Flax
Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is an annual plant grown for its long, fine bast fibers and nutrient-rich seeds. In the Netherlands, flax is cultivated mainly in the coastal provinces, where the temperate climate, high rainfall, and fertile alluvial soils favour strong, lustrous fibers. The plants grow upright to a height of 80–120 cm, with slender stems and small pale-blue flowers. When ready for harvest, flax is not cut but pulled from the ground to preserve the full length of the fibers that run the length of the stem.
Processing begins with retting—laying the plants in the field for several weeks so dew, moisture, and microbial activity break down the pectin binding the fibers to the woody core. In the Netherlands, this is traditionally done through dew retting, which leaves the flax spread in thin rows that gradually turn silver-grey under the sun. Once retted, the dried plants are broken to shatter the woody stem, scutched to scrape away the fragments, and hackled through fine metal combs to separate the long line fibers from the shorter tow.
Flax fibers are among the finest of the plant bast fibers, pale blond to silvery-grey, with a soft luster and lengths often exceeding 60 cm. They are strong, smooth, and slightly cool to the touch, with high absorbency and natural resistance to degradation in water. These qualities make flax ideal for spinning into linen yarns, which can be woven or knitted into durable yet breathable fabrics.
In the Netherlands, flax has deep agricultural and cultural roots. For centuries, it was grown widely in the coastal clay regions, supporting a thriving linen industry from the Middle Ages onward. Dutch linen was prized for its quality and exported across Europe, used for everything from household cloth to sails for the nation’s shipping fleets. Flax growing and processing were highly seasonal, with knowledge and skill embedded in rural communities.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mechanisation and industrial spinning transformed production. While flax remained an important crop, cheaper cotton imports and later synthetic fibers reduced its economic dominance. Today, flax cultivation in the Netherlands is smaller in scale but continues both for niche textile production and as part of heritage preservation, with renewed interest from sustainable design and craft sectors.
In Rosana Escobar’s Work
In the Netherlands, Rosana Escobar engages flax as both a local material and a connection to the region’s agricultural history. She works with the fiber in states ranging from unspun line flax to woven linen, exploring its softness, sheen, and structural potential. Her approach draws from both traditional textile processes and experimental forms, allowing the fiber’s fine strength to dictate scale, density, and movement. In her hands, flax becomes a means of linking plant and place—its cultivated rows and historic trades—to contemporary acts of making that are attentive, reciprocal, and materially grounded.