Design Evolution
Base of Leafcocoon
Leafcocoon with shroud and no cover
Creative Design Evolution – from wool burial shroud to eco coffin alternative
How the idea for an environmentally friendly coffin alternative developed from the ancient tradition of a natural woollen burial shroud: Three things inspired me initially to think about burial in wool.
First, I took my reference from history ; the fact that people would have been buried in a simple wrap of some sort long before recorded history, and going back to deep pre-history. The 1667 Burial in Wool Act also ensured that the dead would be buried in wool, and I found the notion strangely comforting.
The second was environmental; having been to a couple of funerals of relatives, I was upset by the formality and disconnect. These were cremations that caused me to think about the energy involved, the emissions and quite frankly, the blandness of the event, and especially the coffins. I couldn’t feel emotion - even though these were people I loved - and this upset me as much as the actual loss, because I felt guilty for this lack of emotion and connectedness. The coffins were so linear and unforgiving, and I began to wonder if there was anybody in there at all.
Third, was my passion for wool and my lifelong connection to working with local wool since the 1970s. I trained as a weaver, taught spinning, weaving and natural dyeing, and finally switched to felt making in 1988. Added to this, I was keen to understand as much as possible about sheep, husbandry and management, to benefit the animals and the environment.
Felt maker, Anne Belgrave, joined me in my quest and our starting point was to ‘think outside the box’, do away entirely with a coffin, and our aim was to make a comforting soft, sustainably produced shroud at an affordable price. At the time, around 2003/5, it was clear that shroud-making had more or less been diminished to the provision of a strange pastel shade polyester garment that seemed desperately inappropriate for anybody living that I knew! There appeared to be no paradigm to refer to, so we had to think it up ourselves; combining ‘covering’ with ‘carrying’ in a safe way. The Leafcocoon was originally designed to take the place of a coffin, thus reducing the amount of wood needed, and the weight of the vessel, whilst still providing a robust, adaptable conveyance to the grave.
The Leafcocoon in 2024 has come full circle: as the outer world develops and changes other, better suppliers and materials offer themselves, government recommendations, rules and experience necessitate tweaks.
To save energy (mine and the National Grid) I simplified the pattern from 9 pieces to 1, pleating the corners to make the shape more ‘cocoon-like’ and using strong linen thread, hand sewing the hazel wood toggles to hold the cocoon shape. I also found a better way to hand sew the shroud and bier together with the linen, which actually was easier and quicker than using the industrial machine. To my surprise this meant I could reduce the price to my customers, making it accessible to more people.
Leafcocoon with cover
Thinking outside the box
I started by designing and creating plain wool shrouds for found dead animals and birds…
1 - A fledgling bird nestles in a wool felt cocoon tinted with natural dyes in earth colours
2 - The badger inspired the idea of the leaf shaped cocoon – the fallen leaf symbolises the cycle of life.
3 - And so the “Leafcocoon” creative coffins concept came into being – it was a natural progression to decorate the shroud with applied and embroidered leaf shapes and stylised local wild flowers.
4 - Earlier versions of this unusual burial vessel was carried on a simple wood bier like this … which presented practical problems like posting, and finding collaborators.
5 - I finally designed a hidden integrated bier, building with absorbent materials building up a kind of mattress. Six strong carrying handles take the weight, and tests were carried out for weight bearing. No liner is required and any possible leakage is caught in the benign materials inside the mattress.
