Studio 1B
Abstract:
The Design Game was giving to place specific boundaries on what materials, colors, structure and dimension of depth to weave during a semester.
My 4 parameters were as follows:
1. Double Cloth of varying widths
2. A Culture as a Color Palette
3. Include a metallic yarn
4 .Create an ancient or faded appearance.
My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing. - Marcel Proust
The wound is where the light enters - Rumi
Boards
The following sets of images relate to the assignment as a starting point of references to begin the work of refinement. Using these images for concept development, material exploration & textural research, Daniel Arsham's work regarding future archeology and James Turrell's perceptual space design, would be the jumping off point.
Drafting
Creating opportunities of potential harness and chain drafts are essential to becoming a better weaver. Having the opportunity to do drafts by hand only further pushes one immediate knowledge of understand how this process affects yarn choice and vice versa. On the other side, using the tools available such as software to affirm decision is also a valuable aspect to respect.
Many attempts were developed to find opportunities to capitalize on a 10 harness 12 treadle floor loom. (Images include are just examples of process, there were dozen's of attempts not shown.)
Warping
The opportunity to work exclusively with wool, is both a challenge and a blessing. Wool has many natural & functional qualities that many synthetic yarns are developed specifically for. Exploring the ranges of wool, whether it be from the worsted or woolen, each provide a quality towards a predicted end product. Using thick and thin, some with slubs and others that are plied provide a range of possibilities.
Weaving
Having the parameters given, it was my goal to incorporate all of those requirements through research, analysis and refinement, arriving at a new end / beginning.
Many of the samples woven use complex harness drafts with basic weave structures as a manner to understand the relationship between the too. As well as how shuttle paths can open opportunities for further dimensional samples.
The natural end use I lean into and develop for is Fashion. Throughout the semester I opened up to the opportunities, whether it be home interiors, furniture, commercial and residential, my work truly has no bounds.
Off Loom Processing / Finishing's
Wool naturally is odor defending, hydrophobic and abrasion resistant. When one is able to understand and further exploit and manipulate these opportunities, Fabric's begin to undergo vast chemical and morphological changes with regard to how they perform on our body and they environment.
Through out the course of this class, I was able to understand how finishing techniques such as washing and drying can change the overall hand of the fabric, which in turn has an effect on the yarn.
Another important moment that occurred throughout the semester was using concrete. While I feel like I resolved the attempt with respect to the parameter given "giving an ancient or faded appearance. There is still much to understood and learned from how textiles and concrete can be used.
As a part of our curriculum, we are required to submit entries for multiple competitions. For the ITA Virgina Jackson, I created a Waxed Bi-Partisan couch sample. Using natural bees-wax I impregnated the textile with the medium as a sacrificial layer to any foreign interaction the cloth my experience.
Final Presentations
You're probably wondering how I responded to the parameters given.
1. Woven at varying widths to cover parts of the body, whether it be from the hips, chest or head. Each sample used different yarns in the both the weft and warp. By using different reed sizes, the opportunity to mix yarns and weave successfully was achieved.
2. Choosing to select humanity as a color palette, this would incorporate various black and brown hues all the way through an off white. My decision to use this was to never exclude any one culture segmenting or placing barriers that could not be transcended. Rather an inclusive, whole culture one of boundless limits.
3.Using literal metal wire varying gauges. This opportunity would create insight into providing structural integrity towards forming the cloth in specific areas for the face, hips and chest.
4. Wool naturally depending on the color and how it was dyed lends itself to an ancient or faded appearance. To push the envelope and begin incorporating the narrative created, I applied a concrete finish to provide an "unearthed" quality that would begin to drive and shape the rest of the textiles created.
Narrative
An archeologist in the middle of the night suddenly hears the crashing and knocking of his/her rotary phone. He/She arrives to the call to be greeted by a familiar voice, informing him/her that his/her service are of urgent need and must fly to an undisclosed location. He/She was not given any more details other than we have found a cloth linking the conscious jump between animal and human. Immediately the archeologist like a bolt of lightning thinks, it’s the “Missing Link” understanding the natural evolutionary jump from Homo heidelbergensis into Homo erectus then subsequently into Homo homo sapien. (Hangs up phone, packs bags, shuts the lights off in his study and closes the door.)
The archeologist after months of digging, discoveries, & dedication toward uncovering the link has only begun to unearth the beginnings of dress from the first eras of fashion, well before dress was used for social, emotional, or physical impacts rather as celebration of life & our environments natural gifts.
“Without freedom of speech there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.” - Ai WeiWei
"People fear what they don't understand. They always have." - Max Waters