Don Kwaning is an emerging designer and recent graduate from the Eindhoven Academy. One of his outstanding projects was Lino Leather, a product that adapts traditional linoleum to create a supple and non-animal leather product.
Can you talk through the process of how you came up with Lino Leather?
How is the Lino Leather made?
The research currently has two outcomes. Outcome one is a saddle leather-like material which is flexible, two-sided and self-supporting. Here I rolled the jute net, which is normally on the backside of linoleum inbetween two layers to make it two-sided and self-supporting. I also took out all the limestone and added more linseed oil to it to make it more soft and flexible. Next to that I also didn’t apply any pigments so the natural materials show. The brown colours are the colours of the wood flour in combination with the linseed oil.
For the textured materials I made the linoleum more sticky by adding a plasticiser. This sticky linoleum substance goes through a roll. In order to get it out of the machine you put a a blade against the roll. Since it sticks, it bumps against the blade, which is how the texture is created.
What kind of applications do you see Lino Leather being used in?
Where do you see ethical and manmade materials going in the future?
I’m curious to see where growing materials will take us. Especially if this can really be done on a large commercial scale and when it is combined with biofabrication.
But nature has a lot of materials to offer, there is a lot of vegetal waste where new materials can rise from. So I think that a more hands on material development will always be a relevant way to develop materials.
