jo angell blog

Journeys of our worn clothes

2012-01-24T09:44:00.000Z

'The Bargehouse' is an incredible building close to Blackfriars Bridge on the South side of the River Thames. A four story warehouse building, it is now a gallery and event space.

With it's crumbling and atmospheric interior, it was a perfect space for an excellent exhibition at the weekend (20 -22 January 2012) 'Everything Must Go', which followed the journey of worn clothing as it is sold for reuse and recycling across the world.

The exhibition marked the culmination of a research project by five universities: the Waste of the World

Sadly, this elaborate display was only on for the weekend. I would like to have returned for a second visit and to recommend it to people.

As a textile designer, I like to think I know something about the fibre content of our clothes. As the high street brands continue to mix fibres, what struck me most is how complicated the recycling of them becomes. What happens next to the remade downgraded textile?
Of course, the horrendous conditions most people in this trade work was shocking.

Two excellent short films were very powerful:
'Unravel' made by Meghna Gupta was a documentary in the textile recycling factory in Northern India talking to the women who work there.

In a room which highlighted the shipping involved in the moving of all our discarded goods, a 5 minute film sped up the dismantling of a huge ship filmed over a two year period - incredible.

Diary of a Market Stall holder

2011-12-19T10:15:00.002Z

Last weekend I abandoned my family and spent two days selling my textile wares on market stalls in two different locations in London. I design textiles, have them printed digitally in Scotland, then make them up into eyepillows and mini lavender cushions.

Saturday was at Spitalfields Old Market in the East of London. My second time in Spitalfields as I had taken a stall in November when the organisers of a dedicated space to designers - 'Designers Makers', launched their first day of a regular market to be held every third Saturday of the month.

A sunny and icy day. My lovely supportive husband, Tom, once again drove me and my suitcases through the streets of London, offloaded me, then disappeared before the wardens moved in. Not before having a surprise meet with another Jo two stalls down from me, who Tom knows through work. After working a full week, she was there to sell her hand sewn ipod covers.

Setting up the stall - lesson one - have a plan of how it should be arranged otherwise you end up like me - faffing for ages. I had learnt a few things from the previous month - vary the heights, have signs bigger. My friend Rif who is great on arranging things and colour co-ordination, had also tutuored me in advance and I kept thinking 'how would Rif do this?'

When the market came alive, a woman came up and said 'Oh great you're here, I came last month and really like what you do' and bought more. This re-inforced what people have said - come rain or shine, turn up and make yourself known to your customers. Inside I wanted to hug this woman!

I hadn't told many friends or relatives what I was doing this time. I didn't want them to feel pressure to come and buy from me. So, it was funny when my brother and sister in law wandered in to Spitalfields by chance mid morning. There's no doubt, the support of friends and family make the whole experience a less lonely one, not to mention relieving you for loo and food breaks!
At lunchtime my fantastic friend and supporter, Ali, came to help me. She's a great salesperson and gets everyone laughing.
My other brother, Jim, another force of positive energy also urned up after a morning of tai chi. There's always been moments in my life where I've observed him 'performing' and women 'giggling' and Saturday was no different. Standing at the front of the stall, stroking and sniffing my velvet lavender cushions in an appreciative fashion, two young women thought this was hilarious....for a while....then suddenly ran off!
All in all a good day with a buzzy friendly atmosphere and I sold enough to make it all worthwhile.

Everything stayed in the car, ready for day two - the outdoor gig. Every Sunday in Alexandra Palace Park, N8, a farmers market sets up shop. There are also spaces for local craftspeople. Tom once again came into his own, venturing out into frosty streets to put up my gazebo, dump my stuff, before heading off with the car.
All I had to do was arrange my table when I got there. It was a beautiful morning. Everything was a bit more space out compared to the cosyness of Spitalfields, but I had friendly neighbours - a father and son selling homemade spicy relishes to my left and to my right a man and his grow your own mushroom logs! Superb salesmanship spewed forth from this likeable bloke as he shifted countless kits to passers-by. Like a previous man I had met at a local school fair who recommended the farmers market to me, this guy was full of useful and worldly advice to a starter like me. He reckoned Covent Garden Market would be good for me!

People seemed to like my stall and said nice things about the work. I was bolder and made sure they knew I had designed all the fabrics myself. Though the day was shorter, I sold about the same amount as Saturday which was interesting. One woman rushed by and said "Great! just what I've been looking for. I have a lot of acupuncture which is often in a bright space so I like to have something over my eyes to block the light.' She wasn't too bothered about the colour or design, more the functionality.

The future?
Selling on the weekend before Christmas has got to be different. People were out shopping for presents and buying more because of the time of year, so only time will tell if my sales shrink to nothing if I return in January? But in an uncharacteristically positive frame of mind I've started to think, there might be tourists around then, so I should start to think about lightweight? British-edge? products. Maybe even a funky union jack - help!
People also asked if the eyepillows could be microwaved for neck pain. I'll plan to look into that.

The weekend was definately a learning curve and I think it helped me to have a more focused idea of what I should be doing, and a brewing addiction to market-ing!

ps. I've also opened an online selling etsy account with my remaining stock so we'll see how things progress on that front....

Learn Digital Print!

2011-12-06T09:10:00.001Z

Saturday Courses in Digital Print

I am running a series of one day Digital Print courses at the Mary Ward Centre (near Holborn)

The course combines creativity with the technical side of manipulating images on the computer, creating patterns with the designs, learning how to print the results out onto fabric so students can go home with a finished product.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

All courses run on Saturdays from 10.30 - 5.30pm

Cost £62, concs £33 - materials supplied.

Please note you will need some basic knowledge of Photoshop for all courses.

Limited spaces available!

In 2012

Make a Valentine's Gift

Saturday 11th February

Course Code 1316CS

Book now

Design a Mug

Saturday 10th March

Course Code 1317CS

Book now

Create a Bag in a Day

Saturday 12th May

Course Code 1318CS

Book now

Design a T-shirt

Saturday 16th June

Course Code 1319CS

Book now

The Mary Ward Centre, 42 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AQ
Web: www.marywardcentre.ac.uk e-mail: mwenquiries@marywardcentre.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7269 6000 Fax: +44 (0)20 7269 6001 Minicom: +44 (0)20 7269 6010

Fancy a nap?

2011-11-14T11:00:00.001Z

I have created super-soft velvet eye-cushions printed with a selection of her original designs in rich colours. The linseed filled pillows gently help your eyes to close and cut out the light. And relax....

I have been selected to sell my designs at a new area in Spitalfields Market, E1 near Liverpool Street (details below).

Saturdays 19 November and 17 December, 11-5pm.
Pop by and say hello!
More designs can be see here

I make my super-soft cotton velvet Eye Pillows using a UK-based printing process which is environmentally kind. Thecolours are rich and luxurious. They feature a collection of new patterns I have recently designed.

Filled with linseed, which give the bags a flexibilitywhen gently resting on your eyes, light is cut out andthe weight gently encourages your eyes to close and rest. I first used one at the end of ayoga class and found the experience fantastic.

With a matching lavender mini-pillows, a herb renowned to aid sleep, what more do you need for a regenerating nap?

Saturday Courses in Digital Textiles

2011-09-30T09:01:00.001+01:00

I am running a series of one day Digital Textile courses at the Mary Ward Centre (near Holborn)

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

All courses run on Saturdays from 10.30 - 5.30pm

Cost £62, concs £33 - materials supplied.

Please note you will need some basic knowledge of Photoshop for all courses.

Limited spaces available!

In 2011

Make a Purse or Wallet

Saturday 15th October

Course Code 1314CS

Book now

Design a Cushion

Saturday 26th November

Course Code 1315CS

Book now

In 2012

Make a Valentine's Gift

Saturday 11th February

Course Code 1316CS

Book now

Design a Mug

Saturday 10th March

Course Code 1317CS

Book now

Create a Bag in a Day

Saturday 12th May

Course Code 1318CS

Book now

Design a T-shirt

Saturday 16th June

Course Code 1319CS

Book now

--
J o A n g e l l Design
www.joangell.com

+44 (0)20 8341 5382
+44 (0)7769 943295

Doodle on

2011-09-28T09:23:00.003+01:00

Quick daily doodles. Yesterday I found myself in A&E having my son's arm checked out after a skateboarding fall. Sketches inspired by the puff on a man's puffer jacket who walked by and by the dial of a clock on the wall of the xray waiting area. Interesting that my brain naturally converted these shapes into leaves.
Today, I gained inspiration from a lovely little plant I bought as a grass (Allium Thunberfii Ozawa), which recently produced tiny beautiful bell like purple flowers. Instead of drawing from the plant in an anotomical way, I looked hard at it, then came to my desk to draw patterns from the elements which had inspired me and had remained in my memory. It all ended up looking like 1950s visions of scientific discovery!

Daily doodle

2011-09-26T13:04:00.001+01:00

So it's raining, I'm knackered and I have a list of things to catch up with after a very busy couple of weeks. Opened the first page of my new little orange covered notebook and have decided to do a daily doodle. It's got to be a doodle which comes from a freeflowing part of the brain and pen or pencil. OK - back to the list...

Craft Central Sale 19 Sept

2011-09-20T11:29:00.000+01:00

Lovely response from the visitors to Craft Central 1 day designer sale yesterday.

Think my window display drew a few interested punters in and I sent them away with velvet sleep-encouraging eyebags and lavender filled mini-cushions in brightly coloured designs.

Iconic Commonwealth Institute

2011-09-12T12:23:00.002+01:00

What does a building mean to a child?

The last time I entered this incredible building, I was a child, goggling exhibits of countries of the Commonwealth. I have very happy memories of going there and of the feel of the building.

I remember room set ups of African villages. My brothers remember Canada's display featured fake snow and a sledge, and lots of maps!

'Regarded by English Heritage as the second most important modern building in London, after the Festival Hall, its striking hyperbolic paraboloid copper roof reflects the architects' desire to create a 'tent in the park', it will be open as part of Open House next weekend before closing for rennovation to begin.

As a designer, I am very happy to report that it's new use will be the enlarged home of the Design Museum in 2014.

I have volunteered to help with tours of the building next weekend and took these photos at our training session, and as an adult, loved being in there again.

They're expecting it to be a very popular so if you want to see it, be prepared to queue.

Nakshi Pati textile at British Museum

2011-09-09T12:15:00.001+01:00

Just installed a piece of work (with the lovely Jen) in the fantastic main court of the British Museum. Myself and 2 other tutors worked with students to create the 'textile' through a collaboration of The Mary Ward Centre, the British Museum and 6 local community groups.
200 palm leaf plates, all hand sewn together, each contain the students' work in felt metal and fabric - all celebrating the natural world of Bangladesh.

It will be there (along with lovely decorated rickshaws & boats) until 17 Sept - big 40 year Bangladesh Independence celebration event there on that day with dancers, food etc.

Tube Textiles

2011-09-09T10:48:00.002+01:00

I got strange and amused looks last time I did it - photographing tube seats.

I presume this new looking upholstery is in honour of the olympics. I reckon commuters are allowed to sit on it up until the actual olympics, when we are being told to 'avoid' the tube -

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23900660-commuters-told-to-avoid-tube-during-olympics.do

I can't help but feel quite positive though, that investment has been made in new design and quality woven textiles in an age when I imagine the pressure is on to make hard plastics wipe-clean seats.

Butterfly Count

2011-07-28T09:48:00.002+01:00

I planted Buddeia in my garden last year to encourage butterflies, so was interested to take part in the Big Butterfly Count. They give you an identifying poster to download. A great excuse to sit and do nothing, over 15 minutes, I spotted two small whites.

Meanwhile, I designed this fabric - my first sample ordered from the great US digital textile print company Spoonflower.

Her Royal Henna

2011-04-09T11:27:00.003+01:00

I've always collected these plastic henna stencils. There's something wonderfully neat about the intricate patterns contained within the simple graphic hand shape.

I recently visited Morocco with my daughter, and she became similarly obsessed to have a 'tattoo' painted in Marrakesh. Delighted she was with the result!

In Morocco, I read that painting you hands is said to help you find a husband quickly. In India and Pakistan, elaborate decorations are applied during weddings and festivals. I've been working on my own textile designs around this theme, and thought it would be quite amusing to subtly hint at the upcoming Royal wedding with the addition of a sapphire engagement ring. A collection of these designs is currently on their way to Milan with the mighty men of designersblock to be part of the goodie filled Puff and Flock Shop. Available to buy in Milan or through the online shop soon.

Cushions, eye and lavender mini cushions before being packed up..

On a less subtle note, though highly amusing, I received an update from the fantastic local Jealous Gallery with their royal offering:

Throne Up Sick Bag! Screenprinted by artist Lydia Leith and available exclusively from Jealous in Red and Blue or Gold and Purple for only Ł10.00 per pair

Marrakesh Airport - Tradition Meets Contemporary Perfectly

2011-03-04T08:39:00.000Z

I've just been lucky enough to spend a week in Morocco, swamped in pattern and colour. As I left the country, a further treat was in store - Marrakesh Airport's extended contemporary wing. Designed by French practice CR Architects, it was finished in March 2009. There's a wonderfully calm feel to the space, I think created by the diffused patterned light. The contemporary take on traditional patterns can be viewed from afar or close up. Altogether wonderful.

The roof is covered with 72 photovoltaic pyramids - a great example of aesthetics meeting functionality beautifully.

RGB Wall Murals

2011-02-03T09:00:00.000Z

I like this wallcovering piece of art called RGB by Carnovsky (Francesco Rugi + Silvia Quintanilla), on until 11 Feb 2011 at the johanssen-gallery.com
It just bothers me that it's called RGB. I suspect they chose it because it's become an international language people using computers understand in relation to colour. I'd call it CMY - cyan, magenta and yellow. Looks great though and a good example what you can do digitally.

I think I'm having an Art Deco moment

2010-12-27T22:57:00.013Z

I discovered 'the most notable and innovative designer of plastic jewellery of the 20th century" - Lea Stein, by chance in wonderful little shop in Brighton full of bacolite and art deco goodies. The owner had two of her fox designs - this and a pink one.

I was intrigued to read that Stein began her career working in textiles and wondered if the patterned textures were the draw for me (although I love the curved 3D sculptural elements too).

I was surprised to learn the broach wasn't actually art deco as Lea worked with her husband in the 60s to develop the process of layering very thin sheets of cellulose acetate and laminating them to form a sandwich. Such a lovely story of material innovation, collaboration and creativity!

Soon after, I spotted this unique lampshade at an antique market. The stallholder told me "this should NOT have survived!" It's a paper lampshade from the 1930s. I reckon it was white and the paper is now faded to a sort of ochre. What's so special is the yellow print and the wonderful textured black FLOCKING!

1 Week Only!

2010-12-13T09:09:00.000Z

The Puff&Flock Shop pops up today on Newburgh Street (just off Carnaby Street and around the corner from Liberty's of London) with a fun and festive selection of goodies by Puff&Flock designers and friends.

Location:

8 Newburgh Street, London W1f 7RQ

Opening Hours:

Monday, 13th December: 12 - 7 pm

Tuesday, 14th December: 12 - 9 pm *special evening event 6 - 9pm*

Wednesday, 15th December: 12 - 7pm

Thursday, 16th December: 12 - 8pm

Friday, 17th December: 12 - 7pm

Saturday, 18th December: 11 - 7pm

Sunday, 19th December: 12 - 6pm

List of Designers & Artists:

Bang Bang / Exclusive collection of retourve jewelleryMonstify / Anatomical crochet badges and more
Ayda Anlagan / Every Drop Counts ceramic bowlsYuko Taguchi / Paper rings
Masako Sato / Mushroom hooks
Jo Angell / Printed cushions
smths / animated jewellery and vintage toys
Elisabeth Buecher / Make Up Wallpaper and greeting cards
Delight Rubellery / Colourful rubber jewellery by Ros WeaverSuper Chic Chick/ Hair decorations by Marilou Rabourdin
Think-if / Elegant tea set and Zen Cup
Lucy Hall / Art works and textile design
Alexandra Cakyova / Cittatas - bird brooches
Fantastica / Laid-back intimates and vests

http://www.carnaby.co.uk/news/news_item.cfm?id=213

Keeping it Local - Crouch End

2010-11-28T10:15:00.004Z

In my local hood next Friday 3rd for a festive night out. I'll be having a table selling cushions, textiles and other small printed products......

BARBOOT AND LATE NIGHT

at The Work Shop (Sally Bourne),
Middle Lane, Crouch End, N8
Friday 3rd December 7.30 - 10pm

It's Barboot time again. Don't forget to join us at The Workshop and The Haberdashery on Friday 3rd December at 7pm, for another Barboot, the first few events have been fantastic and with an amazing turnout. Come and see if anything takes your fancy, who knows, you might find some unique and usual Christmas gifts. As part of the Crouch End Project's, Late Night Opening event, The Work Shop will be open late until 10pm on Friday 3rd December. There will be many other shops around Crouch End opening later than usual, so wrap up warm and come and have a browse!

'THAT!' Festival Crouch End

2010-10-23T18:15:00.002+01:00

I wandered to a local outdoor mini-festival which celebrated music, art and dance today. It made use of an underused space infront of Crouch End's historic 1920s townhall.
Besides somehow finding myself salsa dancing in the street, I met lots of local friends... and some lovely women with local creative businesses:

Maria and Sophie created Sweetling because they couldn't find any stylish, natural fabric bras for their own daughters, they wanted to offer an alternative to the synthetic moulded, underwired bras that are being pushed towards young girls. The bras are very pretty and sweet and proudly made in the UK.

Nathalie from natthakur makes quirky leather gifts - again proudly handmade in the UK.

This stripey grocery bag is a classic

Read about future plans for Hornsey Townhall: www.hornsey-town-hall.org.uk

Building texture

2010-10-12T10:26:00.000+01:00

Cycling through Islington recently I spotted a building which looked texturally interesting. Yesterday I took a closer look. This is the facade of a modern apartment block called The Wallpaper Apartments, Arundel Square. I've tried to find out more info on the web without much success. They look like glazed ceramic tiles...a really interesting glazed effect. Great.

Tube upholstery

2010-10-12T10:12:00.000+01:00

Think my fellow travellers on the Victoria line thought I was mad when I took this photo of the seat beside me! Great to see a newly upholstered tube with fresh primary colours.

Holland Paper Biennal

2010-10-09T17:59:00.006+01:00

I saw some exquisite pieces of work at the Stitching and Knitting Show at Alexandra Palace on the Holland Paper Biennal stand.

Lovely layered paper handmade screens 'Leaves, from the In the Forest series' by Chiaki Morita

Great bright colours in this knited tent by Lisa Dougan from Buckinghampshire New University

Issey Miyake 132 5

2010-09-30T19:41:00.002+01:00

'Most of us feel some kind of uncertainty, with the population increasing and resources decreasing. We have to face these issues.' The unique and innovative Issey Miyake has emerged after a 13 year period (when many people thought he had retired) with a new line of clothes and lampshades made out of recycled materials. He has been working with a team of designers and engineers under the name Reality Lab, with the aim of creating clothes and materials that won't deplete our reserves of fossil fuels.

The fabric comes from a company called Teijin which recycles plastic bottles and polyester offcuts. Miyake's team have worked with the resulting textile to soften, pleat and embellish it in experimental ways.

Of course companies such at Patagonia have been promoting the benefits of recycling plastic bottles into fleece already. Over 13 years they claim to have 'saved some 86 million soda bottles from the trash heap'. My local secondary school recently changed to wearing unforms with recycled blazers, so the process is obviously becoming more common.

What will be interesting with Miyake's creations by the descriptions will be the feel of the textile combined with the engineered origami structures.

Some of the results will be on display at Miyake's museum - 2121 designsight.

Dixon at The Dock

2010-09-24T08:15:00.000+01:00

A very wet Thursday morning, and so no sunning myself on the outdoor patio overlooking the canal at The Dock , Ladbroke Grove - home to Tom Dixon's new shop and its associated 'creative hub'.

Beautiful wall tiles which line the entrance, formed from lava from Mount Etna (by made a mano), set the theme; materials, and the emotions they provoke. Reflective, matt, rough, smooth, subtly-coloured, discreetly-patterned. Expertly selected, a sensual experience.

Simon Hasan, who describes his ethos as 'collectiveness and craft in industrial design', is in residence in one of the adjoining workshops for the duration of the London Design Festival, showing people how he creates his leather vases. The wetting of the leather allows him to manipulate and mould them into beautiful sculptural forms. When complete, they are eerily akin to lumps of meat, displayed in a retro vending machine.

In an adjoining classical building is a room full of lamps made from a variety of materials, mydeco have devised a simple and highly effective display which makes us question the value of a product and guess its retail source, simply by looking at it. The lure of winning one of the lamps by voting for my favourite tickled my fancy. Plucked from its retail context, would you be able to tell a which is the £15 lamp from BHS?

Finally, a product which meets an unglamorous, yet vital need. 'Mind Dice' is a 12-sided dice which is aimed at helping people with dementia to communicate with their carers. Currently at prototype stage, it's designed & developed by John Sprange, who came up with the idea while caring for his father, an Alzheimer's sufferer, through the last 6 years of his life. John is one of seven designers whose products feature in Metropolitan Works' canal side tent, winners of a competition which saw 50 designers develop product ideas.

As I was about to leave to space, I was drawn in by an intriguing installation.

I met two lovely girls Sarah and Annette who devised the idea for 'Supermarket Sarah', a funky new e-commerce format suited to designers and collectors of cult bits and pieces.

A designer hangs their work on a wall, then photographs it. The real wall then becomes an interactive wall, where users can scroll over the item they like... then click to buy. Simple. Cute. Effective.

Jo Thompson sent me a lovely text

2010-05-23T12:27:00.002+01:00

'Jo the canopy is amazing. Extraordinarily it somehow creates light in the eve: 8pm last night that corner was light'. She also sent these gorgeous pics where you can see her wonderful planting.

Chelsea Flower Show Canopy - Get in!

2010-05-23T11:35:00.012+01:00

At long last, we transported the canopy I've been working on to the Chelsea site on Friday.
Scorching day and an insane atmosphere - we were following a giant bowl made of pebbles about 7ft wide on the back of a truck on the way in! Plants, plants everywhere. Everyone in a festive mood, working towards their dream space.....and there are some insanely ambitious dream spaces such as a full scale lock complete with water....

The build on the garden for the Thrive garden had taken all week and Jo Thompson, who is the garden designer for Thrive was busy arranging the wonderful plants.
My lovely brother, Jim, helped me with the hanging which took most of the day to get right.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show canopy

2010-04-27T15:04:00.019+01:00

I am working with award winning garden designer Jo Thompson, to create a canopy for the Thrive charity garden at the Chelsea Flower show this year.

My collection of canopies was originally my final MA project at Central St Martins where I was studying Textile Futures.
The canopy will be bespoke for the space.

I thought I'd use this blog space to describe the process of how it's going until the installation day (and beyond!). The show opens on 25 May. Tickets are selling fast I'm told!

When Jo (Thompson) and I first met, we got on straight away, so it was easy to chat and look through my samples and discuss a direction for the canopy. The structure of the garden had already been finalised and when I first saw the plans, the seating area provided a perfect space that would be enhanced with a shaded sanctuary. My canopies aim to give you partial protection from harmful sun rays whilst also offering a place of emotional sanctuary and hopefully something beautiful to look up at.

Jo Thompson and I agreed that it should float poetically, providing a contrast to the straight structural lines. I use new technologies like laser cutting to produce the rather sculptural 'petal’ forms for the canopies. Ultimately I would like people to have a subliminal link to nature when finding themselves under the structure. My original inspiration for my canopies came from looking at nature at near atomic scale in the form of 'diatoms' - single celled organisms from which all life began. Easy to see why they've been nick-named 'jewels of the sea'!

(thanks to the Science Photo Library for providing endless sources of inspiration for me)

We decided I should produce an initial choice of two design ideas and present these in a model form.

Laser cut (thanks to the guys at Cutlasercut) in card and coloured tracing paper, the effect replicates what I'm aiming to achieve, but at a tiny scale.
Inside, we looked at the model under electric light. Outside, I photographed the models hung from a makeshift washing line to photograph in natural light.

Having shown the designs to Jo, we have decided on one design.
I have had some sample pieces laser cut in a medium and thin weight of birch plywood.
I've decided the thin is structurally too floppy and you don't gain much in flexibility terms.
I find it really interesting to observe how materials behave. There's no short cut. You just have to experiment.
I photographed the sample 'petals' in the garden. Been so lucky with sunny weather! (*see below for contingent operation)

The canopies are constructed to allow some light to pass through decorative laser cut areas. When the sun is strong, the effect is strong. As the weather in this country renowned for 'changeability', I am planning to introduce further decoration on the canopy's secondary layer incase of very murky days. I have found a fantastic company in Coventry who can digitally print onto polyproplene. The soft patterns are an echo of the laser cut shapes. It's experiemental so I'm looking forward to observing the results in different lights when I have them back.

Garden Studio complete!

2010-04-27T14:55:00.003+01:00

My dream of having a studio close to home (i.e.in the garden has been realised)!
The company who installed it were excellent -
www.vividgreen.co.uk
Neil who runs the company super patient and efficient.
Incredibly, the build took about 2 weeks! It's incredibly highly insulated which means it's cosy, although we designed it with lots of internal windows and large opening doors for air flow. It's got underfloor heating which will come into it's own in winter.

I've been too busy to get it fully organised but have started to spend peaceful times building sets and piecing together the canopy I am making for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Bittern Wallpaper spotted in Hotel

2010-01-24T21:49:00.002Z

A friend spotted one of my wallpaper designs at a hotel called Bovey Castle in Dartmoor. She grabbed a photo on her i-phone. Lovely to see it in a 'real' setting!

2010-01-19T19:26:00.001Z

tree bark - inspiration

2009-12-20T22:55:00.001Z

Eco Home Debate at Geffrey Museum

2009-12-11T20:45:00.000Z

To coincide with the Eco Home exhibition at the Geffrey Museum, a debate was held there which I attended.
Talkers were: Sian Allen, product sourcing at John Lewis. They employed Future Lab to advise them.
Although JL are obviously trying to address sustainability issues, there was quite a lot of criticism from the audience that they still wern't addressing how to illustrate to people why one product is a better choice sustainably than another. E.g. energy ratings on electrical good confusing.

Oliver Heath who said we had to rethink the very nature of what is contemporary design. New designers launching a new product with all the aplomb but which had no sustainable credentials or thought just isn't acceptable.

David Kennington from the Energy Saving Trust who give practical advice on energy saving. Very impressive organisation.
In London more than 1/3 of carbon emissions come from homes. The housing stock is old and solid walled. Only 30% of London homes have lofts - Loft insulation is the best thing you can do. External cladding is really good but aesthetically most people don't want it.

Tom Savagar - Future Lab - did the report 'The Rise of the Conscious Home' for John Lewis. He talked about different trends: Austerity - make do and mend; Technology based re-active dwellings with smart metering.

Russell Smith, impressive person from Parity Projects - an organisation who aim to reduce the environmental impact of existing buildings.
He said 500,000 buildings a year would have to be renovated in order to meet the government's 2050 target.

Megaman lightbulbs were highlighted as the best energy saving lightbulbs
Also Ryness as good for latest LED

Designing Out Landfill

2009-06-16T11:33:00.005+01:00

Event at the Institute of Materials 15.06
- to stimulate the exchange of ideas in addressing the issue of reducing the volume of textile waste that goes to landfill.

I stayed for the morning - an inspiring and informative range of presentations, if a bit heavy on stats!

Sophie Thomas
is co-founder of greengaged
'greengaged aims to galvanise designers to take up the sustainable challenge'
Thinking behind their projects aim to divert waste from landfill, to think of waste as a resource, to create new materials & processes surrounding waste.
They are running a series of events at the London Design Festival this year.
She said the problem with the design industry is that it is wrapped up in defining yourself with style and products.

Some of her stats (her powerpoint didn't credit her sources...tuttut):
UK households produce over 25 million tonnes of waste every year.
UK currently has 106 sq miles of landfill.

One pair of shoes takes 8,000 litres of water to make
1 computer requires 1.83 tons of raw materials to make.

She referred to a book 'Citizens Advice Notes', given out to people in Britain in 1938 in which people were instructed not to throw anything away....not even a tiny length of string. How things have changed in such a short timespan!

Kresse Wesling, founder of
http://www.eako.co.uk
E&KO reclaims industrial waste and re-engineers it into unique lifestyle accessories
This woman is inspirational!
She talked about two case studies of products they have created -
bags from used fire hose pipes
bags for Sainsburys from coffee sacks used to deliver the raw coffee

They donate 50percent of profits back to the source of the material (i.e.to the fireman's charity)

This is a sustainable business model with a highly enterprising woman at the helm.
She has spent a good deal of time hanging out at landfills observing patterns of what comes in.

Nick Morley
Oakdene Hollins delivers technical and economic insights for clients concerned with, amongst other things, managing waste and remanufacturing.

1 gallon of oil to make 1 kilo of polyester
Generally the grade of textiles is going down.
In the past 10 years, much more of our waste is being diverted from landfill (i.e. to be recycled). However, we are throwing more away in so the proportion diverted is growing. Less textiles are being diverted.
Research was done on textile content in bins. The poorest areas throw away the most textiles.
The trend in recycling collection boxes is on 'comingled collection' (where everything is put in the recycling box and sorted later).
Cominglers hate textiles because it gets contaminated and therefore becomes less usable.
However, ease of disposal is really important to people.

He listed some 'diversion' schemes currently out there:
M&S Voucher scheme with Oxfam
Mountain Equipment Co-Op (Canada) - they enable people to sell their used Mountain Equipment stuff through their website.

The DEFRA report on recyled textiles will be avail in a month.

Casper Gray
Director Wax
Sustainable design and research

He suggested reasons why textiles reach their 'end of life'
Fashion, boredom/change, bad fit, wear, damage, loss
and implied that designers could have a stronger role in improving these aspects.

Besides this, other landfill causes are
fabric manufacture, off cut and errors when cutting fabric, fabric samples.

- It takes ten times more energy to recycle textiles as glass.

Natural Materials day 2

2008-03-07T22:32:00.004Z

A second all day event at Institute of Materials

I feel I've come away head bulging but with a better overview of bio-materials and bio-fuels, although it was really too much to absorb in a day!
My overview was that it's amazing what all these people are researching and juggling with. As ever with all discussion surrounding sustainability issues, nothing is black and white and the press doesn't help much.
One also comes away wondering if we start growing crops for biofuels and bio derived plastics, what room for food growing will be left?
It was also interesting that some of the speakers had come from the oil industry originally.
I didn't feel I'd found materials specific to my project, but it has urged me to follow up and see if I can find some sailcloth to re-use and divert from landfill.

1. Natural Materials in Construction Overview
Peter Walker
BRE Centre for Innovation Construction Materials, Univ Bath
Lots of research into things like straw bale insulation, non fired clay bricks, hemp waste mixed with lime based binder...
As we seek to make our buildings more air tight and energy efficient, natural materials provide a healthier breathable environment.
CSH - Code for sustainable homes

2. Building a Natural material house
Lucien Steil, The Princes Foundation
Passionate Brazilian architect. Presentation was all about sense of community linked to architecture. Damming of utopian visions of future homes full of technology or claiming to be totally green as he said they always appeared standing alone in a wilderness. Successful cities good models for sustainable communal living.

3. Biofuels for Today and Tomorrow
Dr Geraint Evans
Technical Transfer Manager NNFCC (National non food crops centre)

4. The Production of Biodiesel in the UK
Colin Bower
Phoenix Fuels
Found this interesting. He is a farmer who combined resources with 7 other farmers and decided to diversify which farmers are needing to do. They grow vegetables, rapeseed from which they make biodiesel. A very local set-up. They also make solid fuel blocks which they sell locally.

5. The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation
Howard Emmens, Biofuels Strategic Policy Branch, dept of transport
This had to be the most boring talk I have ever listened to...can't remember much of it!

6. Dr Richard Murphy
Life Cycle assesment of natural materials
Dept of biological sciences, Imperial college
Very interesting bloke. Particularly on studies they have been doing on biodegradability and how these are altered when biomaterials are blended with other materials - fillers, additives, fibres, coatings. Adding non natural additives compromises the benefits of the natural materials. Better to improve the functionality of the natural material.
He said we're in a transition period in the UK with regard to our waste and diverting away from landfill.

7. Fishing Rods from Carrot fibre
Dr David Hepworth, director CelluCompLtd
Described the process of processing carrot fibre to make an end product of a fishing rod which has similar strength and flexibility properties to carbon fibre. Pretty amazing.

8. Natural Materials from UK Cereals and Oilseeds
Professer Graham Jellis, director of research and developement, HGCA

9. Bio Derived Plastics
Dr John Williams, Technology Transfer manager, NNFCC
This guy was fantastic!
He started his talk with "when people hear the words bio, renewable, sustainable and know what we do, they say congrats guys, you've got the job of solving the problem....well it's not quite as simple as that"
He described how many of the big companies such as dupont as investing in biopolymers - quite obviously for economic reasons. Oil is getting more and more expensive.
35% of the worlds plastics is used in packaging. It is the driving force for innovation into bioplastics, other industries will follow.
It has moved on from two years ago. Now, compostibility is not always the ultimate aim. It's more about having a standard approach for the end stage, i.e. it could be more viable for waste to become a source of energy. You've got to be clear about how quickly you want the stuff to biodegrade. too quickly and you can rapidly release greenhouse gases.
Sorona Polymer - Dupont and Tate and Lyle collab - pure glycol from corn starch fermentation.
Compostibility standard - EN13432

10, Natural Textiles
Dennis Waldron, De Montfort University
Talked to him at lunch, nice guy. His talk about re emergence of natural fibres. They have been particularly researching Nettles.

11. Natural materials for healthcare applicaations
Brian J. McCarthy
Dir. Technitex
Interesting look at medical textiles. Interested particularly in algenate and silver coatings.

Materials and Design Exchange

2008-03-06T18:33:00.006Z

'Materials from Nature'
was the theme of a day event at MADE
Talks from:

Ian Spencer
A furniture maker on 'Sustainable Furniture'
Highlighted key areas of concern with making things from wood:
Foremost, that from raw tree to a piece of furniture about 50% of the material is lost in the process.
1. Decimation of forests
We should only buy wood from acredited schemes FSC (forest stewardship council), backed by Greenpeace who say this is the only one to use; PEFC, also respected, covering 35 different schemes.
Timber sales in the UK - only 5-10% currently certified which shocked me.
2. Waste wood
You can shred - mainly for garden mulch, bedding, bio fuel, golf courses are base - mainly softwoods
Still lots sent to landfill
3. Energy use
He recommended buyinig locally - ie. Europe, although mentioned that in countries where forests properly managed and income ensured, there is an incentive not to chop down and make the land into something else.
I was please he mentioned Birch Ply as one of best choices for trees grown with minimum waste.
4. Landfill and disposal
His main message was re-use and design with parts you have left and think about design for longevity, not fashion. And just consume lesssss

Project tips!
Buy birch ply at 'James Latham' in Thurrock 01708 869800 To weatherproof, he suggested coat of danish oil which penetrates the ply, then polyurethane oil varnish on top

Brett Suddell
'Growing Fibres'
www.adas.co.uk
This was inspiring.
He was making a case for the use of Bast Fibres ( their role in nature is to stabilise) - Flax, hemp, kanaf for many uses in industry. Health: there are no skin or breathing problems associated with them.
There's a plastic soup twice the size of the US floating in our occeans.
There are 1250 species of bamboo.
With hemp you can grow 200 plants for ever m2.
Many examples throughout industries, but the car industry is under particular pressure to find more sustainable materials which can biodegrade at end of use. 20% of vehicle waste remains in landfill at end of use.
I've yet to research many of the examples he gave:
- Toyota organic car, using kanaf
- Oliver Heath, bio resin bathroom
- 'Eco One' racing car
- MF1 bike - using flax and carbon fibres
- Bamboo bike MTB frame
- Cellucomp - carrot fibres
- Henry Ford was a pioneer - designed a soya bean car
- 'Flaxcat' - flax fibre plus bio resin
- Bamboo boat hull
- Dobulous Plumigon - disaster relief
- Biodegradable nokia phone cover with sunflower seed
- www.bio-plus.dk
- Bagasse - waste from sugar cane used for food trays
- Bamboo road bridge in China - cheaper alternative to steel and cheaper and local
- Jordans cereal packaging - 2 layers: outer natureflex cellulose derived

Alan Smith
Natures' Nanomaterials
Very funny presentation...obviously his party piece to pour a bottle of coke down his 'self cleaning' shirt.
Strong elements of biomimicry and examples of how far nanotechnologies are everywhere in our lives and products from anti grafiti paint to cosmetics. He brushed over a bit the negative press (I have heard mention of fears that nano particles could act on our lungs like asbestos...we just don't know yet).
Most interesting to my project was discussion of mimicking the colour effects you get on butterfly wings - nothing to do with pigments, more to do with how light falls on nano particular areas (I think!)

Dr Dan Ridley-Ellis
Centre for timber engineering, Napier University
Amazing talk about wood - like a biology and chemistry lesson
He went through the differences between soft and hard woods and talked about what woods are grown in the UK.
UK grown softwoods are: Spruce, Pine, Douglas fir, larch, western red cedar, yew. Hardwoods: ash, beech, oak, sycamore, sweet chestnut, cherry, lime, elm
excellent video "the chemistry of wood" they made:

Linsey Stewart lecture theatre at the University - I thought this looked rather cool

This was mentioned so thought I'd search out an image - The Sheffield wintergardens, with I think a plywood roof.

Rhian Solomon - artist
'Skins'
Interesting presentation - (reminded me of Philips Design stuff) of her work.
Ongoing creation of art examining skin - how women view their bodies, animal skin which she lasered, embossed, embroydered, and looking at post surgical clothing and textiles particularly women who had had plastic surgery.
She was winner at a residency at London Printworks in Brixton.

Also met Frances Geesin, Senior Research Fellow at London College of Fashion
v. nice

Solar Sanctuary

2008-01-10T14:38:00.000Z

Presented first finished 'work in progress', followed by a crit this week and got lots of feedback.

Main comment was -
Make it big
Make it real (i.e find a real setting for scale and user testing)

Think more architecturally - perhaps collaborate.

People saw it in a variety of situations from interior applications - weddings, temporary event awning in entrance.
exterior applications - parks, gardens (private and public), urban areas needing organic shapes.

Work so far in prototype form using impractical materials.

Spoke to garden designer friend, Sue Townsend
for ideas and she suggested metals - steel for a rustic look, or other metals which could be spray painted or shined up for a contemporary look.
She suggested, it could also be used at night with addition of lights.

Want to investigate removable and changeable inner layer

Chocolate Factory open studios

2007-11-16T23:23:00.000Z

Went to open evening and met an artist Heather Barnett, who has designed an exhibition at the Oxford Museum of History and Science called Small Worlds: the art of the invisible.
She has collaborated with a poet Will Holloway.
She had designed 'Cellular Wallpaper', designs derived from human cellular microscopy, which she said she is going to produce for Selfridges.

Very cool work overall.

Only other interesting artists studio was Gary Sycamore. His studio was like a dusty old workshop full of intriguing bits and pieces mainly from natural sources. He had an amazing glass box containing a whole cluster of dandelion seed heads, lit from below...they looked amazing, suspended in air.

Textile Futures Salon 2 at ICA

2007-10-12T10:40:00.000+01:00

Textile Futures Salon 2 at ICA

Textile Futures Research Group
Attended two session at the ICA yesterday with an inspiring group of speakers:
Mo Tomaney (TFRG) and Elaine Jones (Ethical and Fair Trade Consultant, UK), Rebecca Earley (TFRG) and Natalie Chanin (Alabama Chanin, USA), Carole Collet (TFRG) and Maja Kuzmanovic (founder of FOAM, Belgium) and Sandy Black (TFRG) with Christoph Bergmann (Clariant, Switzerland), Clare Brass (Design Council, UK), Tamsin Blanchard (Telegraph Magazine), Lynda Grose (California College of Art, USA), Rebecca Earley (TFRG), Kate Goldsworthy (TFRG) and Kindley Walsh Lawlor (Gap, Inc.)

These are a few notes, themes, things which moved me:

Designers of the future have to be activators / facilitators and re-invent how to be creative (not necessarily producing 'stuff')
Look at design as 'cultivation'...take the world into your own hands and don't wait passively.

Maja (very inspiring) talked how to design for the future meant:
Learn to communicate and connect with the society you are serving
Learn to cross over with other disciplines, i.e. scientists, engineers. The book Cradle to Cradle has been so successful because the two authors from different backgrounds.

- re-designing the way we live our lives in 'more turbulent conditions'
- designers have to have a close relationship with their users
- invite participation with users
- be a bridge, facilitator, artisans, educator

- Beauty -
Buckminster Fuller -
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem, but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong"

Currently, designers design for 10% of the world's population.
Exhibition at Cooper Hewitt Museum NY 'Design For the other 90%'

You can cause change in a number of ways:
- by example outside the system
- if you're in the belly of the beast (i.e.in big corporation), it takes longer but change can occur on a big scale
- go into a company which has shown some investment already in change, and build on it.

'We're just borrowing materials for the lifetime of the product'
'Organic is a tool for chemical reduction, not the solution'
'Honest communication, not marketing'
'Restrictions force innovation'

Much talk about the secrecy levels of the chemical/dye/process industries and needs for more transparency.

Materials Library - Kings College

2007-10-12T09:44:00.000+01:00

Zoe Laughlin came to CSM to give us a talk about the
Materials Library at Kings College, London

Zoe is a fine artist, researcher and PHD student. At the materials library, they spend time " trying to observe, control and manipulate structure". They are involved in matter. The properties of things at a macro scale effect the final solid outcome of what you see/feel etc.

She brought in materials for us to squish, feel, hold...(cornflour mixed with water takes on a state between solid and flowing depending on whether it is moving or not), (rapid prototype glue with vat of nylon chainmail) and a handheld microscope linked to a laptop - we could examine our skin, clothing fibres...

They do installations at galleries to get people hands on with materials, coming up, FLESH at Wellcome collection:

Graham & Brown wallpaper designs

2007-09-20T21:48:00.000+01:00

Wallpaper designs for which I won first prize in a competition organized by Graham & Brown, were launched at 100 percent design today. The stand looked great and the transition from original silkscreened designs to commercially printed versions had been really sympathetically handled - using water based inks.

Visit to Philips in Eindhoven

2007-06-22T22:29:00.000+01:00

The three winning students in the 'Sustainable Habitat' competition, set by Philips Design, were invited to Eindhoven to show their work. Aurelie Mosse, who won first prize with her Constellation Wallpaper, Jennifer Leary with her textiles responding to the earth's magnetic fields, and myself with felt textiles with petals which would open in response to heat, visited for a very interesting few days.

Future Habitat sponsored by Philips Design

2007-06-07T13:00:00.000+01:00

Breathable Felt

what does it do?
Taking a pine cone as a starting point for inspiration, and biomimicry as the research method for its development. The textile will open and close in response to heat.

material
Wool felt. Naturally insulating, renewable and biodegradable.

cooling system
When the interior becomes too hot, the petals open up to vent the rising hot air.

reflects away heat
The interior of the petals are foiled, and will reflect away the sun’s heat when unfurled, thus cooling the interior.

technology
Using either shape memory alloys or polymers which would alter the shape of the petals causing them to open when a temperature change occurs.

Milan Furniture Fair 2007

2007-04-20T11:04:00.000+01:00

I visited for one day and saw as much as I could -
Met up with Suzanne and we decided there was very little pattern and print to be seen so we went searching...

From a textile point of view, I like this Finnish company, Woodnotes who do things with spun paper yarns.

Ingo Maurer's stand in lighting was a happening place
This - 'Rose on the wall' is a whole wall of 900 custom made circuit boards which have led lights in them which change colour.

Then there were these whirlpool water glass lights by Sebastian Hepting. There's a mirror at the top so you can look down on the whirl.

In Salone Satellite where young and new designers are, I found more interesting smaller scale stuff.

A Swedish designer, Katrin Greiling had made some 'carpet in felt with leather buttons' - I didn't get a photo.
Looking at her website, looks like we have interests in common - birds, pinecones....

A Japanese designer Takehiro Ando, http://andoo.jp
also does things with laser cut felt. Modular linked shapes create wall hangings and lampshades.
They were striking, but it made me realise I want my work to be more crafty and less machine made.

There was something really elegant about these lights - hettlertullmann.com

A stand from the Utrecht School of Product Design had some excellently crafted and conceptually strong stuff, obviously a really good course. Nienke Hansen talked to us. She had made a stunning hand made blanket titled 'Hide and Seek'. It had taken her 400 hours to make!

Some pattern!! A wallpaper designer from Denmark, Lene Tonikjeld: www.walldecoration.dk/
Interesting the way one wallpaper can link to another design seemlessly and alter the feel around a room. An old fashioned crafted feel to the whole thing....rather lovely and restful after all the over the top italian lighting!

These funky toys from Boaz Cohen & Sayaka Yamamoto ; www.bcxsy.com
were printed with white puff on natural cotton. Magnets inside the bodies and body parts allowed you to remove, replace and play with them. Very simple and sweet.

Have seen these lace concrete tiles over the years. 'Small Factories' umbrella name. http://www.jethromacey.com/ designed them. He said a stand costs 2,800 euros for 16sqm and they got funding from the dti.

I didn't see this stand, but they have some textural rugs: www.nanimarquina.com

and finally...Material connexion had a space with some tactile materials -

Flexible wire cloth

flamed stainless steel threads
http://www.ttmrossi.it/industria/?lang=eng

Patterned leather hides

Flooring made from recycled bike inner tubes, woven into wool backing.

recycled plastic bags

Fish Skin leather. Salmon, perch and wolfish from fisheries in Iceland that are regulated.

Cutecircuit

2007-01-28T23:32:00.000Z

Ryan Genz and Francesca Rosella came to talk to us from Cutecircuit
well known for their Hug Shirt

They do Interaction Design (not Interactive)
- how we interact with each other through technologies.

Wearable technology with a bias towards personal, emotional and social communication.

This is an interesting article where some of their ideas might fit in
http://www.icon-magazine.co.uk/issues/043/poets.htm

Philipa Wagner - Smart textiles

2007-01-28T23:18:00.000Z

Philipa who worked at Philips 9 years ago when they started a lot of research into wearable electronics.
came to talk to us about her experience.
Originally from a weave background, she introduced Philips to the notion of textiles. The idea of the warp and weft helped the techies to understand as the process is similar in computer technology.

She talked about some of the projects she had been involved with:

ICDt
1st commercially available garment - with Levis. Jacket incorporated a hands free mobile.

The Galvactivator
collaboration with Orange, Philips and Media Lab.
Finger gloves which sense your levels of excitement. A game with 2 players. The more excited you get (skin response) the more you lose the game. Designed as a de-stresser.
Hard and soft were brought together with a soft sensor.

My Heart
Medical textiles based on wearable technology. How to get people out of the hospital environment. Garments diagnose your state. i.e. If someone had had a history of a cardiac arrest, garment would send signal if that person had an attack which would send a message to a mobile, ambulance. The garment would also have been able to record data in the lead up to the attack.

Philips visit and set our 'Habitat' brief

2007-01-28T23:02:00.000Z

Clive Van Heerden, the senior design director from Philips (and Jack who works with him) came to talk to us on Friday morning. They will be working with us on a future scenario for 'The Habitat'. Clive described seeing a TV documentary about the history of Venice in the 15th century and thought how similar the scenario then is to how we are living now. It struck him how complacent human beings are to history and the lessons we should learn from it. He talked of Global pandemics, Global warming, sea levels rising.....all very grim.

He talked of how we can use traditional and new technology to solve these problems.
1/3 of the worlds population live in China and India. He showed us an image of high rise appartments and suggested designing for this sort of scenario - a 40sq metre home.

The only thing we can rely on is the sun and water - and this will become a comodity wars will be fought over.

Systems which will rejuvinate and replenish.
Solutions to address waste at a local level.
Lifecycle analasis / how to capture energy.

They want wacky ideas - totally 'off the grid', scenarios for 15 years and beyond.

All a bit scary at the moment but I guess ideas will start to emerge.

Pattern Formation in Nature

2007-01-28T22:55:00.000Z

Went to a lecture with Suzanne and Elizabeth at Westminster University by Philip Ball who's just published a book 'The Self-made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature'

Thermochromatic Inks

2007-01-28T22:37:00.000Z

The week began by thinking about pattern in nature. We very quickly got some designs together and onto screens to try some thermochromatic printing.
Principle is you screen print with variotherm inks, which went heated to 25degrees, change or disappear.
You mix these inks with regular or pearl binder. You can also add pigment dyes so that when you heat the image, what remains is the colour of the pigment dye....It MUST be lighter than the variotherm ink or it will dominate.
(we used variotherm inks from 'Quality Colours' 0207394 8775 who sell a limited range - magenta, orange, green, blue, black).

I really didn't like my design as it was too chunky and bold. I think the more successful thermochromatic images are delicate and subtle, possibly using fine lines.

Lectures - Biomimetics / Engineering complex behaviour

2007-01-17T22:26:00.000Z

Complex and interesting lectures today:

Sean Hanna: research engineer at University College London and currently teaches on the Bartlett Graduate School’s MSc in Adaptive Architecture and Computation, leading the Generative Space Form and Behaviour module focusing on algorithmic design. His research is mainly in developing computational methods for dealing with complex systems in architecture, and in structural optimisation and rapid prototyping technology.

His lecture, in so far as I understood some of it (!) described how computive systems can help build complex structures... and make them stronger too.

He had an amazing example of a huge metal structure of a man he is constructing with the sculpture Antony Gormley
and how computation could help to define the 3dimentional form of the figure.

Richard Bonser
from the centre of Biomimetics at Reading University
understanding the mechanical design of organisms

Why copy nature?
Nature uses low energy to solve problems, engineering uses high energy.
Biology is devoid of metals (and therefore heavyness) but still comes up with clever solutions.
Now more than ever we need low energy and light solutions to combat issues of sustainability.

examples he gave:
Abalone (which has a ceramic like property) uses sea water and algae. Ceramics in engineering process requires heating to vast temperatures and chemicals.

Velcro

Architects have long taken ideas from nature -
Crytal palace - water lily leaves
Stutgard airport - tree like metal support structure

MOD - textile which responds to humidity and warmth at night and cold in the day. Inspiration from pine cone which expands and contracts (even though it's dead). Each scale on the cone is comprised of 2 composites of wood which swell and contract at different rates. The textile was made with a double layer (each layer responding differently to heat) with little opening holes cut out all over.

Textiles & Sustainability Abigail Petit lecture

2007-01-17T21:51:00.000Z

Went to lecture presented by The Textile Institute at the RCA.
Abigail Petit is the External Affairs Director for Vericott Ltd the product development and marketing office for "Agrocel" organic and fairly traded cotton fibre. The Gossypium brand is now one of the leading fair trade organic clothing brands in the UK. Practical experience of textiles and production was gained from working within the emerging global supply chain. From the outset Abigail was practising new ways of working and developing infrastructures to fairly support the new manufacturing centres both ethically and environmentally. Her influence and achievement have been far reaching and touch all of our lives today, as advisor to many leading brands such as M&S, Body Shop, Top Shop, Greenpeace, including the European Trade Federation.
http://www.gossypium.co.uk/

A passionate speaker, she described a 200 year old trading process (started in the UK by the industrial revolution when the market for cotton was created) which she described as an upside down triangle layered:
Consumers
Retail
Wholesale
Processes
Traders (who make crops into the raw material)
Farmers
Her system links the top to the bottom with a closed loop. Previously nobody was aware or had ever met the farmers.
The ethical system means not only increased income for the farmers but preservation of farming skills and local crafts (as locals can now afford to buy their own cottons instead of imported cheap synthetics)
She also talked about other new fibres being developed as competition to cotton such as corn starches and bamboo, some of whom as dissing cottons as they quite obviously have their own agendas. She said it was not in the industry's interests to encourage this as it would alienate the public and blur the larger issues of globalization, poverty and over consumption. Interestingly though, the packaging industry are currently prepared to pay higher for these new biodegradable fibres than the textile industry. She made the analogy between the battle between butter and marge a few years ago and observed it has now settled down and both have survived.
One of her most powerful observations was that of all the cheap clothes we import, a huge proportion are returned unsold to the third world for them to dump. She stressed the importance of producing for a purpose. Stop making things on the chance that people will want them.

Feathers

2007-01-06T21:55:00.000Z

http://www.earthlife.net/birds/feathers.html

http://www.redoakfarm.com/learning_about_feathers.htm

Lille 3000

2007-01-06T18:01:00.000Z

Spent a couple of days in France and visited the Futuro Textiles exhibition, organised as part of Lille 3000.
A guide said that the exhibition was originally going to be an import of the US exhibition 'Extreme Textiles' but there were so many European examples, they designed their own.
There were lots of examples of textiles engineered for high performance - ie. a multi-layered textile for Paris fire brigades uniform, or a swimwear textile which aids speed. They quite evidently have amazing new qualities, but don't necessarily lend themselves to obvious aesthetics, so my photos focus more on the visually appealing examples of future textiles.

The exhibition was in 10 zones:
1. LEARNING ZONE
laid out with textile samples giving an historical perspective.
I liked the lump of Basalt which had been created into a thread and woven and the incredibly soft bamboo (no pic). Quite amazing what materials threads can be created from.

2. ARCHITECTURE

I liked this -

Hot by Night and Cold by Day Desert Tent
prototype by Architecture and Vision.
Material: polythene covered with polyurethane and aluminium film.
The tent is suitable for extreme weather conditions. Fabric used also used to make evacuation slides in planes.
Has solar powered battery with heats up cold air caught in the 'chimney system' and then circulates it around the tent at night.

Windshields made from lace.
Specially made for the exhibition the product includes panels of 'Noyon' lace and Dacryl. Dacryl consists of a transparent glass, fibre made from acrylics. Unlike glass, this material is ten times more shock resistant.
Noyon is a Calais based company specialising in high tech lace.

Photovoltaic Bandstand
A small model. The idea is that it generates its own energy from the solar panels to project (amplify?) the music.
Flexcelllence, L'Ensait, Vandehove SAS

Modular felt wall panelling
I've lost the info on this....
Lightweight and colour changeable and I imagine sound absorbing.

3. FASHION

Luminous Wedding Dress
Creator: Alphonse Sene
Made by Noyon-Dentelle, Darquer, Salome
Incorporates fibre optics threaded in lace.

4. HEALTH
5. BIOTECHNOLOGY
A large inflatable lotus flower (made by Choi Jeong Wha) which periodically openened and closed was sited near a video describing a textile which has been developed to imitate the lotus flower's special properties:
Tiny hairs on the petals self clean dirt from the petals.
The textile mimicks this so you have a self cleaning fabric.
Our guide said the textile is not in production yet. Currently they are unsure if the tiny hairs could cause respiratory problems if particles are released into the air.

6. SPORTS
7. AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
8. CAR MANUFACTURING

Fibre Optic Concept Car door for Citroen.
see video
Brochier Soieries in Lyons created a jacquard fabric with a luminous arabesque motif applied to a car door.
Piloted by an on-board computer, the optic fibres within the textile door coverings enable the driver to choose between six pre-programmed light moods and ambiances, of differing intensities.
(Maison Cedric Brochier Soieries: originally a silk manufacturer, Brochier has a rich history of industrial textile innovation, including in 1967 the conception of the fibre-glass nose for the Concorde supersonic jet).

9. INTERACTIVE

Textile reacts to heat
see video

Fibre-Optic Fabric
Very simple wall hanging with a rather beatiful luminous quality
Daniel Buren
300 x 300

Textile Floor
see video
Prototype by Salome
Epoxy reson by Janvic
Lighting by Audio-images

The prototype uses wooden floorboards, covered in a non-woven textile layer containing fibre optics. The surface is treated with a resin sheen.

Good fun was
Dream Trap
a Musical Textile
Maurin Donne
very dark video
Basically a flat black textile stretched on a frame.
When you touched the textile, sounds were emitted.

Also, a dress with fibre optic embedded
see video

10. TEXTILAB

HOLIDAY READING - Sustainable issues

2007-01-01T23:04:00.000Z

Have read Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we live
wikipedia has some good links
Inspiring book as it encouraging us to think of whole cycles at the start of projects instead of just trying to put right the damage done.

Also read
Recycle The Essential Guide black dog publishing
very informative on all materials

I have been reading
'Trespassers, Inspirations for Eco Efficient Design'
Ed vam Jomte amd Cpmmu Baller

Thought this temporary recyclable building by Japanese architect Shegeru Ban for Expo 2000 in Hanover looked rather fab:
http://www.designboom.com/history/ban_expo.html

Also read about this tile carpet flooring company
http://www.florcatalog.com/service/flor/environment.html

Also, a furniture upholstery which consists of wool which absorbs water and ramie, a plant fiber which repels water. Because of this climatex feels cool in summer and warm in winter.
It is a product of consumption, i.e. it can be safely returned to the soil.
http://www.climatex.com/en/products/climatex_e.html

Trace the journey of an item of clothing:
http://www.made-by.nl/index.php?lg=en

Found thess facta in a New Scientist article
Six large sets of data collected over the past 20 to 40 years in England, Wales, and Scotland were analysed by Jeremy Thomas of the Natural Environment Research Council Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Dorchester, UK and colleagues. More than 20,000 volunteers submitted over 15 million records of species.
The researchers found that populations of 71 percent of the butterfly species have decreased over the last 20 years, compared to 56 percent for birds and 28 percent for plants.

Greening the City

TEXTILES:
http://www.katefletcher.com/blog.shtml

SMART

2006-12-18T14:07:00.000Z

Got New Nomads an exloration of wearable electronics by Philips from the library
good intro to what is possible. most cases it is what is incorporated as a function into a garment, not aesthetically pleasing in it's own right.

http://www.twenty1f.com/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
Article:
The future of wearables
http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread=3467&page=1#6284

UNIT 2: Phase 5

2006-12-04T11:38:00.000Z

Final Crit:
We presented to Rachel, plus 2 visiting guests - Linda Florence and Philippa and our whole group. Everyone's was completely different which was satisfying to observe. Some people showed all of the work they had produced and described the journey there. I described the journey of working with more rigid materials, and how I came to work with cork. One of the most important things I learnt from the presentation was not to stick samples down in a flat way. The tactility of the material is really important and with mine, it could have shown how flexible the material is. I also liked how some other students had referenced their influences (i.e. other designers) with their powerpoint presentations.
Conclusively we agreed that I should continue to work with and investigate the material. Think about how to push the design aspect. I would particularly like to experiment with different colourways, metallic inks, more laser etching alongside laser cutting and multi-layering the material. Also to build relationships with possible sponsors.

My critical appraisal of the project:

Lectures/Talks

2006-11-18T23:03:00.000Z

http://www.lindaflorence.co.uk/
An ex student from our MA.
Very fun and scottish. She had done a lot of work with flooring - particularly stencilling with icing sugar and tracking the movements of people in the space and flooring which moved in some way as you moved across it.
Also scratchcard wallpaper which revealed other designs underneath when scratched away.
Since leaving, she works for 2 days a week in The Printworks and has done commissions for Ted Baker shops and various individual clients.

An evening event in 'Enterprise Week' was talks by
Rebecca Early and
Ella Doran

Well structured evening as both designers had been briefed to track their careers and point out the positives and pitfalls of doing your own thing in business.
Rebecca Early organised the 'Well Fashioned: Eco Style in the UK' exhibition at the Crafts Council last year. After running her own business in fashion and printing ranges of scarves, she is now a research fellow for TED (Textiles Environment Design). Very inspiring.
She collaborates with
http://www.katefletcher.com

Ecological fashion project:
www.5ways.info

http://www.kategoldsworthy.co.uk/

Other advice:
http://www.ecca-london.org/
(Enterprise Centre for Creative Arts)
- you can book a session to see a business advisor.

http://www.own-it.org/
(Creative London Intelectual Property Advice Service)
Free copyright advice and 1 hr free with a lawyer

UNIT 2: Phase 4

2006-11-18T15:38:00.000Z

Cork Printing

Found sheets of 1mm cork at
http://www.modelshop.co.uk

Spent the week screen printing, foiling and flocking with various designs.
The designs were based on imagery chosen to give a feeling of lightness and delicacy. I also wanted to create a layered textural and illusionary effect. I printed in cool blues to contrast with the warm earthy hues of the cork.
With the print and textures, the sheets started to take on a different feel, almost like leather or snakeskin.

Had an individual crit with Rachel on Friday. She said the samples were going in the right direction and had succeded in transforming the cork into something different.

For the final presentation next week, she suggested I should
- print some larger samples, keeping to the same colourways (because of time limitations)
- some where cork is totally covered, some where cork shows
- continue delicate designs with laser etching
- define the placement of the product. My original idea was designs for the outside, but the designs are looking more suitable for interior high end commercial spaces, possibly a bar.
Look at magazines such as Blueprint, Frame, View on Colour, Icon for reference points.

UNIT 2 : phase 3

2006-11-11T15:44:00.001Z

I had screen printed on cork tiles and cut halfway through the tiles in strips to give a curvy flexibility.
Also did some laser cutting of jute, sinamay and parchment and tried some multi-layering which looked too crafty as my base screen printed layer was too indistinct an image. I had screen printed with a puff binder base which was a red ink until put into the heat press at which point it turned into a lurid bright pink! Not what I'd intended and not enough time to re-print at this stage.

Group crit.
We took in all work relating to the innovation project.
General concensus was that the double image prints (of the netting on the cork) and the feathers on the polyester fabrics were what worked the best.

Two weeks to go until the final presentation, so we have to limit ourselves. Decided I should continue with the cork and try and change the perception of a rather 70s unglamorous material into something more sophisticated.

- explore images which play with illusion / layering / shadowing
- explore soft fluid images which contrast with the hardness of the cork
- 3d effects
- quality of movement
- sensory model of tactility

- important to identify a colour pallete.

create a board or digital version of photos / picture sources.

UNIT 1 : session 2

2006-11-03T23:09:00.000Z

What Makes A Space into a place?

This was the theme of the first 3 day 'Critical Interrogation of Practice' workshop lead by Stephen Hayward.

Looks at the hunger for meaningful narratives and experiences in our increasingly anonymous and fragmented cities.
Unit one takes as its starting point the idea that in post industrial economy the future of design lies in the enhancement of everyday life through the creation of experiences that are meaningful, multi-sensory and sustainable.

We had two background speakers chosen to highlight the problem of placelessness in urban life, i.e the way that many architectural environments seem to limit individuality and to ignore or eradicate memory.

They were
Robin Priestley from Space Hijackers
Charlie Tims from
Demos

We were randomly put into groups with other MA students: I worked with Hannah (jewellery), Lai from Portugal (MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments) and Atta from Iran (Industrial Design).
Our project which we had to put into action the next day was to 'enhance the way in which a particular place is experienced by an environmental intervention.' Our intervention could be a physical object, a staged event, a sensory modification...'

We chose a neighbourhood which reflected the intrinsic nature of London, and most big cities - that of changing and transient cultures. We chose the east end of London, and specifically Brick Lane for it's apparent cultural diversity. It had been predominantly Jewish in the last century. It's now predominantly Asian and recently invaded by trendy media arty types.

A famous remaining Jewish legacy in Brick Lane are two busy beigel shops.

Brick Lane comes alive at night and at weekends. On a weekday morning, we found it quiet.

Our idea was to introduce a street event which would bring together in a lighthearted way, the mix of people that use Brick Lane.

Games are played and enjoyed the world over. They can be participatory or spectator.
We thought draughts/checkers would be known to some people, and easily learnt by others.
The shape of bagels also suggested to us the shape of the pieces.

The concept simple - seeded versus plain - a giant Beigel street draughts game.

We had a beautiful sunny day. We set up our draughts board on beigel crates at about midday, and immediately had challengers. Many people thought the set up amusing, others were intrigued and we generally created a buzz in the street.

We wanted to move our set up to different areas but ran out of time.

We presented our record of the day and conclusions along with 5 other groups the next day.

I think the conclusions were that we had successfully 'enhanced the way Brick Lane was experienced by the people there'. However, we hadn't succeeded in crossing cultural boundaries (local Asians observed what we were doing but were reluctant to join in). Our original idea had been to move our set up into a few different locations, getting deeper into the east end and consequently away from the capucinno culture. which would have made the intervention more interesting.
We and all those who participated did have a really fun day though.

Other groups had done some interesting things:
One group chose to stick giant pieces of white paper onto the ground close to benches in a square where people tended to sit and eat their lunch. People tended to avoid walking on the paper until one man decided to and made footprints. This opened the pathway for others to walk on it and sit on the benches.

Another group went to Covent Garden and taped a rectangle around a bench. Inside the rectangle, they taped the words 'CTV camera', outside the box they taped the words 'Not CTV camera'. They interviewed and observed the bench users.

Another group investigated the notion of queues and divided them into catergories such as essential (i.e.toilets), pleasurable (cinema tickets), functional (waiting for a bus). They intervened in a queue at a cinema in central london and played table football and got the whole queue to do chinese whispers.

Another group worked around Euston and used gaffer tape to 'draw' rectangles on the pavement, or around objects like a lamppost or a leaf. They observed how it altered the way people related and used the space.

Another group planted a CD player in differing venues and played music which was 'unexpected' for the particular space. For example, they played some classical music under the arches at the south bank where guys were skateboarding (the guy eventually walked over and switched it off).

MATERIALS RESEARCH

2006-10-31T21:49:00.000Z

Feathers:
MacCulloch & Wallis

I found a sample of this at 100percent design and followed up the contact:
Barkcloth
Bark cloth is a raffia fleece, supposed to be the world's most ancient textile. Cultivated from Mutuba trees, from eco-cert farms in Uganda. 100% plant fiber, an authentic organic 'living' cloth at the interface between textile and wood. Each bark cloth is made from the bark of one tree. Bark cloth comes in pieces - average size 200 x 300cm.
The european part of the company have developed 'Bartex' which is the bark backed with chinese silk and dyed to give an imitation leather effect.

They list:
Development of roll-able wardrobe sides or
UV-rays-absorbing panel systems? Sustainable
growing air-conditioning filters? Compost-able
plasters? Humidity and temperature balancing
lightweight-walls for climbing plants? Trans-
parent but opaque room dividers? Or plasma-
technology-applied quitine-protection for
BARKTEX® cell-phone cases?

Trendease
(eco material descriptions)
Business in Development Network
The Business in Development (BiD) Network is the on-line community for entrepreneurship and development in developing countries.
core77 -
(industrial design space with interesting stuff about materials)
Materials explorer
Materials connection
Materio
(fun website, materials resource in Paris)
Fashion and trend forecasting
Agency for sustainable design

Cork

2006-10-31T21:37:00.000Z

Been researching materials and spoke to Peter at
C. Olley & Sons
specialising in all types of cork.
Lovely bloke and a fund of knowledge. They've produced some interesting things for clients including a cork fabric dress and a cork chair which he says can hold the weight of a 17 stone person.

There's virgin/crude cork which is curved/pitted, usually curved. It was used in Victorian times as arbour roofs since it provided good weather proofing.

Refined compressed cork comes in all sorts of grades (most commonly seen as pinboards, flooring etc)

Crucially, cork cannot be laser cut. You can screen print on it. If left outside it will gradually bleach to white. You can print with UVs to reduce fading.
It can be waterproofed. Infact, it can be mixed with polymers or anything (he described they made some flooring which contained small metallic flecks).

He's sending me some samples.

Critical Interrogation of Practise

2006-10-29T21:56:00.000Z

Just read extracts from John Thackara's book In the Bubble, Designing for a complex world (less-stuff-more-people approach to design) on our 'advance preparation' list.
extracts

Interesting thoughts on the assumptions that technological advances will add improvements to our lives, whilst entering a phase in our history where we know there will inevitably be unexpected results from these additions to our lives.

Made me think about why am I doing my course. I do want to challenge myself creatively, and think in new ways, but I don't want to be ego driven and I don't want to contribute products unecessarily into what feels already like an overflowing creative marketplace.

UNIT 2 : phase 2

2006-10-28T12:24:00.000+01:00

Continuing the Innovation project, I worked on the ideas for outside space.

I wanted to try sublimation printing which works best on polyesters. I printed onto a variety of white fabrics ranging from sheers to shiny thicker opaques.

The long prints were designed to act as banners or screens. When the sun shone through the dark and light areas, shady effects would appear. The addition of pleating would add an angular geometry.

The feather design is 2 layers of gauze-like fabric. The two images are subtely shifted in place and colourway. When combined in layers the effect is intended to play with illusion and movement.

In my crit with Rachel, we surmised in the next phase I should:
- Focus on textural, not graphic
- Research other materials such as bamboo, wood, cork
- Challenge scale
- look at movement / water
- Think about laser cutting / 3d layering

Materials library

Bamboo (china)
http://www.fyfurniture.com/

corksearch - UK (kelly)

cork (US)

UNIT 2 : phase 1

2006-10-20T23:03:00.000+01:00

Our first 'Unit 2' project: Innovative Textiles

'This poject aims at challenging your understanding and practice of textile design by asking you to take both a conceptual and experimental approach as well as to develop your craft skills to a high level.'

We followed a formula for material/object cross-pollination by first
- creating a matrix which along the vertical edge listed characteristics and attributes of a textile (what it means to you - i.e. sensual / storytelling / colourful etc) and along the horizontal edge a list of man made objects from the non textile world. We had to work through the matrix by filling in each empty field by imagining design scenarios that combine the object and the textile attribute.

Themes which came out of my list involved travel / organisation.

We then had to select 3 of the objects and create a collection of work based on each of the design scenarios.

I chose a traffic cone, a bus shelter and a window box.

We had a group crit today. I had started to work up ideas using a variety of materials: rubber, recycled tea bags, plastics with print and stitch.

C & R observed that my work used quite a lot of 'crafting'. They saw links in the 3 boards - a sculptural, 3d quality.

Suggested I look into horticultural (geo) and technical textiles.

For working with rubber, suggested hot melt, polymer based binders.

Decided to focus the next stage of designs on 'the outside space' which is a further area which linked the three objects.

Brief to push experimentation with materials without having an end product in mind (i.e. don't be too practical).

I think there's lots of potential for working with both natural and man made materials and being quite fantasy based.....

UNIT 1: session 1

2006-10-09T13:25:00.000+01:00

10am ...Our team: Sara (from Milan on the industrial design MA), Tom (from UK on the MA in design specialising in jewellery) and I met in the area outside the station between the main entrance and the bus station. Tom had to leave to go to an woodwork induction workshop.
A man places his old and characterful straw cowboy hat on the plynth of the statue of Robert Stevenson and takes a photo. I ask him why he had taken the photo. He said "you've heard of the travelling knome?', 'my hat's also been around the world and I've photographed it everywhere.'

He said his name was Lee. He'd flown in from Dallas that morning (90o heat) and was on his way to see his mum in Wales in hospital who was dying.

His hat was wrapped in the history of his life. A braided coloured thread contained the hair of a 75 year old Shaman woman and he said he was going to cut this off and bury it with his mother. On the front was a bone fish hook from Hawai. He had many tatoos. Sara had been talking about having a tatoo herself, to remember her father by. He died in February. Lee advised her to put a picture of her desired tatoo on her 'vanity mirror' and look at it for 6 months. If she still liked it at that point, to get it done.

We heard his life story. How he'd dropped out of school at 16, gone to Europe doing anything to get by...washing up, fruit picking. Back in London, he worked on the railways, until at 26, a colleague asked him what he was doing with his life.. Soon after, he packed one bag and flew to the US where his brother was, and had travelled the world ever since. He described the philosophies of the tribes he had stayed with, how each person's actions have a ripple effect to the next and how we are all ultimately connected to each other and the earth.

We were moved by his stories. He was a calm spirited person sitting in this grey concrete jungle. He seemed at peace with the choices he had made in his life. He lived outside of the 'norm', a truly 'underground' individual.
We decided our piece of clothing would be about him and a tribute to him and his mum.

We realised the three of us were also starting our own journeys with our MA's. Doing the courses was very much about doing something for ourselves, against the odds. This connected us so our garment would also be about us as individuals.

For our garment, we bought a black suit jacket and encrusted the lining with pictures and objects of our life. We all worked on it together, sewing, sticking and talking.

This is Lee

The show which show each team's interpretation of the London area they had been alloted.

Welcome to the Underground

2006-10-04T22:53:00.000+01:00

A mystery outing, shared with Industrial Design MA and Design MA students, began outside CSM at 9am where an old routemaster bus stood waiting for us all to climb aboard.

First stop, Dollis Hill, where half of the group disembarked. My group stayed on the bus where we were grouped into fours and set the design task of re-designing the routemaster for the 21st century. We had a sheet of paper and a block of plastacine to work with. My group came up with the notion of a set of separating triangular sort of pods, fuelled by methane!

Next, into hard hats and into a hidden bunker.......These great photos I found on someone else's blog convey it all....

Back on the bus heading east for Wapping and to an old hydraulic Power station, converted beautifully into a restaurant and space for artists to exhibit and inhabit the huge space. Great butternut squash risotto lunch followed by tour of the building by the architect. Whilst the building wasn't physically 'underground', the place represented an underground 'off the beaten track' world, where artists are invited to be influenced by the building and create art to fit the space.

Back on the bus, we were given a package containing a brief, a map of London, divided by grid, and a section of a playing card. We had to find other people with another section of the same card. Our brief was, as a team, to create an item of clothing which described the underground nature of the area of London on the map for a fashion show on Friday. My team: Sara, MA industrial design, from Milan, Tom, MA design/jewellery, from Derby.

The bus next took us to visit a workshop/shop - Unto This Last, in Brick Lane, east london. Their philosophy is to built computer machined wooden furniture in a reasonably priced automated way. The customers find what they like in the showroom, chose permutations of sizes and materials, place their order which is made for them over the days which follow. It is a mix of technology and a localised human business set up, deemed 'underground' because of it's philosopy of zero advertising (word of mouth and passing custom mainly being the way they sell).

Finally, we ended up in 'Public Life', an underground bar converted from a toilet, opposite Spitalfields market.

Eco links

2006-10-03T19:02:00.000+01:00

Bark cloth

Cork/rubber composite

Environmental packaging solutions
(greenspun - from drinks bottles, falcata - biodegradable & organic veneer)

Sustainable footwear (shop in Covent gdn)
http://www.terraplana.com/shoe.aspx?code=TPBIG002

in Cambridge - this looks great
http://www.electricbikesales.co.uk/contact/

Hemp:

BioRegional Development Group is an entrepreneurial, independent environmental organisation. We develop award winning, commercially viable products and services which meet more of our everyday needs from local renewable and waste resources, to help enable
One Planet living – living within our fair share of
the Earth’s resources.

http://www.bioregional.com/about%20us/keypeople.htm Emily Stott

Hemp Textiles Project Manager

Emily studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University, where she was Green officer for Downing college, promoting recycling, renewable energy and fair trade. Emily joined BioRegional in 2002 and is now working from York as Hemp Textiles project manager, working with universities and industrial partners to develop UK hemp textile production alongside completing a part-time MA in Sustainable Business.

rematerialise ecosmartmaterials
Very useful lising of materials

'Futurescape' - edited from Wallpaper* oct 2006

2006-10-03T13:41:00.000+01:00

Some interesting viewpoints on futures for

Uni design:
"Two key trends of recent years, an appreciation of craft, and increasingly complex, invisible technology, will begin to merge. The result will not be a go-faster world, but one in which design provides advanced but more individual products. This could leave consumers overwhelmed by the variety of options and bombardment of visual culture, and this might lead to an increased interest in simple, easy-on-the-eye products. Design will also embrace an ethical dimension. Design with a conscience as opposed to green design which remains expensive and inaccessible. Design can positively affect lives."
- Barbara Bloemink, curatorial director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Homes:
Convenience and customisation are key. An electrical charge will allow you to alter the texture of your sofa, smart materials will change colour, and LED lighting will provide limitless atmospheric effects. And it will all be wireless.
BT's foresight and futurology unit - 'People are already getting sick of appliance mangaemtn in the home, which means design will be geared towards problem solving'.

Fashion:
The true individual will emerge from the shadow of mega fashion brand power, or at least try to according to Virginia Postrel, trendwatcher and author of The Substance of Style. How one shapes one's appearance will be less about exhibitionism and more about personal pleasure. The wild card is the issue of obesity, which may become a political issue. Either there will be a chronic demand for new ways of fixing on'e appearance, or oesity will become so rife among opinion formers that it will simply become acceptable. A new ideal of the way to look will emerge.

manga-style art

Useful weblinks

2006-10-01T17:36:00.000+01:00

lexisnexis.com
search engine which searches newspapers for articles/reviews etc

kompass.com
searches for company names by name/subject

intute.ac.uk
searches for websites by subject

Re-cycle Project

2006-09-30T23:21:00.000+01:00

Before starting the course, over the summer, we had a project brief to:
re-cycle, re-construct, re-think, re-style, re-confirm, re-enchant, re-design
6 items of clothing.

As a graphic designer for all of my working life, my plan was to work with a variety of materials and get to know them by working with them.

Here are my photos of re-cycle showing the before and after

At our first 'crit' comments were
- the presentation was good
- was I obsessed with swimwear!
- further working with flip flops was a good idea

Other students came up with an eclectic and interesting mix of work.

My favourites were -

Jen(ny), from San Francisco and a degree in painting, had collected clothes discarded on the streets. The style of one item dictated how the next item should be treated. So, a silky dress was transformed into a pair of jeans. A pair of jeans became a patchwork, influenced by a geometrically patterned jumper.
Beautiful drawings accompanied the work. I really liked the conceptual nature and storytelling aspect of the presentation.

Nicole, from Taiwan had been a textile buyer, travelling to India and Thailand. She had some stunning photographs on her laptop and had made an amazing bonnet from an Indian dress which featured very graphic black and white faces. She also simply put on some Indian trowsers over her arms and shoulders into a jacket/shirt and looked great! Overall, the richness of the colours were stunning.

Eslyn, from Paris, had focused on food as a theme for each piece. A dress had a huge decoration around the neck area of oversized olives. A skirt had an elegant scarf/looped creamy drape mimicking spaghetti. She had mocked up beautiful photographs of models wearing the clothes, eating the food at the same time. Highly simple, clean and professional.

Innovation

2006-09-30T20:08:00.000+01:00

Random thoughts - I imagine innovation is fluid and predictable, in companies (such as apple) where 'brains' are paid to think laterally and come up with innovative business ideas.

'for every action there is a reaction'
how are we to predict unexpected scenarios:

- an increased desire for british people to go camping as a reaction to closeting in offices and behind computer screens, and desire to 'get back to basics'

creating a market for innovative camping ideas and products

- the relatively recent discovery of rsi, relating to mouse, computer game, mobile phone texting over-use

creating a market for innovative ideas to medically and theropeutically counteract the problem: curved mouse matts, spine and body position sensitive seating,

Innovation happens at the margins of the interset between old and new.

Douglas Adams, in Wired 1st edition wrote an article - innovation is what you leave out. (i.e. the ipod destroyed the notion of albums and realised people want individual songs).

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Steve Jobs
US computer engineer & industrialist (1955 - )
Both Poplular and High cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator's lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.

Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927), German–born U.S. sociologist, educator. Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste, ch. 1, Basic Books (1974).

Innovators in their fields?
Been researching designers, innovators in their fields

Amazing stuff, Thomas Heatherwick designed the rolling bridge at Paddington dock, also a continuous zip bag for Longchamp. Understated, considering scale of projects, website:
http://www.heatherwick.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=40

Yves Behar - more product design based, based in San Fran, half Swiss, half Turkish.
Growing up in 2 cultures, I like his description of marrying functional/modernist with expressive and poetic (as in Persian carpets which marry storytelling and human connections) in his projects.
Working on a learning / fuse shoe for Birkenstock.
Designed a concept shoe for design afoot exhibition at sfmoma

Tord Boontje
- famous in UK for Garland light (produced by Habitat)
Work antidote to slick objects ...this I like. Also like the fairytale theatrical feel to his work. It feel ephemeral which is OK as long as the materials used are biodegradable in some form.
He made a laser cut curtain from a duPont material which is like a tear and water proof paper, called Tyvek.

Found this website which has quite a lot of good links to green design issues: http://inhabitat.com/about/

Annoying, but think big & bold - mainly product/industrial des. websight (I do like the pink Lille station)http://www.patrickjouin.com

Interesting in fashion world Hussein Chalayan

Induction Days

2006-09-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

Two days induction came and went...at last
Eclectic international mix of all women/girls from France, Taiwan, US, Turkey, Tokyo, Pakistan, India, Ireland which will be culturally really interesting.

We met our course director
Carol Collet

and year tutor Rachel Wingfield
who set up an organisation called Loop in 2003

Kevin - print technician
(avail wed am, thurs, fri)

Laura Baker - IT and blackboard

Joan Ingram - Library
('Athens' scheme allows you to access companies by affiliating you to csm - I think!?)

Sally Clarke - Student advisor
based at S. Row but says Enterprise centre, Davies st has lots of advice re careers and cv writing etc.