Shear Joy

Sweden

Shear Joy

Sweden

Description

Our story

A word from our CEO

"Sweden was built by farmers. When I was a kid, I worked, played and learned at my grandparents’ childhood home, and many of the old ways and traditions of farming were passed onto me. I helped during harvest, I was there when the cows calved and I watched the lambs grow into sheep. The cuddly animals, the smell of freshly harvested wheat and the rustic feel of the raw products occupies a special place in my heart. But it wasn’t until last autumn that I learned that the copious amount of sheep’s wool they produce, simply goes to waste. Low market prices, bad infrastructure for large scale gathering of wool by distributors, and competitive prices from countries with poor animal treatment, has led to them being forced to bury, burn or let their wool rot away. And this isn’t a single bad case. In Sweden, the vast majority of all wool produced goes to waste, and in Europe, 150 000 tonnes are thrown away each year.

This got us thinking. There must be a way of stopping this wonderful product, raw sheeps’ wool, from just being left to rot. We couldn’t let this go on. So we started researching and looking for unconventional ways to use the wool, and the answer turned out to be an ancient one: gardening. For centuries, wool has been used for gardening, both to protect the crops and to nourish the soil. Our goal was to bring back and take this method into the modern era, and that is where Shear Joy’s story begins. By mixing this with a more conventional product range aimed at attracting new customers, we have been able to create a new market for gardening with wool, a large circle of customers and a network of six major retailers. We are now working with large wool distributors on ways to minimize the waste further.  Currently, we are working towards starting Shear Joy as a limited company. But whatever the future holds, we will continue to work for a sustainable, modern and effective way to make sure no wool is wasted." - Isak Drougge, CEO of Shear Joy.


Our Business Idea

Using organic and locally sourced wool that would otherwise go to waste, we create sustainable products aimed for the home and the garden. By doing this we utilize an inexpensive resource with great potential while making a positive contribution towards the health of our planet.


Products

Gardening wool


Shear Joy’s gardening wool consists solely of unprocessed organic sheep’s wool and is the backbone of our product range. This product is playfully easy to use, it’s simply put over crops or in a flower box, and comes with an abundance of benefits. The porosity of the wool helps keep the ground warm and moist, all while it supplies the soil with nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Since this is a product based on a material that would otherwise go to waste, our gardening wool works as a sustainable alternative for the garden. We also sell what we call flower pot wool, hand picked wool in smaller packages. This wool is specifically chosen to fit where aesthetics are of utmost importance. Because the wool is completley untreated, it slowly breaks down over the course of one to two years, but we recommend topping up in the autumn and spring in order to get the best result possible. These products are delivered in biodegradable paper bags which can be put in the bottom of planter boxes in order to keep the weeds at bay. 

Seasonal products


During the holiday seasons we chose to hand make various Christmas decorations, such as felted wool hearts and ornaments; perfect for the Christmas tree. If gardening with wool seems too exotic, these products might be the right fit for you who still wants to use sustainable wool products.. We also seized the opportunity for a specialized range during easter, introducing our easter-wool which is a sustainable alternative to decorating with feathers (which is an ancient Swedish tradition during easter). These two products are unfortunatley no longer avalible, but stay tuned to see what the future holds as a limited company.


Other Products



-Decorated candles with organic sheep’s wool. Both aesthetically pleasing and naturally flame retardent.

Organic wool batts, for when you want to felt, make your own yarn or otherwise work with the wool yourself. A sustainable product, especially compared to the non-organic imported options.

Deer deterrent sticks, which keep deer away from your flower beds. The wool’s natural sheep smell fends off the deer, and keeps your flower bulbs safe. 


 




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