If you have ever been unfortunate enough to experience the biting pain of a stinging nettle, you will know never to allow it to touch your skin. However, the textile company Camira, in association with De Monford University have produced an upholstery fabric out of the nasty weed, encouraging you to sit on the stuff.
Sting Plus is the result of four years of research and development into using the common stinging nettle (“Urticca Diocia”) as the raw material fibre input for this exciting textile. It may be unusual to imagine a farmer welcoming and harvesting this troublesome weed on his/her land but that is exactly what some are doing. Nettles are a perennial crop, growing rapidly from the spring, often reaching 2.5 metres before harvesting. As you can imagine, they are incredibly easy to grow and look after (as I am sure any budding gardeners reading this will agree with bitterly), and can be grown on land otherwise unsuitable for crops. Also, interestingly, they have inbuilt fire retardant properties which allows them to meet UK flammability standards without chemical treatment. Sting Plus is just one the many environmentally friendly fabrics in Camira’s product range.