Decaying Fabrics

Recently I have been very busy playing around with natural fabrics (cotton, silk, line and muslin). You may ask why and it is because I have decided to age and decay fabrics as part of my recent All Saints project.  My plan is to promote the shop through more exciting and better interiors, therefore I want to create either dressing room curtains or a textile piece. So far I have used many exciting processes to ages my fabrics: 

1. Coffee and Tea staining 

2. Mark making with rusty objects 

3. Crumpling and dampening

4. Rubbing in dirt 

5. Burning with incense or cigarettes

6. leave out in the sun 

7. wash several times 

8. use coarse sandpaper 

9. rub black or brown shoe polish 

10. drag fabric along the ground

So far I have only tested a few out, however marking making with the rusty objects made the most beautiful patterns. If you are interested in doing this yourself you firstly need to find rusty objects such as nails and tools. You then wet the fabric and place the objects in a pattern of your choice. You can then wrap the fabric around the objects. Then you will need to keep the fabric moist with a mixture of vinegar and water. Then leave this for a day for a day or so, depending on how well your objects take to the fabric and how dark you would like the colour. 

Here are some pictures of my samples so far: 

There will be more tests soon :)  

Railway Decay

Exploring is something I do well. I tend to take photographs of the most peculiar and unforeseen objects that nobody even knew existed. I believe that the natural decay of the objects is something of pure beauty; their unforeseen textures is what provides me with the many ideas and outcomes in my projects. After taking several photographs from the past weeks,  I have particularly captured railway decay. The train station is a place I am most days (uni, meeting friends, exploring the great city). I try not to look for things that inspire me, instead I let them come to me. That may sound silly, but I am a very visual person so looking all around me is something very mundane. Railway decay is something that just came to me one day. I thought why not do a project on something I see everyday. You make think this is an easy way of collecting research, however I have had many difficulties capturing the perfect photograph. The composition had to be incredibly clear as I turned them into screen prints. Although challenging in some respects, I thoroughly enjoyed capturing the textual qualities of railway decay. So far I have made a start on a collaboration of screen-prints in colours influenced by All Saints (my current project). After several days of living in the print room I have been overall successful. Eventually the most successful screen-prints will then then be printed out on a much larger scale. In terms of interior, I want to display my prints on the wall behind the counter in the All Saints stores. Hopefully everything will go to plan, and I will keep you updated on my progress.

In the mean time here are some of the screen-print images:

  

All Saints Project

A New Year means a new project. This means I will be taking on biggest project to date. Although exciting this is without a doubt the scariest feeling ever. I will soon be entering the real world, therefore I would like the end my educated years with a BIG BANG. The project I will be taking on not only shows my interests as a person but it will also highly benefit my true passion as an artist. My three great passions in art are printing, interiors and fashion. I therefore wanted something that was going to benefit all three. After several days of thinking and thinking of a project I wouldn't get bored of, I finally came up with the idea of promoting the shop All Saints through interior design. This will incorporate my passion for fabrics and printing into one. My three main ideas are to create curtains for the changing rooms, a screen print for the wall behind the counter and wallpaper for a single wall. All Saints is a shop that has always caught my attention, for their urban decay/ mechanical layouts that are so fascinating and something I have always been interested in. From previous posts you can see a theme going on that decay is a subject I truly love, especially for its indexical and unforseen textures.  The first step of research will be to take as many photographs as possible. This is something I would recommend if you are ever stuck on your project. Go out and explore, and the ideas will come to you. I will take you every step of the way and keep you up to date on my findings and ideas.           

05/02/2016