Designer in Residence Exhibition

Chelsea graduate Tope Tijani, has been the Designer in Residence here in the digital print department, as part of the AA2A scheme. The final show opened at Camberwell, and Tope showed some lovely digital prints that she mounted on the wall and made into a summer dress.

Tope also creates a range of fashion accessories using digitally printed plastics and the range is now available on new online retailer Bengt, that supports emerging designers.

The AA2A show continues at Camberwell College of Art until 19th April.

Slow/Fast becomes a trend

Last autumn, TED Members Melanie Bowles and Emma Neuberg ran their Slow/Fast workshops at the V & A, where participants were encouraged to explore both hand and digital approaches to textile making. The course was awarded the 'Best Creative Course' in 2010 by the participants and was quite ground breaking in it's approach.

Mel, Emma and their project has now been written up in Stylus.com, by Chelsea alumni Alsion Gough who works for this trends forecasting website, exploring what the Slow movement means for the textile and fashion industry.

The co-design element of the new Slow approaches is key, as Alison explains, "Further removing brand controls, open sourcing and shared knowledge is crucial for the slow movement and, as the slow textiles group strives towards an empowerment of the consumer, the role of digital and downloadable is gaining momentum...".

Artist/designer in the digital textile department

The Artists in Residence Scheme (AA2A) here in the textiles department at Chelsea is continuing this year, and the lucky artist/designer is Tope Tijani, a 2009 graduate.

Tope specialised in digital textiles and she will be working with the digital textile printer developing a new body of work. Tope currently produces an accessories range of digitally printed laminated bags and purses which are sold in boutiques in London and Paris.

Another artist on the scheme, in the fine art department, is Jonathon Baldock, who interestingly uses mixed media materials including fabrics to create sculptures.

TED members at the V & A

TED members Melanie Bowles and Emma Neuberg have been busy over at the V & A, running an exciting workshop programme called Fast/Slow. Inspired by the current exhibition, Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes, the course encourages participants to explore hands-on making techniques combined with using the latest digital technologies, including digital textile printing.

Mel recently gave a presentation to the participants titled 'Digital Textiles Now', focusing on the growth of the pro-amateur and home grown designer who are creating their own textiles by utilising local digital textile print bureaus, in turn revitalizing local textile industries.

For some of the results from the course, see Emma's Slow Textiles blog.

TED postcard from Sydney

For the workshop I ran yesterday at University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the students made their own small patchwork sample, using fabric scraps. Taking a few basic quilting shapes as templates, we explored the idea of zero-waste cutting and hand-stitching. Several students had never used a needle and thread, so we worked slowly and quietly. At the end all of the pieces were brought together to make one whole 'quilt' which we photographed, and will then digitise and play around with using CAD tools.

I also presented a talk on 'Digital Craft' exploring the work of 'hybrid designers' such as weaver Ismini Samandiou and my work of 'digital quilting' called Fragments.

The students are involved in a project called 'Waste in the City' run by Marie O'Mahony. They have been put in groups and have been assigned an area of the city, and each group has been mapping the waste of that area, to identify any potential design interventions, using the local waste stream. The groups consist of students from a range of design disciplines, including visual communication and textile/fashion design, so the range of solutions should be interesting, and from the few ideas I heard, will mainly focusing of designing services around waste re-use.

Designer-In-Residence Exhibition Luanch

How can digital textile print be used to enhance and celebrate old heirloom fabric pieces?

Can a 'digital craft' process, using sustainable base cloths, help to reinvent the traditions of quilting and patchwork?

These are some of the questions Clara Vuletich has been exploring as part of a 'designer-in-residence' scheme in the digital print department here at Chelsea. AA2A is a national 'artists in residence scheme', and it has been run for many years at Camberwell College, but this is the first time it has been run within the textile department at Chelsea, with designers!

At TED, we were the first group of designers to digitally print onto sustainable base cloths for the Ever & Again work in 2007, and Clara has continued to use these fabrics to experiment with.

All her processes and samples will be on show as a giant 'sampler', at Camberwell Space, Camberwell College of Art, from next Wednesday July 7th. Read more about the process on her blog Love & Thrift.

Inspiration for a textile print design can come from anywhere and Melanie Bowles' latest idea for her bespoke print design service came from the humblest of materials - cardboard. Working with the owners of new interiors boutique Circus, in Brixton Market, Mel was inspired to make a new print from the cardboard that has been used to construct the whole interior of the new boutique.

The fabric was then made up into a simple apron-style skirt and is being worn by the owners of the boutique.