Inspirational textile designer, Sophie Mallenbranche, creates lustrous woven fabrics by weaving copper, stainless steel, bronze, brass with plant fibres and synthetic materials, resulting in a kind of gossamer mesh.
I particularly like these fabrics as they don't 'take up space', instead reflecting light. They seem alive as they illuminate the surrounding space due to the pure metallic quality of the fabric, without the need to use complicated or separate electrical components. They have life and give light.
Examples of her work and more information can be found through the link below or in the 2009 publication 'Textile Designers at the cutting edge' / Bradley Quinn
http://www.sophiemallebranche.com/site_sophie_mallebranche.html
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Sonic fabric is an audible textile woven from recycled, recorded audiocassette tape. To find out more watch this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VJpmukjces
Although I haven't heard the sounds of this fabric, it is the idea that sound can be built into a weave that interests me. Some history of the maker and of the time is in-built. What are the possibilities for it's use? Can this be achieved with other audio equipment/ materials?...
Catherine Hammerton
Victoriana
Hand-printed paper, stitched with lace and paper birds
Catherine Hammerton is a London-based designer-maker, her work is defined by its handmade aesthetic, utilising traditional silk screen printing and hand embroidery combined with cutting edge digital technology. Inspired by a myriad of sources, Catherine's work explores her intuitive appreciation and approach to colour, texture and finish.
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Fly Away
Hand-printed vintage wallpaper, cut with bird silhouettes
This is a simple yet effective treatment of a widely available basic material. Again, the appeal to me is the 'coming alive' through the shadow and light and the delicate movement that you can imagine on passing.
This combined with the re-use and new life given to a traditional vintage wallpaper. You can imagine that there are many interior walls that have similar installations without the interventions of designers but more likely a child who couldn't resist peeling back an already aged and torn section of wallpaper in a discreet corner.
Some of the above work can be found in the 2009 Publication - Textiles at the Cutting Edge Bradley Quinn. This book is a constant source of inspiration. Please see Theory page of this Blog for more info about the book.
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Tracy Emin - Installation V&A
To Meet my Past
Evocative work.
Tracy Emin often uses a combination of hand worked textiles, domestic objects/ settings to convey a deeply personal and meaningful message.
The level of hand work and immediate interaction with these materials, commiting her emotional energy into the piece. This process also engages the artist to a meditative state of mind as aspects of her own personal history is permanently applied to the fabric.
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Listen to This: Alyce Santoro’s Sonic Fabric
Alyce Santoro knows how to think outside the box when it come to materials. The internationally-recognized concept and sound artist uses recycled audio cassette tape to make textiles you can actually listen to. Woven from 50% recorded cassette tape and 50% polyester thread, Sonic Fabric retains its magnetic charge and produces sound when a tape head is run along its surface. Because multiple strands are read together at a slower speed, the recorded sounds are heard as indiscernible scratches and static, but it is this very mixing and blending that Alyce finds meaningful.
The original recording for the first batch of fabric created in 2001 contains a collection of music and sounds the artist has been influenced by, from Jack Kerouac to the Beatles. Alyce’s novel choice of material draws from the use of cassette tape “tell-tails” on her father’s sailboat (to tell wind direction) and Tibetan prayer flags, whose printed mantras are believed to be spread by the wind. Interested in the unseen, the intangible, the subtle, Alyce was exploring the idea of stored memory before she discovered her textiles were audible.
Thanks to the manufacturer Designtex, Sonic Fabric is now available as yardage in a handful of colors; you can even purchase the “Between Stations” CD with fourteen tracks of sound collages (based on life in NYC) used in the making of the textiles, which comes in a limited-edition Sonic Fabric sleeve. Alyce has also collaborated with renowned designer Julio Cesar to make limited-edition neckties, which have stirred quite a ruckus across cyberspace (and everywhere else). Other accessories have also surfaced, including bow ties, vests, scarves, and fedoras. For a sampling of these uncommon goods, visit Supermarket.
If you would like a closer look at the weaving process or want to build your own Sonic Fabric reader from a Walkman, demos have been thoughtfully provided by Alyce Santoro on YouTube. I was especially mesmerized by the video of former Phish drummer Jon Fishman playing his Sonic Rhythm Dress with tape head gloves during an April 2004 show—now, how cool is that?
