08.04.22

I've been focusing on developing my patterned cloth. It started with the pattern not being printed on the weft so I couldn't tear the cloth neatly. To fix this I wanted to do something that finished the piece off in an interesting way but with some substance. My first thought was to over lock the edges to hint back at this idea of clothing. Appropriating a pattern from historic clothing and then taking in back to its origins. I didn't hate the results but I felt they took away from the pattern and had these unwanted notions of fabric samples. I then discovered the embellishing machine (felting machine) and experimented using it on the fabric to create this distress and natural looking decay. The idea of using modern making to create a 'past' object is a key feature for me in this project. I began the decaying by going round the edges, After this I reviewed the piece and it felt to artificial. I then looked at pre-12th century clothing fragments to take influence from the decay. I then started applying this research to the cloth and I liked the look so much more. While creating the more tattered piece, fragments started coming off and these fragments were far more interesting than the larger piece so I'm going to start to think of how I can progress this into a finished piece still using the British linen and faux silk. 

Also after having a tutor group meeting the original economy cotton I got printed up that I've been testing the decay on has some issues with the brilliant white taking away from the idea of decay as well as making it look far too modern. After these issues came up I decided I'm going to either cut out this fabric choice or after some experimentation add a colour using maybe perhaps dying, burying or staining.

Egyptian Cloth Fragment - 300-700 AD

Egyptian Cloth Fragment - 300-700 AD