New Digital Technologies for Textiles

TED recently attended a workshop at the Creative Industries Centre at Metropolitan Works in East London, to learn about the latest digital manufacturing technologies that are taking the design world by storm.

The largest laser-cutter in London is here as well as a water-jet cutter (image above) which can cut through steel, metals, glass ceramic. Most exciting was the 3D printing, or 'rapid prototyping' as it is called in the trade. You can 'print' or build objects using a nylon powder which solidifies, and this is mainly used to build prototypes and models. Acting like a 'bureau', all of these machines are available for designers and artists to try at a reasonable rate and you also get advice and help from very the knowledgable technicians.

My mind was racing as I tried to imagine all the possibilities for using this technology for textiles. Philip Delamore is one designer who has been experimenting with rapid prototyping, and he is currently working on a project called Evolving Textiles, exploring apporaches to creating body conforming textiles which combine 3D scanning, design and direct 3D manufacturing using laser sintering. The image shown above is a chain-mail textile which has been built using the rapid protoyping technology.

TED members at the Cutting Edge

TED members Rebecca Earley and Kate Goldsworthy have been included in a new book called Textile Designers at the Cutting Edge by Bradley Quinn which also includes many of TED's favourite designers!

The book examines the changing face of textile design and explores how recent developments within the field of textiles have presented new technical possibilities, with applications in fashion, architecture and interior design, making textile design a uniquely multi-disciplinary field of innovation and research.

Slow Textiles classes

Dr Emma Neuberg, a member of TED, is hosting a series of Slow Textile classes which will showcase her well-known theoretical approach to textile practice by offering participants both a 'how-to' and a theoretical framework to producing beautiful textiles.

The first class is called 'Extended Life Textile Techniques', and focuses on Chinese silk painting and embroidery. Emma will lead you through the the basics of Chinese floral symbols and teach you how to paint on paper and silk, finishing with some embroidery techniques.

Also planned is a Slow Textile Sewing Group, which will meet up regularly to sew and socialise.

I recently attended one of Emma's lectures to Stage 1 students here at Chelsea called Flora & Flight: the semiotiocs of naturalism in textile print and it was a fascinating analysis of the use of floral motifs in textiles and fashion, and the symbolism around abundance, fertility and nature which came out of our pre-industrial lifestyles.

Emma has her own practice involving the reappropriation of plastics into beautiful surfaces and textiles, but she also brings this rich and varied knowledge about design history, psychoanalysis and materials (among other things!). It is such an interesting mix and these textile classes are not something to be missed.

For more information on the classes and to book go to: http://www.slowtextiles.blogspot.com

New PhD student starts

The new Textiles Futures Research Group (TFRG) PhD student Jennifer Ballie has started her research and is based at the TED Project. Jennifer will be exploring the potential for a participatory design model which would allow consumers to upcycle fashion in their own homes thereby adding meaning and value to their wardrobes.

Jennifer will be looking at the ideas around co-design and experience design for inspiration and will also be running workshops with students from the University to explore the ways in which fashion consumers relate to their garments to help inform her research.

'Cultural Collage' project begins

The TED Project is part of an international collaborative design project called Cultural Collage. The project is led by TED's Visiting Professor Marie O'Mahony, and it will involve designers and design students from the University of Technology (UTS) in Sydney, Australia, Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile and TED designers and students.

Working around the central themes of recycling, mutli-disciplinary practice and cultural collaboration, the designers will be asked to choose a second-hand plastic object and this will then be sent to the group of designers in the next country to be worked on or transformed, while always maintaining its functionality. The reworked object will then be sent to the next group of designers to be worked on for a final time.

Participants will also be asked to keep a 'passport' of their ideas, a sketchbook which records their drawings and thoughts which will be sent on with the accompanying object.

TED recently hosted an introductory workshop with presentations from Marie OMahony, Kate Goldsworthy, Emma Neuberg and Prof. Kay Politowicz. Other participants include textile designer Katherine Wardropper and Nigel Bents, a graphic designer and tutor at Chelsea. We will post regular updates once the participants choose their objects and start working on them.

The final pieces will be exhibited as part of PassionTour, a design festival in Santiago in September 2009.

TED consults on Estethica guidelines

The TED Project has been asked to consult on the 2009 questionnaire which has been developed for Estethica, the ethical fashion initiative at London Fashion Week.

Fashion labels who wish to be part of Estethica are asked to fill in a questionnaire which details their sustainable practices and helps the organisers to choose companies who are in line with Estethica's core ethical principles.

Filippo Ricci and Orsola de Castro (of fashion label From Somewhere) the founders of Estethica, have chosen the TED Project, to be part of an 'expert panel' who offer advice and expertise to the initiative. Other organisations involved include the Fair Labor Association, Ethical Fashion Forum and the Environmental Justice Foundation.

'Second Life' textiles

TED team member Caryn Simonson was recently part of a panel discussion at the ICA in London as part of the Textile Futures Research Group (TFRG) Salon series.

'What Future for Living Textiles within the Built Environment' was exploring how textile designers inhabit other design fields and cohabit with the world of science, particularly with the recent developments in nano and bio technology. The question being asked was how much is the textile design discipline changing and are we as designers and consumers ready for the next material revolution?

After hearing from architects Mark Gaulthorpe and Mette Ramsgard, Caryn Simonson presented the recent TFRG project in which work from the Group is being shown within the virtual space of Second Life. The Group have bought their own island on Second Life and have designed and built an exhibition space to show the work.

Top image: Mel Bowles

Bottom image: Kay Politowicz