulose, which can form a nanostructure.
— When light hits the structure, our eyes perceive colour. This means that it’s (the wood crystals, Ed’s note) a colour completely without any pigments or dyes, based on a ’physical phenomenon.’
— Our goal is to create iridescent shiny colours from wood. As mentioned, most of the shiny and iridescent colours on the market are based on plastic or metal-based materials, with toxic pigments or other issues involved. Not only does all the shine in our colours come from wood, but the colour is also nontoxic, biodegradable, and doesn’t harm the environment if it ends up there.
— Our next step is to refine the product itself to make it more commercial, and we are planning to build a brand around the shimmering wood, Anna Semi shares. We have very ambitious goals for the next five years — we want to hit the high-end fashion and design industry with this and have a strong focus on how to grow a bigger company rather than just doing a prototype.
— We have been in talks already, Yau reveals. Now, with the help of Aalto University, we aim to figure out how to create a business around this. Many brands are looking for ready solutions for their current problems, especially related to sustainability issues. They are willing to test new and experimental materials that are not even commercialised yet. Our material has been displayed in several international exhibitions and is now part of several material libraries, through which brands find us. We’ve been finalists in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas listing in the Design category and received an honourable mention in the Experimental category.
What’s the background of this collaboration between chemistry and arts?
— I’ve always been very passionate about shiny and glittery colours; I’ve always wondered how, for example, butterflies can have such intense, vivid, and magnificent colours, Yau shares, continuing,
— When I was doing my master’s studies at Applied Arts here in Aalto, a subject in one of the courses was to pick a new material and then do research about it. I felt that structural colour was a very timely topic since I didn’t feel comfortable using shiny colours when they are made using such materials, which provoked the idea to go even deeper into it.
— When I met Orlando Rojas, Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering here at Aalto, who has studied structural colour and nano cellulose, I told him that I’m ’obsessed’ with these kinds of colours. He got very excited to have a designer in his research group, I did a first batch of nano cellulose in the laboratory and met Konrad Klockars. We both did our master’s thesis in structural colour and now, we work together. Together, we’ve been building prototypes and, through them, learned new things about the material, its characteristics, and what is essential to make real products from it. In 2021, Anna Semi joined our team, sharing the same values that there is such a huge need for more sustainable colourants in the fashion industry. That’s what we’ve been focusing on — and that’s how the shimmering wood crystal dress happened.
What’s been the hardest when creating it?
— This cellulose-based structural colour is quite brittle as a material, making it challenging to apply directly onto textile fabrics, says Yau. We then shifted our attention to the range of solid parts that are currently used in apparel, because there the brittleness would not pose an issue. That’s how we came up with the idea of the crystal.
— Working with a novel material is both challenging and expensive. The process demands flexibility and creativity, and understanding the unique behaviour of the material is central.
You touched upon it but what’s next for you?
— We will focus on scaling production in the coming years. Aiming for high-end fashion is both a strategic and value-based choice. The wood crystals will target design products in a broader sense, as part of the fashion field. This could also expand into other design fields, such as architecture and the lifestyle industry. In particular, Italian and French players have shown interest in our work, and we are on our way to transforming this research into a business, Yau shares. She adds:
— Sequins and glitter are usually perceived as cheap and disposable materials. We want to change this perception. What’s crucial and essential to our project is that we develop long-lasting products from wood, as it is such a valuable material. We use it responsibly and strive to create premium materials that are cherished and appreciated, rather than discarded.
