thoughts...

As i've continued to work with the counter intuitive fabric I have come to realise that intuition alone is not enough for me to create something from it.
Having worked intuitively with it- through the many destroy processes, I wasn't able to get the fabric to a point where I could progress to creating a garment/outcome from it. At this point the way I was working had to change to generate and outcome. It still involves significantly altering the material but in a more careful and considered manner. The random elements I was working with are still there to a lesser degree, and they are no longer the starting point of the garment.
You can take a fabric you love and do most anything to it, and still keep that feeling. With materials that are uninspiring I have to work at it much harder to get to a point where i'm happy with it.
Essentially i'm restructuring the fabric- having cut sections away and joining them back together using gel medium. A kind of collaged fabric/garment. Using this new process/new material my feeling was to mould it to the body as the new material lends itself well to moulding, rather than draping as I had been working with.
I will post images soon- as my computer died i'm having some difficulties.

getting somewhere

paint sample #1-
as the fabric has dried parts of it has stuck to itself.

Painted fabric piece #2- still random 'drape' but I laid it over a watering can to alter the shape a bit. (which I dont see as a major 'design decision' as its a common object in a backyard, and the first thing i could grab, rather than something premeditated)

Gel medium sample drying on a crate

Gel medium applied to plastic bag (i'm hoping it will peel off) with sparkles from large sanding sample sprinkled on top.

Through my struggles with the snakeprint I feel that i'm finally getting somewhere.
The addition of liquids that dry to change the qualities of the fabric are the key to this.
By a happy accident one of my masking fluid samples dried partially scrunched, which basically is a kind of draping. As this is something that has been key to the aesthetic of my intuitive work I thought 'draping' in this different way would make sense.
The process has become simplified and more random now, as I allow the added liquid material to dicate the shape/drape depending on the surface it is place don to dry. The second painted piece of fabric was not engineered to be in the position it will dry in- that is how it lay when i had finished painting (except for the addition of the watering can).
Once the fabric is dry I will try aplying it to the body.
Another idea that I had was on sculpting the painted/gelled fabric on the stand when its still wet so it dries in a garment form.

+ paint

Finally got around to painting the fabric. Pretty sure the neighbours think i'm loopy.
Ran out of paint tho, so may have to go back in for round 2 as its still looking pretty blue and snakey. Perhaps I should buy a mega bottle of masking fluid and use that in combination? However I'm looking forward to the possible hardening of texture that I thought might be achieved.

+ masking fluid

sample #1 with masking fluid.
When dry, the textural qualities of the fabric are significantly changed- becoming firm and rubbery. Unfortunately I put this on a piece of paper while drying- which got stuck to the back of the fabric- so not really an acurate outcome of the effect.
#2 on the way.....

book thoughts...

I have been thinking about how I can make my book aesthetics relate more to my work.
With a focus on the handmade and imprecision I was thinking perhaps my text should be handwritten, and scanned in.
The paper should be matte and unbleached, or off white/cream- something less than perfect.
I have planned to hand stitch it myself and have found bookbinding supplies to do this with.
I have also thought about aplying effects to the images to make them look more aged- relating to the degraded/patina in my work.

transfer prototype #3

from the book shoot

trying and failing

Once the fabric was sanded I felt it still wasn't something I wanted to work with, so destroyed it further by twisting and slashing it.
Then i folded the fabric, and cut into it- hoping these larger cut lines might inform a way of putting a garment together.
At this point I put it on the stand, and atempted to create a garment with it, but everything in me was wanting to set it on fire and run away! FAIL.
So the next step i s to aplly other things that will almost completely change the apearance of the fabric, while also adding other qualities. I tried sewing the fabric to other like felt, but this wasnt very effective. My next thought is to use house paint, or lacquer.

large scale sanding

So I decided I should take the fabric destruction to a larger scale- in the hope that I could create a garment out of the destroyed fabric.

counter intuitive- sand

So I was thinking of what else I could use to destroy the fabric, or at least what might get rid of the sparkles. Sanding worked well, and has a pretty similar effect to shaving. This time I worked the piece of fabric down to a very fine films of its former self, which I found quite beautiful.
I'm not sure where to go with these from here. I could be interesting to make a garment from the fabric, and then destroy it, see how it changes the silhouette/shape. It wouldn't be too difficult/time consuming to sand a larger piece of fabric- I was thinking I could tape it to a table top and sand the larger area, but then what do I do with it?
My destroy explorations have mostly been focused on changing the apearance of the fabric, one of the main reasons for my dislike fo them. I feel that I now need to go beyond that, altering other undesireable qualities. I bought some felt and quilting wadding today that I plan to add to my counter intuitive fabrics to alter other qualities (such as drape and weight).

counter intuitive- shave

In class last week I was using scissors to cut off the sparkle pile of the fabric, a process which was pretty time consuming- and I thought shaving the fabric might work. It did, and is better in the that its harder to controll the outcome.

counter intuitive fabric no.2- complete destruction

communication proposal on the old blog...