Really liked how these turned out, although they might not have be similar to the shapes within the original fungi (top one closest, more twisting and curvy than others), they still had a plant growth quality about them. they could be stretched out and contracted inwards and were extremely textural. They where bumpy and bubbly, giving the impression of the fabric bursting with life, like moss growing out of crevasses.
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Within my project I have created two environments, one of which sees the world reach breaking point with sustainability, where landfills overflow and waste is the primary resource for the inhabitants. With electrical waste being a huge addition to landfills I decided to source broken chargers and leads that would otherwise be destined for the bin.
References:
McGuirk, J., 2021. Formafantasma [online]. NGV, 30th April. Available at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/formafantasma/ A trip to Leeds Royal Armouries really opened my eyes to the different approaches to armours that have occurred throughout history and different cultures. I was especially surprised and immediately enthralled by the armours that incorporated textiles. This was a more common practice in the historical armours of Asia. As seen in the pictures, it consists of a mixed of hard and soft materials. The most robust sections of the amour are made up of lacquer, a resin made from the sap of a tree, and then silk cords are woven throughout the lacquer creating a quite decorative surface ad connecting the solid armour flaps together. This could have been used to keep the armour light and allow for movement whilst still protecting the most vulnerable parts of the body with the lacquer material.
With this is link between historical armour and Ashdown’s work, I knew I wanted to create something inspired by these. Starting off with a simple macabre method of square knots to get into the swing of things, I practiced with string, obviously not the appearance or cord quality I want for my end result but just a way to get my hands warmed up. I gathered some different cords up and started experimenting more, creating big loops, interlacing these loops to start to build on the width of the pieces. Then exploring more harsher materials like metal wire as the central cords of the knots. The use of wire added a structural component to these woven pieces, it allowed for manipulation to occur. The ones with wire where able to be curved, wrapped around arms, and twisted keeping its new form.
References:
Connelly, L., 2020. Elizabeth Ashdown on passementerie weaving, Instagram and the importance of colour [online]. Material Source, 31st January. Available at: Elizabeth Ashdown on passementerie weaving, Instagram and the importance of colour. | Material Source Leeds Royal Armouries Museum, Visit 2022.
Testing a new shape to create tessellations with shapes other that hexagons. The pattern folded up forming a brick like structure which creates a blockade appearance. The wearer will have a barrier separating them from their environment. Started to take the paper form into fabric by mixing leatherette and metal. Haven't quite gotten an appearance that I'm happy with. Need to play with scale and movement. Attaching the prototypes to clothing and recording its response to the person. As well as testing this pattern in stitch form with padloft.
Made from individual pieces cut out using laser cut. Red line = cut through Blue line = engrave. Adding the engraving makes the folding much more neat and clean. When testing them to see how they worked I started by just lining them up with a little overlapping giving it a skeletal appearance, the spine was the first place to see how it looked. Next being a neck collar, reminding me of neck ruffle.
All fabrics where soaked in a solution of water and Alum Mordant for half an hour before hand. I balanced a metal rack on some cans in a bucket and placed the scrunched up (and still wet) fabric on top. Then piling ice on top. The natural dyes I used on top of the ice were:
Birch bark, Madder powder and Indigo. On the left hand image I also used a little bit of Dylon Black powder dye to compare the naturals to the synthetics. And on the right I used some turmeric too. Waited for the ice to melt and then rinsed the materials. The results where pale and subtle, I may need to add more ingredients next time or experiment with different pre-mordants to help with the up take of colour. After a smart textiles workshop where we tested different inks that can change under different conditions, like heat and light, I found that there is also dyes that could be described as halochromic. Halochromic means it will change colour depending on Ph. A natural ingredient which has this property is cabbage. To test this I boiled up some red cabbage in a pot for about an hour and collected the dye left behind. I tested a few materials, a cotton voile, wool and a linen. The materials where left in soak for a few hours and then rinsed off and left to dry afterwards. The linen (middle) took the colour up more than the others, giving it more of a denim appearance. To test the colour changing property of red cabbage I chose to use vinegar (a slight acidic) and baking soda mixed with water (an alkaline). When dripping the vinegar onto the linen it turned pink and the baking soda turned the fabric green. This colour change was permanent, but did fade a little once dried. Could be fun to try Shibori with the cabbage dye so only parts of the fabrics would have colour change property.
Starting to line up more of the shapes to see how an entire fabric (no just shapes to attach) could be manipulated. Curved up and created something that could be a shoulder or elbow piece, that would move and contract with arm movements. Next development would be to create paper prototypes using the aid of a laser cutter for precision.
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