Unit X - Research

In this unit, I got a chance to work in a group with students that came from different areas in textiles. As everyone in the group has different knowledge and style of working, it is very exciting for me to work as a team, as we could all experiment with each other's ideas and then come up with an interesting outcome. After, doing some mind maps and discussion about choosing the heritage craft or theme as a group, we all finally agree to choose heritage crafts of bricks and tile making, which inspires us to give a theme for our project called 'Masonry'. We all decided to do heritage craft because it helped each member of the group to choose their own themes.

lichen on bricks from Alexander park Oldham

I begin my research about nature taking over bricks, and how it can make a brick deteriorate. During my research I have found one thing which grabs my attention - I have found-out that lichen is one of those living organisms which grows on bricks and makes the bricks deteriorate. 

                                                                                                                                                          

The structure and cell theory of lichen cell fascinated me; therefore, I have decided to take inspiration from the medulla structure in lichen, which reminds me of making pop-up shapes for my samples. The pop-up shapes could describe the growth of lichen medulla. This reminds me of experimenting with 3-D shibori. 

Therefore, during the shibori workshops, I was delighted with the ties of fabrics before doing shibori. Which makes me think of doing 3D shibori. I have found a shibori artist called Michelle Griffiths, who has inspired me to create some popped-up shapes with fabric, but then it did not work well because the fabric was shrinking and making a stretchy look, which I did not want.

For the primary research of lichen, I went to the Alexander Park in Oldham, where I have collected three types of lichen as shown down below in the image. 

 Crustose, foliose and fruticose lichen from the old bricks and tree barks.

To develop this, I have used these three types of lichen and experimented the dye technique with lichen. I had some interesting results of lichen dye, but it did not work well with all my fabric samples. After dyeing the fabrics with lichen, I have found out that the lighter the fabric is the better the lichen reacts with it. 

In the end, I have found out that the silk creep-line fabric gets the most colour, then others in almost 30 minutes as shown down below. 

Lichen dye onto Silk creep-line 

In addition to this, I have also preserved some mix lichen with water and different fabrics (including silk creep-line) as shown down below. My aim to preserve this is because I wanted to experiment if I can dye the fabric with lichen without oxygen and heat. 

In addition, I have tried the Pfaff machine, which I feel, is an amazing machine to create some glamorous and clean-edged designs. However, now I am thinking to experiment with the Photoshop and Pfaff machine to create my designs/samples furthermore.