This is one event I have been looking forward to all year! There is a range of entertainment, budding designers and illustrators holding stalls along the Southbank, music of all kinds, live theatre performances, fireworks and carnivals! Even a bridge closed and laid with tables and chairs to enjoy food and beverages!
When I was little, there used to be a pound store around the corner. Its a childs paradise!
Me and my friend would go in from time to time an blow our pocket money on the infamous 'Silly string'. A reel of wet thread blasting from a thin nozzle, aimed at your opponent.
It was always a short lived thrill as the can never held a sufficient amount. This is how I feel the 'Fabrican' might be.
There are many reasons as to why I love this link. For a start, it shows promise for finding alternative ways in which to feed our ever-growing demand for resources such as cotton.
They are creating "cellulose cotton" in the laboratory, fit for textile purposes. At the stage in which this film was created, the fabric, like any living organism, had to be nourished and kept hydrated. It demonstrated the possibility of the "commodification of the natural world".
For those who may not be familiar with the cotton industry crisis:
"Cellulose is the Earth's major biopolymer and is of tremendous economic importance globally. Cellulose is the major constituent of cotton (over 94%) and wood (over 50%). Together, cotton and wood are the major resources for all cellulose products such as paper, textiles, construction materials, cardboard, as well as cellulose derivatives such as cellophane, rayon, and cellulose acetate." ....this causes a great demand for cotton farming.There are many issues that have arisen from this demand, one most commonly known is that of pesticides, clear risks to the health of those who pick the crop and harvest it and all that relating to the direct negligence to workers including poor pay and exploiting children. Alongside this, there have even been issues of drought caused by governments in poor countries over-farming and abusing their land.
which brings us back to our video....Donna Franklin & Gary Cass
"Imagine a fabric that grows...a garment that forms itself without a single stitch!
The fashion that starts with a bottle of wine...
Micro'be' fermented fashion investigates the practical and cultural biosynthesis of clothing - to explore the possible forms and cultural implications of futuristic dress-making and textile technologies.
Instead of lifeless weaving machines producing the textile, living microbes will ferment a garment.
A fermented garment will not only rupture the meaning of traditional interactions with body and clothing; but also raise questions around the contentious nature of the living materials themselves.
This project redefines the production of woven materials.
By combining art and science knowledge and with a little inventiveness, the ultimate goal will be to produce a bacterial fermented seamless garment that forms without a single stitch."
....I came across this a few years ago on another blog. Since the blog post, there was even more information regarding progress. However, since I first discovered this video, there has been no further development, not even a mention in regards to "Global Cellulose" having taken on the project. I really hope this is something that gets put into effect in the next decade!
In passing, a friend of mine told me about this beautiful dress created using the most unlikely material...can you spot what that might be before looking at the next picture?? At first glance you see a fury material, thick and luxurious, then on closer inspection....
a bed of nails. "Combining material, form and context in deceptively simple ways to stimulate associations within the viewers' minds and to elicit nuanced meanings"
She also creates installations, this one in particular caught my eye for the scale and intricate nature just like her other work.
So last week I get an e-mail from the Trend Boutique saying that they are interested in putting my work up on their 'graduates to watch' section of the website.
As of 3 hours ago I'm live on the site!
Its a little profile about me and my work and then some quick fire questions.
Have a look!
So exciting!
I have a great passion for sustainability in textiles. Using technology to enhance our environment and lives is what the 21st century has all been about!
Ive come across a fashion designer and scientists who have collaborated to make something phenomenal!
"Catalytic Clothing seeks to explore how clothing and textiles can be used as a catalytic surface to purify air, employing existing technology in a new way. It is the brainchild of artist / designer Helen Storey and chemist Tony Ryan – people from very different worlds whose minds have come together over recent years in highly successful art/science collaborations."
Also, keep an eye out for their jeans! They have the same technology, not so sure about the fit, but when its that good for your environment, you have to weigh up the value between aesthetics and future
Massively disappointed with my lack of presence on this blog recently, but it has been an exciting and busy time! Remember my research into dance!? It has taken a whole new turn and I have loved the results!
Original research and drawings to capture motion and dance.
This is a collection of snap shots taken from studies to do with motion and dance. The aim was to further develop these to become more abstract and fit for a textile outcome. I love the idea of using lines to represent motion, as variations of thickness or a sharp turns can suggest so much!
Visual research:
My initial research was primarily captured through photographic exploration as well as drawing and mark making.
When I was in Paris, I started experimenting with long exposure and light trails to record movement of passing scenery.
I wanted to see how I could explore this in relation to my project, the challenge was finding a way to record dance in the same way.
Above demonstrates how I have been using light and long exposure techniques, to describe movement.
The aim was to create lines, patterns and blurred silhouettes that could be used as drawing resources. The issue that arose quite early on in this way of investigation, was the limitation of the lines and marks being made.
Re-evaluation: What other qualities within dance are both visually stimulating and inspirational for further development?
I realised that the detail I was paying most attention to in dance, was the fabric movement and drape.
Under water fashion shoots were a great way of capturing fabric engulfing its figures so that it no longer became about the fabric on the body, but how the fabric reacts to its environment in motion.
Photo shoot of fabric in motion
Martha Graham Company
Martha Graham Company was a great find for this project. Her choreographies were very reliant on the costume being over-elaborate and energetic, accentuating the dances. This is the exact kind of imagery I needed, as it was imperative to convey power and motion in my designs, and to do that, I had to work from imagery that already incorporated this.
Fabric in Motion
I tried plain fabrics and patterened fabrics, as these were going to be used for my drawing research later on.
William Hundley
I came across the artist William Hundley who, aside from other projects, played with fabric in motion. He suspended his fabrics in odd ways and unlikely locations. He used people to wrap the fabric around, and then photograph them as they jumped, ran and fell from specific heights. He was able to create some fantastic folds and shadows, especially with his metallic materials.
I seem to be on a nostalgia path this evening, looking through all my old work and finding things I forgot about.... here are some of the things from 2nd year that are unfinished and that I liked the most - I would love to develop these on at some point...
The idea behind this was fragmentation and exaggeration! I was taking objects or figures and building on them, transforming their original state. There were some really beautiful elements about the broken mugs and i especially loved the silhouette face...
this is what took me onto looking into cameos and incorporating elemental subject matter and texture...
I could really see these in a stationary context
