JUM NAKAO/A COSTURA DO INVISÍVEL
At last I have found the designer who made the paper gowns I saw an image of in about January 2010.....so that's about 10 months of searching! Amazing to me how the sense of drama is what I am aiming for in my garments ...... and even though I saw one thumbnail when I was surfing the collection as a whole is spookily reflective of my own style. No man is an Island ....
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
So Long.......but the Work Continued....
It has been a long time since I have been here but I have been working hard. Most of the reflective work I have been doing has been in my journal and of course I have had the kids at home!! Term has now restarted so time to get you up to date...if you care.
I have been making headway with toiles so that is fantastic, it means the fabric now has a form that can be worn. The process has been a little tortuous as I only had very small pieces to work from so in a way it has been design by photography. Luckily this works well on the stand as I can take my images home and stitch them together in my imagination and on the computer and make a whole garment out of snapshot.
From the images I generate a pattern based on repeats of the fabric and then make a garment out of felt in order to try it out. If this works I will then be able to make a toile in the yarn by programming the machine to produce lengths and attaching them together appropriately.
I have toiled two garments and am currently finishing a third and my first real fabric toile is knitted and waiting to be put together.
I have been making headway with toiles so that is fantastic, it means the fabric now has a form that can be worn. The process has been a little tortuous as I only had very small pieces to work from so in a way it has been design by photography. Luckily this works well on the stand as I can take my images home and stitch them together in my imagination and on the computer and make a whole garment out of snapshot.
From the images I generate a pattern based on repeats of the fabric and then make a garment out of felt in order to try it out. If this works I will then be able to make a toile in the yarn by programming the machine to produce lengths and attaching them together appropriately.
I have toiled two garments and am currently finishing a third and my first real fabric toile is knitted and waiting to be put together.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Kinks in the Process
The 3D fabric is so nearly right it hurts!! Another session on Friday should see it finished in it's current form. In the next month or so there is a new Shima with a wider bed arriving and I want to switch across to that next term. This is for two reasons, the new machine is a finer gauge and I'd like to see this knitted in silk and the wider bed means I will be able to be more adventurous with the final design as I will have so much more fabric to play with. That said I may use the narrow panels to construct a garment just to explore the complications in designing around the machines limitations.
I am making interesting headway with designs to accommodate the pleated linen fabric. It's hard not to revert to designing on paper so I am using photos printed in grayscale to work on top of. I have also bought some fabric that I am hoping will be perfect for one of the garments....now all I have to do is get the garment right.
New yarn cards should be arriving this week so lots to think about.
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Working with linen and Whole Garment.
The last couple of weeks have been spent working with two different aproaches.
I have spent a lot of time pleating and finishing a large piece of linen so I have a panel large enough to manipulate on the stand. Previous I had been working with smaller pieces but they didn't allow the flexibility to drape on a body. I have also spent a lot of time programming to try and form a 3D length of kitting.
The large piece of linen has yielded results that have pushed me forward on garment design. I photographed the mocked up garment shapes and then put the photos on a light-box and traced over them to help think about how I could form dresses, skirts etc that draw on the potential of the shapes. Again this was not a way of working I have ever indulged in before. The benefits in the process were that I wasn't designing front and back views and then putting in seams so I could make up a garment. This method allowed me to work on a side view, or the area around the waist or bust in isolation and then move forward into a garment that takes the form more fully into consideration.
As for the 3D length of knitting I am learning an awful lot about how the Shimas' brain interprets my commands. The design system itself is very good at telling you what it doesn't like however still allows me to ignore the issues it thinks are there if I believe I have already put something else into the programme to counteract potential problems. It is like learning any language in as much as although there may be a real word or phrase for what you want to say sometimes you need to invent your own slag to really hit the nail on the head. This week I hope to actually solve the outstanding problems so I can start sampling in a variety of yarns to try and identify the perfect one for the fabric.
I have spent a lot of time pleating and finishing a large piece of linen so I have a panel large enough to manipulate on the stand. Previous I had been working with smaller pieces but they didn't allow the flexibility to drape on a body. I have also spent a lot of time programming to try and form a 3D length of kitting.
The large piece of linen has yielded results that have pushed me forward on garment design. I photographed the mocked up garment shapes and then put the photos on a light-box and traced over them to help think about how I could form dresses, skirts etc that draw on the potential of the shapes. Again this was not a way of working I have ever indulged in before. The benefits in the process were that I wasn't designing front and back views and then putting in seams so I could make up a garment. This method allowed me to work on a side view, or the area around the waist or bust in isolation and then move forward into a garment that takes the form more fully into consideration.
As for the 3D length of knitting I am learning an awful lot about how the Shimas' brain interprets my commands. The design system itself is very good at telling you what it doesn't like however still allows me to ignore the issues it thinks are there if I believe I have already put something else into the programme to counteract potential problems. It is like learning any language in as much as although there may be a real word or phrase for what you want to say sometimes you need to invent your own slag to really hit the nail on the head. This week I hope to actually solve the outstanding problems so I can start sampling in a variety of yarns to try and identify the perfect one for the fabric.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
OH Late Again....
Last tutorial went well ....... we have the MO! I am finally off and running.
The pleats constructed by painstaking and laborious hand crochet through linen (yes this really is what my life has come to...) are ringing the right bells. There is also a lot to go at with knitting into leather......and into mesh.
Each fabric has it's own personality, the linen is feminine, leather edgy and the mesh sporty so there are three potential directions to follow......
Added to this I have the pure knit route on power and that makes 4! I am starting to think in term of 4 garments or outfits each separate but following the same line of enquiry. This could be possible if time allows.
As for now I am starting on the linen, large piece of fabric pleated and then shaped around the body from there I will do some flatwork based on the photos......
Monday, 17 May 2010
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Process and Practice.....
OK this is going to be pretentious!! I want to try and examine the relationship between the process and the practice that is shaping my project going forward.
I am at a tipping point. The first year is coming to an end and the work I am producing is testing the bounds of what I understand to be knitwear. In so far as I understood it the definition was pretty straightforward knitwear being wear that was knitted!! No surprises there then....But it is changing.
You don't describe garments constructed of woven textiles but assembled by sewing as Sew Wear so it it valid to describe garments constructed of woven textiles but constructed by Knitting as being different? I am thinking about this as I seem in some ways to be approaching my Chimera method but I am not sure it is easy to give it a label....which is understandable...
These garments will be part woven and part knit but the method of construction will rely on knitting....not sewing. I am thinking of this method along the lines of tailoring. Tailored garments have their own identity, they are not cut and sew they are Tailored.....because their construction draws from a specific area of expertise. So I am thinking about what my garments are....and I don't have a name. But they are knitwear in as far as the knit component is more than just a way of construction. It is inherent in the life of the process, the way they will be conceived and the form they will take.
For now although unsatisfactory it will have to do by way of explanation. I am trusting that as I continue everything will balance a little more and the what and the why will even out....
Clear as MUD!!
I am at a tipping point. The first year is coming to an end and the work I am producing is testing the bounds of what I understand to be knitwear. In so far as I understood it the definition was pretty straightforward knitwear being wear that was knitted!! No surprises there then....But it is changing.
You don't describe garments constructed of woven textiles but assembled by sewing as Sew Wear so it it valid to describe garments constructed of woven textiles but constructed by Knitting as being different? I am thinking about this as I seem in some ways to be approaching my Chimera method but I am not sure it is easy to give it a label....which is understandable...
These garments will be part woven and part knit but the method of construction will rely on knitting....not sewing. I am thinking of this method along the lines of tailoring. Tailored garments have their own identity, they are not cut and sew they are Tailored.....because their construction draws from a specific area of expertise. So I am thinking about what my garments are....and I don't have a name. But they are knitwear in as far as the knit component is more than just a way of construction. It is inherent in the life of the process, the way they will be conceived and the form they will take.
For now although unsatisfactory it will have to do by way of explanation. I am trusting that as I continue everything will balance a little more and the what and the why will even out....
Clear as MUD!!
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