A NEAR-FORGOTTEN ART

Producing horsehair fabric of top individual quality is an art that only a few weavers have learned to master. There is but a single such expert in Germany: Dorit Berger. "I always wanted to learn to spin. There’s something fairytale about it. And the fascination has never let me go." After training as a master weaver she discovered the material as her very own.

Horsehair presents a special challenge. The tail hairs of a horse are relatively stiff and short, and so cannot be spun to a continuous thread. They certainly cannot be woven in the conventional way.

A MASTERPIECE OF THE FINEST NUANCES

So as to create the filigree pattern of the Pen of the Year 2009, the hairs first have to be carefully selected for colour and uniform thickness. Then roughly 70 hairs are woven individually for each centimetre of fabric. That is extremely time-consuming. Hair by hair, a weave comes about with changing texture, light and dark, that contrasts so excitingly with the cool platinum-plated metal parts of the pen – so that each one brings out the finest nuances in its own way. Every horsehair fountain pen is an absolutely unique work of art!