TED's D(urability)-Day

D-DAY! Friday 17th September 2010: After being inspired by the Martin Marjiela exhibition in the summer, TED staff decided to put their money where their mouths, or rather hands are, and get eco-creative in the print room at Chelsea. With reference to the beautiful white washed work on show at Somerset House, Kay Politowicz designed a day for TED's practice-based researchers to explore garment durability concepts using print techniques.

Garments: We were asked to dig around the bottom of our wardrobes over the summer, and come into college with clothes and accessories that we no longer wore. Some had stains on them, some were ripped and torn beyond repair, and some were 'freebies' deemed too ugly to wear. Others things that we brought in were too small, too big, too moth eaten, or simply too dull to be loved!

Techniques: We decided to keep it simple - white pigment and opaque binder, silver / gold / white / black foils, flocking paper - and use direct application techniques like hand painting, rollers, and open screens and stencils. The idea was to experiment to find simple, quick, but visually arresting ways to reinvent the clothes.

Outcomes: In the space of a few hours we came up with some really beautiful pieces. The things that caught my eye included the items pictured here...

Frances's unworn grey shirt printed with a stencil with opaque white
Kay's stained orange jumper rollered with glue and then foiled
Clara's plain white summer dress printed with an open screen and then foiled

Watch this space for the next installment - where we explore the ideas further by all remaking a set of identical items from a high street source - the next D-Day will take place in December 2010.

The New Silk Road Project that we have been involved in with the British Council is now in its second phase. Yemi Awosile, a Chelsea graduate is back from spending a month in Lahore, Pakistan working at the NCA textile college. We are now hosting Sabiha Rajar, who teaches textiles at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi.

Sabiha will be spending a month in the textiles department here, running workshops on natural dyeing and traditional Pakistani embroidery. She has brought in her suitcase dyestuffs including turmeric and pomegranate and we are looking forward to seeing what she produces. We will post some images of the workshops once they are underway.

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.

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

TED team member at London Design Festival

TED member Kate Goldsworthy was showing the most recent samples from her 'Materials Recreation' research project at 100% Materials at 100% Design last week. 100% Materials is a unique window into the world of materials for designers and architects that are looking to source the building blocks of the products and environments of the future.

Kate has been working on laser welding different recycled materials together and has created some inspiring new designs.

Kate also gave a presentation on Thursday 18th September on her latest upcycled material innovations at the Design Council's Greengaged event, along with other sustainable materialists. Greengaged was a series of events and spaces dedicated to sustainable design, organised in conjunction with [re] design and the Design Council.