Month: April 2017

Things you need:
1. Fabric (silk/cellulose)
2. Fibre Remover Solution
3. Silkscreen
4. Squeegee
I tried to wash the cloth in hot water but the cloth tore when i scrapped it??

How to do it:
1. Put your silkscreen over the fabric (if there is no exposed image on the screen, you can use transparency as a blocking method)
2. Spread the fibre remover solution and screen it through. (If you are not using a screen, you can skip this step)

3. Let the fibre remover solution to dry completely before ironing it over baking paper.
4. Scrap off the dried fibre solution using a cardstock (or anything you want)

Reflection:
This technique is very fun but it requires a lot of planning a skill to make the two-tone kind of etching also straight lines seems very difficult. But I would try this again out of school time and I really like it in the embroidery hoop because you can see the light.

Potential Ideas:

 

Things you need:
1. Laser cutter machine
2. Acrylic or Wood
3. AI file

Reflections:
Initially I thought that laser cutting would be very easy but the minute you didn’t prepare your file correct you would not be able to complete your work. Also once it is cut it cannot be salvage. I know that because I wasted a lot of wood 🙁

Final Sample:

 

Potential ideas for Smocking and Shirring

Reflection:
This technique is something I really did not enjoy to be honest because the technique is limited to the patterns if you did not understand the mechanics behind it and it takes very long to perfect the skill and make it look factory made. So I only did one sample which I ended up using to make the pouch.

FINAL SAMPLE:

For the shirring method, it was a bit difficult for me to make it into a pouch so I use an embroidery hoop to present the sample piece instead. I found this quite interesting because the fabric is being stretched a little so you can see the folds of the fabric.

Things you need:
1. Cotton Cloth
2. Rubber Bands
3. Bleach
4. Spray Bottle (Optional)

How to do it:
1. Tie the type of design you want. (From what I saw on the tutorial online, most of them gives a circular shape so it is important to experiment!)
2. Spray bleach.
3. Wait for the bleaching to happen
4. Wash your cloth thoroughly.

Internet Inspiration:

Reflections:
I found that you can even paint the bleach on?? Which is something most people will not think of, also a good spray bottle will give a very even effect. I feel that bleaching do not really appeal to me because the subtractive element of the technique makes it hard to control sometimes. Also the aesthetic of bleaching did not appeal to my theme on corals.

 

Final Sample:

The Touch & Print field trip was very informative because the person shared about the various ways we could use the special printing methods. He was very friendly and even showed us MakersSG and told us about the different thing we can make.

He explained to us the difference between the various heat press printing techniques.

Personally I think heat press printing is a very limited surface design tool? It is very cool but because it is 2-dimensional I don’t think it will portray the aesthetics of corals very well.

Things you need:
1. 100% Polyester fabric
2. Things that can shape your fabric: it should be something that will not be affected by heat (marbles, aluminium foil)
3. Lots of elastic bands

 

What I did in class:
I did two others also! But I lost the samples and I did not take a photo 🙁 My mistake.

How to do it:
1. Shape the fabric with the items you want to mould the fabric with, aluminium foil or pebbles (take note: you need to tie the elastics tightly)

 

 

2. Wrap everything in aluminium foil and boil it for 30 mins.

3. Wait for it to cool before removing the shapely things. (basically the mould)

Final Sample:

For this particular technique because of how scrunched up it is I think keeping it in its natural form will be beautiful although I can think of a practical design purpose.

For finals I have decided to do the theme of corals. I was very inspired by the vibrant colors and the organic shape of the corals. I gathered a few images of different corals to be used later on in my final project.

IDEA:
I am going to make 1 or 2 (final) bags using a circular shape or cylindrical shape. I found that these two shapes were very common in the form of the corals.

 

In terms of DESIGN,

I was very inspired by YAYOI KUSAMA’s work. She uses a lot of circle motifs and vibrant colors that resembles the beautiful coral reefs.

Things you need:

1. Fabric
2. Silkscreen ink
3. Silkscreen Equipment (best if it is transparent)
4. Thermochromic Powder

• Silkscreen
• Silkscreen Ink (transparent ink preferred)
• Thermochromatic Pigment

How to do it:

1. Stir the thermochromic powder into the silkscreen ink at about 2 to 1 ratio. (make sure to wear mask like Mel)
   
2. Spread the mixture above the screen. ( remember to put tissue inbetween your fabric if your fabric is thin or have two layers: like a bag)
3. Screen it a few times making sure to cover the surface
4. Let the ink dry naturally.
5. Have fun seeing the colour change using a hair dryer and aircon wind.

 

FINAL SAMPLE:

I wanted to make pouches for as many of the samples I needed to submit so I used this Youtube tutorial to teach m how to make the triangle pouch.

 

REFLECTIONS:

One thing I learnt was that I should have ironed a fusing interlace to the polyester satin because the pouch I made is a little more floppy as compared to the video. The silkscreening process was easy because I took the NIE silkscreen module this semester so I did not face any technical difficulties there.

There are many many things you need for resin. Some of it are:

1. Resin
2. Mold
3. Releasing agent
4. Weighing scale
5. Gloves and mask
6. Resin Hardener

How to do Resin:
1. Clean the mould and wipe any dust.
2. Spray releasing agent into the mould.

3. Weigh the amount of resin required.

4. Add the resin hardener which is 3% of the resin’s total weight. Mix well. (Sometimes I add ink/paint into the mixture now to change the colours of the mixture)

Ink: clear colours
Paint : opaque colours

5. Pour the resin mixture into the mould and wait for it to dry.

I sprinkle a lot of glitter and googly eyes and many other fun stuff into this one because I really enjoy the encapsulation of child like objects.

Over here, I tried to dip my feathery thread into resin and sprinkled some glitter flakes over it. I wanted it to look like corals under the ocean.

I sneak a picture of Galina’s secret recipe Hehehe.

Photos of things you need:

Some examples of previous works.

I really really liked this one, however personally I prefer organic shapes because of my theme also. I try to keep my works more organic.

I wanted to play with texture and colours because I wanted to begin my exploration for my final project on corals, so I played with colours and dipping things in resin instead of just making a mould out of vacuum forming.

Reflection: Resin is not something you can rush even though you need to work quickly. Unless you like spontaneous results, you need to plan what kind of things you want to encapsulate. At one point of time I came to class without a mould, that was when I decided to try dipping into resin. It was a chance I took and it worked! I ended up going back another day and tried to make more resin stuffs.

FINAL SAMPLE:

I made a resin necklace because I cannot make a resin pouch HAHA. It would not work.

And for latex I made tiny muffin figurines.