How can I make sure HEMPEA only uses hemp fabrics from now on?

Earlier this year, I was shocked to discover that some of the fabrics we had been using turned out to be linen rather than hemp. Read more here.

How has this affected us?

Honestly, it’s been a difficult year. Above all, on a personal level. For a long time, I had lost my motivation to run my business. I struggled for months with the question of whether I even wanted to continue working in the textile industry.

I’ve found my motivation again. And you, my customers and followers, have played a huge part in that. You are the reason I keep doing this.

But the past year has left its mark, and I’m still working to put things back together. The company’s financial situation is tight, and many of my usual routines have fallen by the wayside (including my activity here on this account).

To help rebuild both my personal finances and my lost motivation, I’ve also taken on work elsewhere (a big thank you to my lovely colleagues there, too!). Naturally, this has meant less time for HEMPEA.

And behind it all, one big question remains: How can I be sure of my fabrics going forward?

I decided to discontinue our waffle-textured bath textile collection and end our collaboration with the fabric supplier. The fabric was truly lovely. But it was linen, and I decided I didn’t want to mix things up by working with different materials.

With our bed linen fabrics, the situation was more complicated. Everything pointed to this being an isolated batch of fabric, and test results from different sources were contradictory.

Throughout this process, I’ve learned just how difficult it is to distinguish hemp from linen. Reliably identifying these fibres requires specialised methods.

These methods aren’t available at what you might call standard textile testing laboratories. In the end, the biggest challenge has been finding a laboratory that can identify our fabrics reliably, but also quickly.

Our fabrics have been examined by a Finnish researcher specialising in textile archaeology, particularly hemp and linen textiles. She is an academic researcher who has carried out the analyses as additional work in her spare time. As a result, the process has taken longer than I had hoped.

So, what am I doing now?

I’m having selected new batches of fabric tested to identify their fibre composition. At the same time, I’m continuing to search for a laboratory that will allow us to identify every fabric batch easily, quickly and, above all, reliably.

I want to be able to stand behind the materials we use with confidence. And I want you to be able to trust them, too.

What do you think? Do you have any questions or thoughts about this? I’m more than happy to hear them and answer as openly as I can.

Yours, Marja-Maija | HEMPEA