Glasgow School of Art (GSA) Showcase- School of Design, Textile Design
Lili Chen Glasgow School of Design- BA (Hons) Textile Design
Lili Chen noted that her specific interest lies in engagement with the zero-waste process and playful textile design process which I can readily relate with, of the importance of environmental sustainability and the minimisation of unnecessary waste. Its ability to connect her to the environments and objects that surround her appear to be especially important to her as it is with me. Throughout these projects she undertook a range of primary and secondary research processes which also underpins my own creative process. Lili Chen explored design that focuses on the relationship between patterns, colour, and textures, understanding how the choices of different materials and yarns to transfer pattern and colour are key to design. Through this process, the research and the processes that have been undertaken to develop her work are naturally seen as important as the final work itself and allow her to deeply understand her work in context and to see how it has been initiated and developed. She has evidenced a continuous and consistent flow of development and it is clear how one idea has moved to the next which I evidence through my ongoing online blog entries. There has been a considered approach regarding the connection between human beings, art, and the environment whereas I have sought through material relating, print and stitch to make connections between the huma brain and individual identity, with experience, crisis-recovery and the environment, to promote and normalise the need for mental health support to enable the transition from crisis towards repair and recovery.
Material play- Lili Chen and her design collections are inspired by a love of process. During this year she has focused upon sustainability, recycled and “remake materials” which were sourced where possible from recycled old clothes, plastic bags, and mixed materials. She transformed waste materials into aesthetic designs. Sampling included a range of yarns as well as plastic, Bubble wrap, feather，paper, and cloth. The infusion of traditional techniques and unusual materials has created playful samples each with their own individual personalities and specific qualities. By thinking further during the research and the making process, an experiment with material, colour, and technique, has been created. Through the processes she transformed the different materials and products into contemporary interior and fashion accessories. Such designs address contemporary themes as environmentalism, excess, utility, and (re)use with a fresh and playful sense of experimentation.
Glasgow School of Art (GSA) Showcase- School of Design, Textile Design
Megan Allan Glasgow School of Design- BA (Hons) Textile Design
This project explores responsible textile design methods focusing on experimental zero-waste fabric manipulation and patchwork techniques. To gather visual inspiration, Megan Allan studied the built environment of Glasgow’s east end and used photography and drawing to capture snapshots of patterns, textures, and shapes that she was influenced by. The linear and repetitive qualities of this research synchronised with her interest in patchwork, quilting and textile mending techniques.
Experimenting with these techniques allowed her to work with materials that would otherwise be considered waste while also eliminating waste at the design stage. She utilised offcut and second-hand fabrics as I have done and continue to do… to develop her ideas and sourced surplus fabric from a local Scottish linen mill to create her final collection. She has been deeply influenced by the ethos of mending and repair and motivated by such themes of unnecessary waste and she has used several techniques traditionally employed to reinforce a textile and prolong its life as I have. Repurposing and repair rely on sharing skills, knowledge, and resources. This collection aims to spark conversation around the over-production and underutilisation of textile products and the importance of social, community-based learning. It also intends to provide comfort and calm within the home through repetitive forms, tactile textures, and soothing colour palettes of blues and greys. I am in the process of reusing vintage linens to use, mend and repair to best illustrate my environmental context alongside the need to promote mental health repair and recovery from crisis, to reuse bedlinen for comfort, calm and soothing within the arena of psychotherapeutic support.
Glasgow School of Art (GSA) Showcase- School of Design, Textile Design
Jessica Hay Glasgow School of Design- BA (Hons) Textile Design
The work of Jessica Hay focusses on exploring bold pattern and colour while using traditional knit techniques in a contemporary way. She has had a keen interest in sustainable design and through each project she has sought to take a zero-waste approach to her work. For her graduate collection she has created samples using mostly wool, a more sustainable yarn choice, and explored its qualities through each sample.
Loops & Knots
This project was inspired by bold shapes and shadows found around this textile designers own home. From curating a range of still life images, her initial drawings led to paper and textile collages. This directed the project to focus on creating three dimensional knitted textiles for a fashion context. The finished samples will be bold and playful in their design while using traditional colour combinations, creating a statement piece of clothing to last a lifetime.
Working mostly with donated cash-wool this project aims to push the boundaries of traditional knit by collaging her own knitted structures with donated scrap knitted textiles. Exploring techniques such as cables, felting and lace holes within a modern interpretation. This project will be completed in mostly natural yarns and aims to find a use for waste textiles that would otherwise be discarded while also taking a zero-waste approach to the design process by saving and reusing waste yarn where possible within the samples. I immediately related to the aim of zero waste which continues to be my mission through all my creative processes including print, weave, and stitch, to rethink…to reuse, repurpose and reappropriate for an extended life. To fully endorse, support and action the 5 R’s of sustainability including refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and finally, recycle.
Glasgow School of Art (GSA) Showcase- School of Fine Art, Painting and Printmaking
Lok Ching Wong Glasgow School of Art- BA (Hons) Fine Art, Painting and Printmaking
Lock Ching Wong noted the increase in suicide rates has been a global issue in more recent years. Civilization thrives on a modern future, but in doing so it also promotes disenfranchised sections of society, to increasingly marginalise to the detriment of many people. The consequence then can be severe for many already on the fringes of society struggling to cope, of people being more disconnected and mentally isolated. However, suicide is defined in some cultures as a selfish, socially unfavourable crime, and they believe that those that commit suicide are not worthy of sympathy and respect. It is even more ironic that today’s suicidal behaviour has become an entertainment live show on social platforms. In this pathological society, what right does anyone have to define them as sinners? When the people around you watch and ridicule the dying struggle, who is the real sinner? There is no absolute in the world. A madman is not an absolute bad person, and a practitioner is not an absolute saint. We are all lunatics, all mental patients, but the degree of “illness” is different.
Under the prevalence of individualism, this work hopes to not only offer visual pleasure but also to arouse the audience’s reflection on the theme and care for the people around them. I was struck with my own the context and related themes concerning mental stress, distress, crisis and the need for increased connection and support for repair and recovery, to make known the most unspeakable, to be heard, to heal and reconnect.
Heriot Watt University BA (Hons) Design for Textiles
RE IMAGINE School of Textiles and Design Graduate Digital Showcase 2021
REBECCA BOYD Good Grief: The recovery through process and making.
This textile artists inspiration is taken from grief and loss and portrayed by illustrating stages of her life combined with textile technique, her artworks evoke vibrancy and consideration whilst maintaining depth and movement. It is important for her to portray life in a celebratory manner and break the ominous unspoken topic of death That considered she sought to implement colour at every opportunity. She is inspired by texture and portraying emotion in an illustrative painterly fashion and to strive to evoke a nostalgic, warming connection with her viewers. Although like me print is her main discipline, she is particularly influenced by a range of artists. For Rebecca Boyd, Jan Koen Loman is liked for her tangibility and Alex Proba for her use of colour which has inspired her work. She noted that she finds it honourable and fitting when designers use their trauma as a creative drive which I aim to do through my current work. Vicarious traumatisation can unfortunately be part of the clinical experience as a psychologist within the adult mental health field in which I inhabit. I aim to make known through visual illustration mental distress and the need to increasingly promote greater shared experiencing, connection, networking, and resourcing to repair and strengthen.
ABBEY MOIR Man-Made Within Nature
This project focuses upon the negative effects that man has had on the natural environment, which has carried forward from Abbey Moir’s previous Semester 1 project which focused upon the natural beach environment. The focus has been centred upon the waste that washes up and litters our beaches, mainly plastic waste. The collection is a series of knitted samples for women’s garments which will encourage slow fashion, not to have a quick turnaround and end up in landfill in a short amount of time. Along with knitting other elements have been included; hand manipulation, embroidery and crochet as working from home meant that Abbey Moir could not knit all the samples that she wanted. Like my own projects to date concerted efforts have been made to showcase the need to reduce and reuse, to encourage repurposing, recycling, and upcycling so no new materials including yarns have been purchased to complete this project. The overarching theme of environmental sustainability with no waste continues to inform my material use. I have been heavily influenced and continue to be influenced by the places I have visited, and I have a special affinity to and with the sea especially beaches along the Scottish coastline. From an early age I witnessed the accumulated debris of plastic which was regularly washed up on the local beaches so continually try to communicate through my artwork the need to be environmentally aware, supportive, and more considerate of others who depend upon such habitats to survive including ourselves.
HOLLY HOUSTON Kalon Coast
Kalon Coast is a collection of textiles for S/S 21 womenswear line creating bespoke ready to wear garments and fashion accessories pitched at the high end of the market. Kalon Coast has taken inspiration from the Southwest of Scotland focusing upon the coastal areas this textile designer visited as a child and continues to visit to this day with friends and family. The collection reflects a great sentimental value for this textile designer as it portrays the ideas of looking back at memories and creating new ones by making the prints more distorted in some areas and vivid in others just as reminiscences would, as representative of a fleeting sense of something that has gone before.
My creative processes are also influenced by coastal environments which have been inhabited throughout the years that hold special meaning for me especially from my formative experiencing in Fife. I stem from a long line of salmon fishermen who made their living from the sea and lived within the small coastal villages. Within my family there has always been an environmental awareness of not depleting what is there but of sustaining what is there for everyone. Unfortunately, as material use has changed with the prevalence of single use materials such as plastics coupled with a disregard for environmental sustainability coastal environments have become polluted. I continue to strive to showcase through my creative practice and the use of materials the need to rethink, repurpose, reuse, reclaim materials to prevent waste and unnecessary use. I continue to relish opportunities to use watercolours, acrylic paint, collage, charcoal, and pen to create layers of mark making from felt experiencing.
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee University
Textile Design BDes (Hons) Degree Programme
School of Textiles and Design Graduate Digital Showcase 2021
Kathleen Barron- As a Knitted Textile Designer she has been influenced by positive emotional health and the value that sensory objects bring to the act of meditation.
Tidal Breath designs create a sensory bridge, utilising the importance of physical movements on gaining a meditative state. Movement of the knitted structures provoke the beneficial act of meditation, applying mental and physical values of Buddhism, modern relaxation techniques and calming qualities of the sea. The Coronavirus pandemic has undeniably effected society’s mental health. Interviews were conducted to provide insight on its emotional impact and where comfort has been found. Water was a common comfort, and its physical and visual qualities formed the basis of the final collections, Rippling and Fluidity.
I am aware of how Mindfulness and Meditation has proven to ameliorate anxiety-stress and chronic pain and to promote emotional regulation as it is used extensively within adult mental health within the NHS. As noted by Kathleen Barron guided meditation often includes calm visualisations of beaches and water and one was specifically written for Tidal Breath to be used with the structures. It takes the user from their present environment to the beach, visualising the water, carrying them towards the horizon to a peaceful and safe emotional state. The knitted textile designer acknowledged that qualities of water were translated to fabric through dropped stitch techniques and weighted panels. Neutral silk and rayon yarns were used to visually calm the user and aid the connection to water, promoting a serene meditative experience.
Such a collection has helped to focus her preparation and planning towards her own art show and exhibition, to fully showcase context including the main themes centred upon positive mental health, of the heightened capacity for mental health repair, and recovery from crisis with prompt and appropriate follow up and support. I am increasingly interested in extending my capacity to communicate such themes, to reflect at depth on how best to communicate this given the overall scale, to promote increased audience participation, understanding, integration and interaction with audio, video, psychoeducation, resourcing, and information.
Lauren Gray- Celebrating Brutalism – Two collections of digitally printed interior textiles inspired by Brutalist Architecture
Lauren Gray stated that Brutalism has been a fixture of British architecture since the 1950s, emerging shortly after WWII. These buildings were built with the purpose of solving a housing crisis caused by an ever-growing population, and became known for their intimidating appearance, use of heavy concrete and high-rise towers. Unfortunately, these buildings are often looked upon with contempt and disgust. Former Prime Minister David Cameron described them as “brutal high-rise towers and dark alleyways that are a gift to criminals and drug dealers.”
This misleading reputation has been detrimental to the people who live in these buildings and call them their homes. That said Lauren Gray designed a range of digitally printed interior textiles that have been inspired by Brutalist architecture and the shapes, forms and textures found within these buildings. Through capturing perspective through line and shape, she has created two collections that are modern, contemporary, and abstract. The designs themselves reflect the strong lines and symmetry found within the architectural style. The colour palette has been sourced from European architecture and these elements combine to create designs that celebrate and value Brutalism and everything it stands for especially within the arena of social housing, of enabling access to housing for many more people who would otherwise not be able to afford their own home. These collections increasingly reminded me of the need to communicate through my creative practice using material and colour, of being afforded an opportunity through print to say something which can affect the audience, of capitalising upon increased scale to acknowledge the effects of mental health distress and the capacity for repair within the UK.
The pattern used with the colourways selected are eye catching…to use print with increased scale has such a capacity to attract attention, to illustrate, instruct, to engage and inform. I am interested in communicating visually what I know, have experienced with mental distress, of the stark realities but also of illustrating the process of transition, of positive change through therapy towards growth and repair, of the importance of access to mental health support.
Edinburgh College of Art School of Design BA (Hons) Textile Design
Bethany Grace Leedham R3: re-store, re-purpose, re-imagine Textiles – BA (Hons)
Bethany Grace Leedham is a textile and print designer, who is passionate about colour, pattern & sustainability. Her final collection celebrates reclaimed denim – this passion for sustainability came from early research and seeing the detrimental effects of fabric waste and off-cuts within the Textiles industry. She has made a concerted effort to make a positive difference in the world from creating solutions to big problems and responding to challenges, to ensure future generations have a greener, and more sustainable future. Ultimately her aim is to be sustainable through all the work she creates so using resources that have been already used to contribute towards the circular economy. A lot of her inspiration comes from colour and textures found in the beautiful everyday – mostly the small and mundane, yet beautiful moments. Her final collection was inspired by everyday moments during the challenging pandemic times with COVID-19.
Denim was seen as functional, beautiful, and durable with so much potential. One pair of jeans however uses 10,000 litres of water in the production process: that is the same amount one human drinks over 13 years. The amount of water and energy used is causing extreme environmental, social, and humanitarian damage. Through introducing R3: re-store, re-purpose, re-imagine denim was worked with differently. A textiles collection that cares about the end of life of denim, using cradle to cradle systems and adopting circular economy beliefs to tum reclaimed denim that once was trash into treasured, usable, and purposeful pieces was focused upon using textile techniques such as digital print and patchwork. This collection promotes slowing down: re-using what we already have, reducing landfill, and promoting how we can be more sustainable. This was made possible through local and national collaborations, including partnering with Hiut Denim and Simprint. The textile artist acknowledged that throughout lockdown, she has felt a sense of ‘slowing down’ her everyday life, so that she can learn to find joy in, and celebrate the everyday small, mundane yet beautiful moments. Bethany Grace Leedham gathered inspiration through imagery and colour stories of the beautiful every day. Colour and texture were then extracted from these photographs to feature throughout her collection. Bethany Grace Leedham stated that if COVID-19 has taught me anything, it is to value the small moments in the everyday – and find joy in them – the act of slowing down really is beautiful. This sense of slow is one way in which we can contribute to promoting a better, more ethical environment.
Kirsten Moraine Sheena Gair Pretty Imperfect Textiles – MFA School of Design ECA
This collection was inspired by the Japanese philosophy Wabi-sabi – seeing the beauty in imperfection. Kirsten Moraine Sheena Gair applied this concept to western beauty standards, focusing on the skin. As wabi-sabi has an appreciation for nature, Kirsten Moraine Sheena Gair take skin ‘imperfections’ and combine them with similar ‘imperfections’ found in nature as there is a tendency to see nature as something beautiful, whilst skin ‘imperfections’ are not. By combining them, beautiful images have been created to help and encourage others to see beyond this perfectionistic ideal so individuals might be influenced to embrace their ‘imperfections.’
The aim of this project is to make a subtle statement about our ‘imperfections’, which societal constructs deem as faults and for us to challenge these notions – to see the beauty in them and acknowledge being at odds with self–loathing. To portray the elements of self-loathing, the textiles gradually become increasingly glitchy, representing the use of technology such as Photoshop to alter their appearance drastically for self-portrayal online. The intention is to demonstrate the negative impact that social media can have on constructing perceptions of beauty and the desire to morph ourselves to fit beauty ideals. Through the fashion dance short ‘prettyUGLY’, film director and movement artist Red-Cor invites the viewer in an active process of co-creation, of looking at oneself bare. Fashion designer Kirsten Gair brings forward a collection of garments printed with microscopic images of her own body’s imperfections.
Digital Print on Sara Linen blend, Dimensions w80cm x h60cm. All garments are made using zero waste pattern cutting techniques to reduce fabric waste.
Experimenting with TPU (an advanced plastic that is biodegradable) and deadstock material and further distorting textiles to imitate skin as well as continuously transforming the same imagery to look different, thus commenting on perceptions of beauty and the desire to continuously alter one’s appearance. Zero waste pattern cutting involves using all the fabric to reduce waste. I experiment with ways of emphasising the waist as zero waste garments tend to be over sized, and this would be able to accommodate more body types. I liked the overall degree show with its associated context and narrative including environmental sustainability and natural imperfections to challenge this false idea of beauty being perfect. The presentation of such a narrative has helped me to see beyond my own original ideas for my degree show, to be more adventurous and bolder with what I can achieve through my own exhibition, to actively showcase in very large scale what is so often never talked about, to make bold statements through my creative work which cannot be ignored, to communicate the need to look, understand and respond to and with the mental health crisis.
Making Zero Waste Versatile-Environmental Sustainability for Natural Imperfection
Laura Miani OJO! Protective Textiles Against Apathy Textiles – MFA School of Design ECA
For Laura Miani, this collection of CAMOUFLAGE textile prints is filled with meaning communicating messages about Colombian (South America) ongoing conflict. Colombian Molas, is an important indigenous craft which represents her ongoing inspiration. A multi-layered fragment part of indigenous Kuna blouses for example are intended to symbolically protect women´s bodies since a young age, which is a sacred constructed textile. Therefore, her patterns, reflect territory, derived from the manipulation of images coming from four handmade Molas she made during lockdown. Resulting from textile symbolic techniques (Mola indigenous reverse appliqué, devoré, cross dying, foil, flock, cad embroidery), the imagery she used comes from historical archives and documents that are part of the national memory and are today at risk of being erased or censored. The coherent design context for these prints is safeguard clothing, bulletproof vests, and body armours in a broader sense for civilians to protect themselves literally and symbolically against conflict. Symbolically, by acknowledging this imagery and the facts portrayed and literally, by using actual bulletproof textiles such as “Aramid” within the layers of the armours.
There are four armours within “OJO!” project, each one has four different textile layers. “OJO” (oh hoh) literally means “EYE” in Spanish. In Colombia, the expression “OJO!” means “Beware!” and has recently been used in several political scenarios since 2019. By paying attention to these prints based on its aesthetic qualities and materials before fully grasping what it is about, you might be played to contend with the patterns after getting past the first magnetism some of these coloured clichés and concepts are related to Colombia and tropical Latin America generate.
I immediately related to this use of pattern and material use, of the need to be bold to capture the attention of the audience through the visual imagery but then to communicate the related contextual creative process and narrative through making its meaning known. I aim to use vintage linen which represents my own heritage and cultural identity alongside making myself more known through my own professional and personal experiencing, to challenge the societal constructs concerning mental health and distress, to showcase the capacity for growth and repair.
WeavePrint 
2 Comments