Category: My Work

What is wool felting?
Felting is a simple process of separating, tangling, and relocking animal fibers found in items such as yarn or wool while wool is a magical fiber that has tiny scales that help it to stick together.  The felting needles are a special kind of needle that has tiny barbs on the end.  The barbs are going in one direction and when the needle is stabbed into the wool the barbs pull the wool in, but not back out again.There are several methods to agitate and tangle animal fibers into felt such as wet felting, needle felting, nuna felting, and knit felting.

Wet felting
Wet felting can be broken down into three basic steps—getting the fibers wet, agitating the fibers, and shaping the completed project.

Needle felting
This is the method does not require wetting the fibers beforehand. Needle felting simply hooks onto fibers with specially placed barbs and forces them to tangled.

Nuno felting
Nuno felting is the art of wet felting over another type of fabric. This technique begins very much like wet felting, except with an extra layer of fabric between the fibers through and around which the fibers will felt.

Felting Application
Here only shows some example about felting:
Examples
In-class demo
Materials needed for felting:
1. Wool
2. Felting needles
3. Soap
4. Hot water
5. Sponge
How does a ball felting works?
1. Take a small wad of wool and wrap lengths of wool around it tightly till the size you want
2. Wet the ball with hot and soapy water
3. Roll the ball without squeezing
4. You can add the design for example to make strips into the ball
5. Roll the ball in your palms with presure
6. Wash the soap away in cool water and let it dry
For this piece, I just wanted to try out the different color of wool working together. At first, I choose and place the different color of wool. After that I wetted the wool with soapy water. I still can add more layers by using the felting needles so a I think that this technique is very cool and flexible as you can make anything you want.
Yeah! This is what I had done!

More wet felting playing with colors!

This are small examples show that how felting can use in interior design.

What is appliqué?
Appliqué is the process of stitching a small layer of fabric, usually in a unique shape, onto a larger base fabric. It’s a great way to personalize your project while also adding unique color, texture, pattern. Basically you just can do anything you want on the fabric, it does not have the limitation of the types of fabrics, color and types of threads or even the pattern of stitching.

Examples
In-class demo
Try out!

For this week, we are exploring different materials and create unconventional fabric. Here’s the examples of using water soluble fabric have been shown in class:

Research
Materials:
1. Decorative fiber, yarn or thread
2. Water soluble stabilizer
3. Sewing machine
4. Pins

How-to
1. Cut the water soluble fabric to your require size and place with the different type of threads
2. Arrange it according to personal preferences, can be regularly or messy with multiple layers
3. Secure the threads on fabric with pins
4. Set up sewing machine and choose the stitch pattern that you want (eg. zigzag)
5. Stitch the fabric with sewing machine
6. Wash in warm water (If you want to mould over a 3D object,  don’t take too long until the glue has been washed off. Leave it on the container and let it dry. Lastly, you can spray the arcylic spray to harden the shape. )

Process done in class:

Using colorful threads and make circular pattern.

Adding some special threads, elastic and yarn. Just exploring how the final piece will be if working with different type of threads.

Sew the blank water soluble fabric with normal thread without layering threads.

It is a nice texture when wool and yarn work together!

Wash off process!

Let it dry!
Final piece!

What is plastic fusing?
Plastic fusing is creating the new effect when layered plastic bags together and heated with an iron. It basically is a technique which turning our daily necessities into art. This is a distinct technique to learn as we can easily get the plastic bag and the process of fusing the plastic bag is so satisfying! When the plastic being fused, it become more durable material and waterproof. Besides, it also can be flexible and a cinch to make.

Material
1. Plastic sheets
2. An iron
3. Baking paper
4. Scissor

Examples of plastic fusing

Inspiration
Plastic fusing is quite flexible and shapeable to form anything you want. Here’s some inspirations for example, the plastic can be turn into fabric and make clothes and necklace. The idea of turning plastic bags into more substantial and durable handbags also inspired me. Lastly, using the transparency features of plastic to make lamp is also considered as a technique.
How-to
1. Gather the bags you want to fuse.
2. Layer the bags. In this stage, you can choose the way you prefer to. Whichever you can trim the handles,the bottom of the bag or cut it into small pieces. I prefer more natural way by tearing off the plastic bag to make it tattered and ragged. You can create your own pattern by overlapping the plastic. Usually I will do 2 and more layers.
3. Protect with baking paper.
4. Iron the bags. Adjust the heat gradually so that it won’t go too far.
5. Check with the outcome if you don’t satisfied with it. You still can add more parchments and increase the heat of the iron to fuse it more.
6. Lastly, you can make everything you want with the fusing plastic!

Okay, let’s start! I started with three different color of plastic bag. Besides plastic bags, I added plastic paper to create some details. It actually depends on personal preferences, someone will prefer a very neat and clean design. For me, I like to be more free and expressive.

After trying with basic method, to be more creative so I added in some threads.

The technique we learnt this week is transfer printing. This technique allows an image being transferred onto fabric, wood or other surface by heat and pressure.

It is quite easy to work on as it doesn’t need a complicated equipment and it can create complex or flexible images that you want. It is also a high quality printing! However, it has the limitation onto which types of fabrics to transfer.

Printing Demo in class

Dry transfer
Materials: Paper, fabric crayon, baking paper and polyester satin fabric
How does it work?
The process is so easy to learn! First, you just need to draw out the images you want. Transfer it on polyester satin fabric by putting a layer of baking paper and iron it uniformly!
Final outcome:
(TO BE UPDATED)

Wet transfer
Materials: Paper, special fabric paint, brush, baking paper and polyester satin fabric
How does it work?
This method is similar to dry transfer which you can produce a design on paper. The design will be transferred to the polyester satin fabric carefully regulated contact pressure. The dye transfers by diffusion through the aqueous medium. The fabric paint is hard to get as it is expensive

Final Outcome:
I found that the color will fade after I did a few times of transferring! But it is also the effect I wanted so that it wouldn’t look like too heavy because of the solid color.


Dry and wet technique combined
At first, I using wet transfer method to transfer the images repeatedly. The background has been generated quite creatively after that I added one layer on top with the image drawn by the fabric crayon. The method combines two technique together is able to create a narrative image and I really like it.

Final Outcome (Attempt 1)

Final Outcome (Attempt 2)
During the process, I accidentally placed the iron too long on the fabric but the effect came out did surprise me. As you can see for the bottom left part, the texture of the iron has been transferred on the surface also.

Digital print transfer
Materials: Printed design, transfer material(fabric, wood etc.), TTC 3.1, CPM 6.2
How does it work?

Reflection
To achieve this technique is actually quite easy and interesting. The outcomes always surprise me! I never expected that the printing will look good as it is hand-painted by us and there will be some flaws and imperfections. However, this is the good way to show our personal style and getting to know all ours characteristic in a short time. We can produce our unique product, for instance, the wallets, handbags and also pencil cases! I really enjoy having fun with this technique!

We had the chance to go for the field trip because of taking this module. It will be a good inspiration as we are able to see what is happening outside and not just stay in indoor.

The exhibition that we went is about the Modern Colony(1925-1935) in Singapore. The free admission is only valid for Singaporean and PR so I spent $10 instead to buy the ticket. It’s really worth it because I got my inspiration here. Through a series of cultural relics and characters, this exhibition presents the life of Singaporean in the historical periods. I found something interesting about the features of the cultural relics in different times are quite unique and we are still able to distinguish them although they are from different period.

I found the clothing of this period, especially women, normally they will have a loose and comfortable cut. Their costume will focus on a main color and the details will be reflected in cuffs and collar by decorating with lace and buttons. Perhaps, for them, the simplest is the representative of wealth. In addition, I also found that they will choose to use slippery clothes. From my inference, the slippery fabrics could give the impression of luxury and thereby showing their position in the society .

The design of the shoes at this period is also the part we must put attention at. You can see the details of the sewing are very fine. Therefore, these are not the shoes that a normal people can afford at that time because it took time and cost to complete. Inside the exhibition cabinet, I also found a pair of shoes with the smallest size. Through this, I know that they might have the foot-binding custom(a vile feudal practice which crippled women both physically and spiritually), as the smaller the foot, the woman will be more beautiful and attractive.

Last but not least, this is the stage attracted my eyes when I first entered the exhibition hall. It shows the people were attending a party. I can feel how luxurious it is through their set up and costumes. I appreciated to see this part of my field trip because I was inspired by this to have an idea on how to show my weekly process presently. I decided to explore different types of surface by making “mini” costumes. Besides, my theme will be childhood memory so my model will be the Barbie Doll instead. I might combine different techniques together to come out with the best outcome.