Natural Materials & Sustainability

At BureBure, natural materials are the beginning of everything we make.

We work slowly, by hand, and mostly after each order is placed. We choose our wool, leather, fibres and textile remnants carefully, because we believe that a good handmade product should respect both the person who wears it and the environment it comes from.

Our wool

The wool we use is carefully selected European wool. It is used either in its natural colours or dyed especially for us in Germany, in an old and time-tested dye house.

Each dyed batch is made according to colours ordered by BureBure. After dyeing, the wool is blended to create our own shades, while keeping a stable felting percentage and carding quality. All BureBure colours and shades are created by Inga.

This wool felts very quickly and beautifully. We use it for our own footwear, sauna hats and accessories, and we also sell BureBure wool to other feltmakers. In Lithuania, among craftspeople and felt artists, BureBure wool is one of the most loved and widely used felting wools.

Why wool matters

Wool has been known for a very long time as a fibre that works beautifully with the human body. It is natural, warm, breathable and close to us in structure. In many ways, it reminds us of our own hair.

For this reason, we try to keep the processing of our wool as natural as possible. We do not want to change the wool more than necessary. We want it to remain wool: alive, strong, warm and able to felt beautifully.

A living wool

In our products, you may sometimes notice tiny pieces of plant matter, such as a small straw, a seed husk or another trace of the field. This is normal, and for us it is a sign of naturally processed wool.

Our wool is washed with water. It is not heavily chemically stripped to remove every tiny trace of plant matter. We prefer to keep the wool closer to its natural structure.

Most small plant particles fall out during combing, carding and felting with water and soap, but a few may remain. Please do not be angry with these tiny traces of nature. They are part of using natural, minimally processed wool.

If you are a feltmaker buying wool from us, we want to say this clearly: BureBure wool may contain small organic remains. This is not a defect. This is good, honest, naturally processed wool.

Leather and soles

When we use leather, we do not buy new large leather hides especially for our products. We use leather pieces left from larger productions — materials that might otherwise remain unused or be discarded.

Even though these pieces are leftovers, the leather we use is usually beautiful and high quality. We choose the leather colour for soles individually for each pair. If the exact leather sole colour is important to you, please contact us before ordering.

Other natural fibres and decoration

For decoration and reinforcement, we often use high-quality fibres of natural origin: silk, alpaca wool, angora wool, banana fibre, viscose and other plant or animal-based fibres.

These fibres can add texture, strength, softness, shine or a special surface effect to felted wool.

Reducing textile waste

Wool is a remarkable fibre because, during felting, it can hold many other fibres, fabrics, yarns and textile remnants inside the felt. This can make the final material stronger and sometimes give it new qualities.

This ecological quality of wool fascinates us deeply. In today’s world, it is still used far too little.

Some of our products are decorated or strengthened with linen fabric remnants, yarn leftovers or fibre leftovers from other textile makers. In this way, we reuse materials left after clothing or other textile production and give them a new life inside felted wool.

We hope this helps us, even in a small way, contribute to a cleaner environment.

Made after the order is placed

For Inga, one of the saddest side effects of the fashion industry is the amount of waste it creates. Many brands produce too much, store too much and then discount or destroy unsold products. So much fabric, leather, human labour and energy can be lost and turned into pollution.

This is one of the reasons why BureBure has a very clear principle: we do not mass-produce. Most of our products are made only after the order is placed.

It means you may need to wait longer, usually at least 1–2 weeks before shipping. But it also means we do not make piles of unwanted products. We make what is needed, by hand, for real people.

An ancient craft with a future

Felting is one of the oldest textile crafts. Even in a world full of factories, machines and modern technical fabrics, felt should not be forgotten.

From the ancient Greek pilos hat, to felted footwear used in cold regions, from medieval felt padding worn under helmets to modern slippers, sauna hats, massage vests and circulation-stimulating wool garments — felt has served people for thousands of years.

We believe felt also has a future. We hope it can become a material that helps transform unnecessary textile leftovers into natural mulch, insulation material, decorative elements, clothing and useful everyday objects.

Our family believes very strongly in the value and future of felt. That is why we take care of this craft every day — through our products, our wool and the felting workshops we teach around the world.

Heritage sheep breeds

We also care about old sheep breeds, including Skudde sheep. Ancient and heritage breeds may be small and less commercially efficient, but they carry genetic diversity that has survived for thousands of years.

A flock of these sheep lives on the farm of BureBure creators Inga and Kęstas. They grow naturally in large fenced areas that are kept as close as possible to natural conditions. We do not dock their tails, and when the sheep are shorn, it is done by hand with great care for each animal.

The wool from these sheep is not used for our footwear. Sometimes, however, we use it to make what we call eco sheepskins: the sheep stays alive, and the “sheepskin” is felted from its wool.

This matters. Modern breeds can be productive, but they may also be more vulnerable to disease, changing climates or future challenges. Old breeds can carry resistance, hardiness and genetic qualities that may become important again one day.

Protecting these breeds is not only about the past. It may also be about the future.