art research - fabric shape and manipulations.

dagmar renee

berta fischer

I have been looking back at shape and dyeing of fabrics for more inspiration in my samples. The garment by Dagmar Renee uses dip dye in a fresh and modern way, using it to sculpt the body and blend the join between top and skirt. This is an idea that I could use in my samples, using dye to create a subtle link between knit and wovens.

With the Berta Fischer and Iris Van Herpen pieces, I am inspired by the shape and folds within the translucency of the pieces. I can use this idea possibly with the wovens as well as the knits. Monofilament and fine cotton will give the transparency within the knits and silk chiffon will work really well for the woven areas.

Iris Van Herpen

Fabrics.

I have decided to combine fabrics and my knits together. I want to manipulate my fabrics in some way before linking them to the knit. I feel this will give a individual quality and is something I've not really seen done before. A lot of my images and photographs have a inky quality to them and I fell using dye in my fabrics and knits will be important in passing this quality through.

In these piece I used silk chiffon, dipped in wax and then dye. I think that the shapes and subtle colours work really well. I feel that i still need to push the shape and colours more though and am going to look back at fashion designers for inspitation.

Colour

I have selected a few photos and made a colour board from these to knit from. I feel all the colours work well together and give a fresh modern feel. I won't use all the colours in each sample but will be selective, thinking about colour proportions within each carefully.

Fabric manipulation.

 From my recent sampling I've realise that I need to focus more on shape as well as colour.
To help with this I have modelled different fabrics on a mannequin to help give me some more ideas. This has worked really well as it shows a good contrast between contrasts in shapes of thicker fabrics and the more delicate silk chiffon.

Initial samples

Some of my initial samples where I have looked at creating the contrast in solidity and transparency. Using monofilament with inlay to create areas of transparency, this also gave structure. I also created monofilament pockets and filled with yarns which works well with my idea of capture. I need to focus now more on colours I am using and yarn qualities. I want to steer away from using monofilament too much as I feel I have done this a lot before and want to try something new and unique.