Meet Homo Faber 2024 artisan Zena Holloway

Creating the fabric of the future from wheatgrass roots

• A world-renowned underwater photographer whose love of the oceans led her to look for sustainable solutions to material design
• Taught herself the principles of bio-design in order to ‘grow’ textiles from grass roots
• Creates functional objects, jewellery and clothing from this natural, sustainable material
• Aims to show that bio-designed fabric can replace synthetic textiles

Zena Holloway is an artisan on a mission. Aware of the damage being done to our oceans by rising sea temperatures and plastic pollution, she’s taking positive action to do something about it. Since 2018, she’s been handcrafting products for fashion and interiors from a new kind of bio-fabric made from the roots of homegrown wheatgrass.

Daring, innovative and creative, this extraordinary work is a passion project born of Zena’s previous experiences. As a young person in the 1990s, she discovered the joy of scuba diving at a time when the oceans she explored were still full of coral and marine life. She went on to become an underwater photographer, shooting models and celebrities for magazines and corporate clients all over the world. Over the years, she witnessed first-hand the harmful effects of human activity on our oceans, from coral bleaching to plastic pollution, so she decided to seek solutions.

Back home in Hampton, UK, she began to research the concept of bio-design, where design and nature come together to create new materials using biology. Her first experiments were with mycelium, but on a photoshoot at her local river one day, she noticed the root system of a willow tree and pondered the viability of creating textiles from plant roots. In 2018 she planted her first grass seeds. Six years later, her brand Rootfull showcases the extraordinary objects she creates from the biodegradable, water-efficient, pollution-free root fabric she grows herself.

How, exactly? First, Zena plants seeds in a beeswax template of a certain pattern. As the roots grow, they bind together into a naturally woven ‘fabric’ whose properties, texture and appearance vary depending on the template used. Twelve days after planting, this root fabric is ready to be harvested. By combining this material science with her own creativity, Zena is able to apply this unique textile to myriad objects, from coral-like sculptures that spread her message about ocean conservation to beautiful lampshades coloured with natural dyes, and artistic jewellery and clothing that suggest the potential of this bio-material to replace polluting plastic-derived synthetic textiles. What’s more, her work is no-waste, since the grass shoots and any excess seeds are repurposed as animal fodder.

Zena will present five of her root fabric lamps at Homo Faber 2024 in Nature, an exhibition space dedicated to highlighting the importance of the natural world throughout our lives. Nature is one of ten spaces within this year’s overall theme, The Journey of Life. Discover more on homofaber.com