colour development

from beginning to making-- parts of the colour development process for my 'weka rangi' jewellery collection 

Gifs for 'Stop & Bloom' project

I wish I'd blogged my processes all through this current project- I've had so many ideas and references and directions to look into, it would have been great to have an accessible record of all that here. I'll just have to make this my aim for next year's projects!

But for now, I thought I'd upload the gifs I created as part of my idea development and exploration for my unit 3 interiors/exteriors/spatial brief. I wanted to play with colours and a sense of movement in the patterns I was creating, and the gif format was a fun way to do so. My project is all about bringing colour/imagination/fantasy through floral imagery to the urban environment of the bus stop on my road. For my final outcome I constructed lots of paper flowers, and made them into an installation for the community at the bus stop. I created digital patterns from my photography of these paper flowers, and then used the prints to visualise a pattern render onto the bus shelter as well. 'Stop & Bloom' seems like a good name for my project.... I let my imagination run wild with the simple floral imagery of the flowers I found in the bus stop garden, and tried to create outcomes that would really make people STOP at the bus stop, and smile at the 'blooming' (!) floral installations around them.

So, here are the developmental gifs that I created along the way:

Weaving away

Back on the loom, I've been experimenting and working up to my final samples for the block. In the last day or two I suddenly felt like weaving made much more sense. Initially, I'd found the mathematical side of the lifting plans a little restrictive, and although the weave patterns are all beautiful, I wanted to create something that wasn't so flat! However, once I started exploring looping, adding in contrasting yarns and combining the patterns I was using, it all became much more freeing and alive.

looking back to research drawings and windings for inspiration 

exploring looping with jelly cord and shredded metallic paper

using lurex against warp yarns to create a shine!

playing with patterns and textures

a pile of design ideas and yarn cuttings for final samples!

When we cut all our samples off the loom at the end of the week, it was such an amazing feeling to spread all our collective work over the workshop floor- it was like we'd created some kind of giant rug! 

The process of weaving has a very satisfying end result- I am still amazed that I have physically woven together my own fabric samples from 3 meters of warp yarns, that, a week and a half ago was still just a load of threads on a big spool. When I visited Leighton House Museum yesterday, there was a video clip about the restoration and recreation of the fabrics that would have furnished the house in the 19th century. It showed a workshop with a lady hand-weaving silk braiding for one of the upper rooms, and I thought- wow, now I've had an experience of this wonderful process too! Images of my final samples are to come….

knit development

I found this great book in the library by Mitchell Beazley. It was written in 1979, and some of the ideas inside are pretty fun and quirky, as you can probably guess from the title- 'Wild Knitting'! Seeing as I'm experimenting towards my final knit samples based on my collection of things to play with, I really enjoyed flicking through this for some inspiration (and laughs!)

I like the way lots of the ideas in the book are quite 3D and very textural. Continuing to look at and draw from my objects, I experimented a bit further with small scale samples to inform what to make for my final samples. I tried incorporating wire to add structure, inspired by the coiled shape of the slinky I have in my box. I love the effect of lots of tightly e-wrapped bits of iridescent thread to get the idea of the plasticy, synthetic shine of many of my objects. 

drawing from rubber band shapes- aimed to create a similar busy, mesh-like
 feel to knit samples above

drawing from slinky and bubble blower- informed wire expermentation below

Fascinated by fabric - Spray on technology

After Kate Goldsworthy’s talk introducing TED’s sustainable design strategies last week, I was interested to look a little further into one area she raised: developments in new fabrics and technology. 

Since 2003, when Spanish designer Manel Torres collaborated with the Imperial College of London to patent ‘Fabrican’, the idea of spray on clothing has been in and out of the news.   The fabric is seamless, lightweight, washable, and can be built up in layers to achieve different thicknesses. Arguably, these properties give it the potential to be seen as a more efficient alternative to conventional garment cutting, where excess material wastage around pattern pieces is highly inevitable.  Torres was inspired by “principles of the earliest textiles such as felt, which were produced by taking fibres and...binding them together without having to weave or stitch them” (Torres, 2010, www.theguardian.com). Contained within an aerosol, the spray is made of a solvent based fibre mix that bonds together and dries on contact with the skin. This means no finishing techniques are required to create a garment, further reducing the need for extra energy and material use (such as threads and bindings). The texture and colour of the fabric can also be changed depending on the type of fibre used within the spray mixture, making it highly adaptable, and meaning it wouldn’t be restrictive to work with from a design perspective. Although the product is still being researched and refined for different purposes, Fabrican’s website suggests it also has a role in medical, hygiene and even manufacturing industries, including everything from spray on bandages to upholstery.
 

Fabrican sprayed fabrics in different colours

A spray-on t-shirt being created

A finished spray-on garment

If made widely available to the public, imagine all the different uses Fabrican could have in everyday life...small areas of fabric could be sprayed on to mend holes in existing garments, making it easier for people to increase the lifetime of their current clothes. It could be used to alter garments, such as adding pockets where you want them, quickly lengthening something, or perhaps creating sleeves for winter. Fluorescent sprays could be used to spray on reflective strips for safety when out at night...And as Bridgette Meinhold observed in an Ecouterre article,  ‘if the material rips or doesn’t fit right, it can be dissolved and reworked’(Meinhold, 2010, www.ecouterre.com). 

Spray-on technology could help people to live more sustainably by giving them the power to easily mend or renew any type of worn fabric themselves, whether on an interior piece or something wearable; therefore reducing the need to keep buying replacements. In today’s society, where quick, convenient processes are favoured by those leading busy working lifestyles, perhaps the ease of a spray on solution would at least encourage people to repair and alter, rather than discard, items from their homes and wardrobes. It will be interesting to see how Fabrican develops, and whether or not it can impact on people’s attitudes in our throwaway culture. 

References:
Sample, I (2010) Spray-on clothing becomes a reality. The Guardian. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/16/spray-on-clothing-t-shirt [Accessed 20/08/13]

What is Fabrican? (2010) [Internet] Available at http://www.fabricanltd.com [Accessed 19/08/13]

Meinhold, B (2010) Wearable technology- Instant Spray on "Clothing in a Can" redefines fast Fashion [Internet] Available at http://www.ecouterre.com/instant-spray-on-clothing-in-a-can-redefines-fast-fashion-video/ [Accessed 20/08/13]

Images:
Fabrican Ltd. (2010) Fabrican Fabrics [Online Images] Available at http://www.fabricanltd.com [Accessed 20/08/13]