Elske Tierney
Week 1
Introduction to Sustainability.
In response to this weeks lecture on sustainability I decided to focus on the topic of waste and everyday discarded materials. I was further inspired to look at rubbish and waste from the recent bin men strikes in Tower Hamlets. Being forced to look at all the waste accumulating makes you far more aware of how much disposable material humans go through on a day to day basis.
I decided to hold onto some of my rubbish that I would usually throw away over a couple of days and used them to create prints and collages.
Week 2
Emerging Technologies in Fashion.
This weeks lecture inspired me to think of how the emerging digital world has aided fashion and textiles in regards to efficiency. Having never really used digital technology to generate print ideas and designs, I felt that I should look into using this to explore repetitive and mirroing prints in a more efficent way than craft and physical printing. I was also inspired by the lecture to start placing my prints on the body. Doing this digitally feels a lot less overwhelming than committing to something more time consuming like a fashion illustration, this way I can still communicate visually that the prints I am designing belong on the body early on in the design process without feeling pressure to create a final illustration.
Week 3
Nature. In response to this weeks lecture on nature and the impacts of the fashion industry on the environment, I decided to explore natural dye with turmeric and beetroot. I was shocked at the statistics abot the effect of chemical dyes on our envirnement – for example, textile treatment and dyes contribute to 20% of industrual water polllution. I waned to look at alternatives to synthetic dyes, and also to use old materials rather than buying more fabric and contradicting the message of the lecture itself. Therefore, I used an old school shirt – it was 80% cotton and 20% polyester so I was aware that the natural dye may not hold as well as it would on 100% cotton.
https://www.wikihow.com/Dye-Fabric-with-Beets
Although the beetroot dye didn’t work very successfully or as I would have liked, I still found the outcome of the shirt pieces quite interesting.
Week 4
Cultural Sustainability. In response to this weeks lecture I wanted to look into old craft techniques and explore using them. I was very eager to look into weave, as in modern day society very few garments are hand woven. By researching this I discovered that weave dates back at least 12,000 years ago to the Neolithic era. Humans began exploring this process through weaves branches and twigs as a way of building homes and furniture. Historically hand produced textiles that was created with care and craft was very highly valued, however in todays society we rarely see hand woven garments or furniture. I wanted to create my own hand weave in response to this, using old fabrics and clothes that were machine manufactured as my yarn.
Research link –
https://ecoist.world/blogs/eco-bliss/the-history-of-weaving-and-women
Week 5
Empathy. The section of this weeks lecture that inspired me the most creatively was the section around user centred design both for empathic empowerment and for good. Things such as lingerie brands that focus on women who have suffered from breast cancer and surgery especailly interested me. Often clothing or accesories that are made for comfortability or practicality have a very medical and bland appearance to them, but this doesn’t have to be the case. This idea made me think of how I have been using a crutch for my broken ankle over the last few months and have enjoyed decorating it with ribbons – many older women who I know that use walking aids also do the same, why must practicality be at the demise of style? Having recently stopped using my aircast boot, I wondered why it had to be in this medical and boring grey colour, so I decided to design more fun and exciting colours and prints on it. I began doing digital drawings over photographs, and then decided to paint onto the plastic boot with acrylic paint.
I was also inspired by the mother and daughter brand ‘cool crutches’ who designed aesthetically pleasing and comfortable crutches in different designs. https://www.coolcrutches.com
I think that I responded individually to the better lives lectures in relatively interesting and different ways. With the first response to the sustainability lecture I think I could have explored different techniques of making with recyclable waste materials, as I stuck to simply printing with them like we did in our workshops. It could have been interesting to look at texture and three dimensional work from waste materials as well as two dimensional prints. However, I think that my use of collage to develop the initial prints was very successful and is a strength in this weeks response – using the photocopier to enlarge shapes and different types of paper generated much more interesting and unique responses.
Moving onto week 2, I think this response was a bit weaker and I expected this as I think I need to work on my digital work. I think it would have been more successful if I watched some videos on how to use photoshop and tried out some beginner techniques on more advanced digital platforms. However I was restricted by not having purchased photoshop yet at this point – after having attended all the lectures I think learning photoshop will be incredibly beneficial in the development of my creative practice and will prioritise learning this skill.
Although the natural dyeing process in week 3 wasn’t entirely successful as the beetroot burnt through the polyester in some places and didnt really have much of a pigment in others, I’m still glad I tried doing something outside of my comfort zone and the tumeric was much more vibrant than i expected it to be. If I had more time I think I would explore dying cotton and natural fibres as I feel that this would be much more successful than the polyester cotton blend.