The vegan, sustainable, closed-loop alternative to silk and rayon. Lyocell is a regenerated-cellulose fiber spun from wood pulp (typically eucalyptus, beech, or FSC-certified mixed sustainable forestry) dissolved in an organic solvent (NMMO, N-methylmorpholine N-oxide) and spun into fibers. The closed-loop manufacturing process recovers and reuses 99+ percent of the solvent, making lyocell among the most environmentally responsible commercial textile fibers — measurably lower environmental impact than cotton, silk, or conventional viscose rayon. Lenzing's TENCEL is the dominant brand (manufacturing plant in Lenzing, Austria; partner mills in the US, China, India). The fabric reads soft and smooth like silk or fine cotton, drapes like silk, takes dye like cotton, and biodegrades in soil within months. The application canon: fashion blouses (Eileen Fisher, Patagonia, Reformation all use TENCEL), bed sheets, technical sportswear (TENCEL Active blends), denim blends (TENCEL adds drape and softness to cotton denim). Buy as fashion fabric from Mood Fabrics; as raw fiber via Lenzing-licensed mills.
Regenerated cellulose fiber, source: wood pulp (typically Eucalyptus globulus from FSC-certified plantations, plus beech, oak, mixed sustainable hardwood) dissolved in NMMO (N-methylmorpholine N-oxide) and water, spun through wet-spin spinneret into water bath, washed and dried into staple fiber or filament. Density 1500 kg/m³ (similar to cotton). Tensile strength dry 39-44 cN/tex; wet 36-40 cN/tex (lyocell is unique among regenerated celluloses in retaining ~90 percent of dry strength when wet — the property that makes TENCEL bedsheets and clothing dimensionally stable through laundering). Tensile modulus 11-14 GPa. Elongation at break 14-16 percent dry, 16-18 percent wet. Moisture regain 11.5 percent at 20 °C / 65 percent RH (high — the property that gives TENCEL its breathability / moisture management). Closed-loop manufacturing: 99+ percent of NMMO solvent recovered and reused per cycle (vs. 30-60 percent for ordinary viscose rayon, with the rest discharged as effluent). Fiber surface has a smoother profile than cotton (less surface micro-bacteria growth, the antimicrobial-natural property). Dyes well with reactive dyes (the cotton-canon dye class). Blends easily with cotton, polyester, wool (synthetic-blend versions), elastane.
Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere fibrous finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material. Or grab the whole library at once: ForMaterials library →
# finish: fibrous albedo #e0e8d8 metallic 0.00 roughness 0.70 ior 1.45 transmission 0.00 clearcoat 0.00 sheen 0.70 anisotropic 0.50
{
"albedo": "#e0e8d8",
"metallic": 0.0,
"roughness": 0.7,
"ior": 1.45,
"transmission": 0.0,
"clearcoat": 0.0,
"sheen": 0.7,
"anisotropic": 0.5
}
# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# Lyocell (TENCEL™ Branded Cellulose Fiber) · finish: fibrous
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_lyocell_tencel")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value = (0.7454, 0.807, 0.6867, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value = 0.700
bsdf.inputs["IOR"].default_value = 1.450
bsdf.inputs["Transmission Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Coat Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Sheen Weight"].default_value = 0.700
bsdf.inputs["Anisotropic"].default_value = 0.500
# KeyShot 11+ — lux Python API, Generic material
# Lyocell (TENCEL™ Branded Cellulose Fiber) · finish: fibrous
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_lyocell_tencel", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse", (224, 232, 216)) # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness", 0.700)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.450)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)
{
"_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
"_about": "Lyocell (TENCEL\u2122 Branded Cellulose Fiber) \u00b7 finish: fibrous",
"baseColor": {
"r": 0.7454,
"g": 0.807,
"b": 0.6867
},
"metallic": 0.0,
"roughness": 0.7,
"ior": 1.45,
"opacity": 1.0,
"anisotropyLevel": 0.5,
"_notes": "Channels listed are the standard Substance pbrMetalRough output. Drop into a Uniform Color node per channel, or as the constant input on a layered stack."
}{
"asset": {
"version": "2.0",
"generator": "ForMatter"
},
"materials": [
{
"name": "mat_lyocell_tencel",
"pbrMetallicRoughness": {
"baseColorFactor": [
0.7454,
0.807,
0.6867,
1.0
],
"metallicFactor": 0.0,
"roughnessFactor": 0.7
},
"extensions": {
"KHR_materials_ior": {
"ior": 1.45
},
"KHR_materials_sheen": {
"sheenColorFactor": [
1.0,
1.0,
1.0
],
"sheenRoughnessFactor": 0.7
}
}
}
]
}# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# Lyocell (TENCEL™ Branded Cellulose Fiber) · finish: fibrous
def Material "mat_lyocell_tencel" {
token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_lyocell_tencel/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>
def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.7454, 0.807, 0.6867)
float inputs:metallic = 0.000
float inputs:roughness = 0.700
float inputs:ior = 1.450
float inputs:opacity = 1.000
float inputs:clearcoat = 0.000
token outputs:surface
}
}
Lenzing Tencel technical literature; ASTM D7468 lyocell fiber.
House vocabulary — terms ForMatter uses with intent.
Materials and processes for people who design and make things.
A local-first library of materials, processes, applications, and finishes — equal weight, citable everywhere, with cost-over-volume curves, trade-off profiles, equipment-tier filters, and second-life paths layered onto the data so a student can move from "what is this" toward "what's actually buildable here, now, by me." Part of the renato.design ecosystem — sibling of Plenum, Specimen, Ingenue, gesture, graf, and the Renato Rhino plug-ins. Form and matter, inseparable.
Half of teaching materials is teaching how the material is made into the thing. The standard subscription library was always light on that half. The wedge here isn't better samples or a prettier interface — it's treating Process as a peer entity, not a footnote.
Conway's Material World on raw materials, Lefteri's Making It on processes, Forty's Concrete and Culture, Sparke's Design in Context, Bürdek's Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design, Schröpfer's Material Design on materials in architecture, Winchester's The Perfectionists on tolerance, Minshall's Your Life Is Manufactured on the global supply chain, von Busch's Making Trouble on material activism, Were's How Materials Matter, Hegger / Drexler / Zeumer's Basics Materials, Untracht and McCreight on metalsmithing, USDA Forest Products Lab on woods, GIA on gemstones, Schott / CoorsTek / Toray / Owens Corning datasheets, MakeItFrom for verifiable property numbers, ASM Handbook, ISO standards. Museum holdings draw from the Met, MAD, V&A, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Newark Museum of Art, British Museum, Heard Museum, Smithsonian NMAI, Eiteljorg Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, and Grand Rapids Art Museum — collection-record permalinks only, designer overview pages and exhibition listings excluded. Voice blocks now ride on every entry kind — material, process, application, and finish — and include Ruskin on iron, Anni Albers on twining, Greg Lynn on the shred-and-teeth NURBS lineage, Pugin on the metal that won't be hammered, Barthes / Yanagi / Benjamin channeled within their philosophy; Sparke, Bürdek, Forty, Conway, Schröpfer, Minshall, von Busch, Lefteri, Pat Pruitt, Mary Lee Hu, Tom Joyce, Albert Paley, and the rest of the contemporary makers quoted verbatim with citation. All cited.
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