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Kerala Hindle's Research Blog
Saturday 29 June 2013
Friday 31 May 2013
Thursday 30 May 2013
Mayuko Fujino
Mayuko Fujino uses stencils layered over collages of
magazine pages and found papers to create her illustrations, a very similar
technique to the one that I used to create my patterns. Although it is not her
main inspiration, she links her use of stencils to the use of stencilling in
traditional Japanese textiles, but says that her work is based on personal
experiences and interests rather than tradition. She uses collage and
stencilling to make her work, seeing the collage as modern and the stencilling
as traditional.
Wednesday 29 May 2013
Advertisements Using Pattern
Whilst studying textile and pattern design, I began to notice a huge amount of advertisements that made use of pattern, particularly in posters. Use of pattern is more and more common in graphics and advertising today, and I feel this is often because of the eye-catching quality of a bold pattern. Perhaps because of the huge bombardment of advertising that surrounds us everyday use of pattern has a more gentle approach as it feels more beneficial to our environment, providing ornament or decoration.
For the launch of the recent fifth generation Apple ipod collection, Apple’s advertising campaigns featured the new models, used to create a graphic repeat pattern for huge underground posters.
A similar idea was used in the Mylan drug advertisements in the 90’s. These advertisements make use of photographic reproductions of real objects to create patterns, which made me consider the possibilities that digital printing of textiles could offer.
Monday 27 May 2013
Anita Ahuja
Ahuja runs a non-profit organisation, Conserve, in Delhi. Established in 1998, she collects discarded plastic bags found on the Delhi streets and transforms them into textiles by compressing them with heat. These textiles are then fashioned into bags and other accessories. Though her work comprises textile construction, the re-use of found materials relates to the use of off-cuts of paper I use to create my pattern designs. In addition to this many of her fabrics are formed into simple striped patterns using the different colour plastic bags.
Though it is her use of alternative technology and re-use of materials that interests me in her work, her textiles and fashion accessories are a by-product of the main aim of her organisation, which has environmental and social concerns at its core. Environmentally, she makes use of waste and helps to deal with the huge amount of rubbish dumped on Delhi’s streets everyday; but uses this project to provide work and valuable income for the poorest people in Delhi, the ‘rag-pickers’ - the lowest caste in Indian society. By employing these people to collect rubbish for her, and to help making her designs, she is able to provide these people with a little money for food, healthcare and education.
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Japanese Stencil Dyeing
The use of stencils to transfer imagery and pattern to
fabric and paper is used traditionally all around the world, in many different
cultures, and is a fore runner to screen-printing. What makes the Japanese stencils stand out in
particular is their incredible intricacy and detail, so much so that the
stencil itself could be a beautiful piece of art, without it being used for its
intended purpose.
In Japan, stencils were used to apply rice-paste to un-dyed
fabric. The design would be transferred to the cloth by pushing the paste
through the holes gently with a large soft brush. When the paste had dried, the
fabric was then dyed in indigo. When
dry, the paste would be soaked off, revealing the colour of the un-dyed fabric
under the indigo, in the pattern of the stencil. These designs ranged from one colour, and
therefore one stencil layer, all the way to detailed patterns that involved the
transferral of many layers of the design separately, using different dyes,
similar to the way an image is created in many colours in screen printing.
It is always interesting to place a stencil over a pattern
or textured surface. It creates windows and eyelets that divide the pattern
underneath into sections, changing the overall look of the surface, by
combining the two different designs. It
was this aspect of the use of stencils that intrigued me. Finding throughout this project that I was
constantly questioning the difference between an illustrator and a pattern
designer, the use of stencils allowed me to impose my own drawings on to my
collaged pattern surfaces. I was
interested also in the combination of two entirely different patterns, and the
way they clashed or complimented each other.
Sunday 26 May 2013
Ikats
Ikats are woven textiles that are created all over the world
most notably in Japan, China and Central Asia. The warped patterns on them are
created by tie-dyeing the unwoven threads in patterns. When the threads are
woven together, the pattern is formed by the changing colour of the dyed
threads, but creates a ‘shifted’ version of the design. Though actually a
process of surface design created by the construction of the fabric, ikats have
been one of the main influences on my work.
The ikats worn as part of traditional dress in such
countries as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were a way of creating
elaborate personal costumes, and were also often used as wall hangings for home
decoration. In Central Asian cultures,
the use of fabric and garments is very important. Ikat robes were often given
to important visitors as gifts. Made
from silk and when woven painted with an egg-white solution to stiffen the
fabric and make it glossy, the ikats could be incredibly expensive, and so were
reserved for those of high social status or special occasions. Often officials or members of royalty would
wear up to ten robes at once in order to show off their wealth and status. Cheaper versions of the silk ikats were also
woven using silk and cotton threads or just cotton threads.
I first discovered ikats whilst looking at bold and brightly
coloured floral fabrics designed by Russian factories for import to the Central
Asian markets. These Russian fabrics
were very cheap and used by the peoples of Central Asia to make every-day robes,
or line the insides of traditional robes made out of the local ikat
fabric. It was the clash of these two
very different fabrics used to make the robes that appealed to me the most, and
made me consider the clash of surface within collage. The warped ikats
suggested the feel of striped cloth to me, whilst the shifted patterns of the
original design suggested a narrative to the fabrics, like a faded design worn
away over time. I began trying to
re-create this feeling within my own pattern design, both visually with stripes
of different tones of a certain colour, and with the re-use of found imagery,
through the use of collage.
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