GROW your own fabric

Suzanne Lee, a fashion designer, has learned to grow her own fabric using tea, sugar, and microbes. Over the course of a few days in a grow bath, a pale, skin-like fabric is grown on the surface of the mixture. The fabric is dried flat or molded in a three dimensional form.

Suzanne's TED talk:

12,000-Year-Old Textile Fragments Found in Peruvian Cave Are South America's Oldest | Ecouterre

12,000-Year-Old Textile Fragments Found in Peruvian Cave Are South America's Oldest | Ecouterre

Archaeologists have unearthed fabric and rope fragments that date as far back as 12,000 years in the past, making them the oldest known textiles in South America, according to a report in the April 2011 issue of Current Anthropology. Although the textiles were recovered from a cave in the Andes three decades ago, their age was largely unknown. Researchers chose to estimate the age of the site by taking radiocarbon dates from bone, obsidian, and charcoal—articles that can sometimes produce iffy results, says Edward Jolie, an archaeologist at Mercyhurst College who led the current team. Charcoal especially can overestimate a site’s age, he adds.

Conversation at the Bard Graduate Center

Working Fabric: Innovation in Design at KnollTextiles
Conversation moderated by Brooke Hodge
Thursday, May 19, 2011, 6:00pm-9:00pm
at the Bard Graduate Center
38 W 86th Street, NY, NY

About Knoll Textiles, 1945-2010

From May 18 to July 31, 2011, the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture (BGC) presents Knoll Textiles, 1945–2010, the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to a leading producer of modern textile design. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue consider the individuals and ideas that helped shape Knoll Textiles from its founding to 2010, with the goal of bringing the sartorial dimension of the Knoll brand and the under-recognized role of textiles in the history of modern interiors and design to the forefront of public attention. The lack of recognition of modern textiles is perhaps best exemplified by the iconic “Womb” chair by Eero Saarinen. While it is featured in most twentieth-century design collections, its fabric, usually a Knoll textile and a dominant design element of the chair, is rarely if ever identified.

The curators of the exhibition are Earl Martin, associate curator at the BGC; Paul Makovsky, editorial director, Metropolis magazine; Angela Völker, Curator Emeritus of Textiles at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna; and Susan Ward, an independent textile historian. The exhibition comprises approximately 175 examples of textiles, furniture, photographs, and ephemera on loan from public, private, and corporate collections, including the Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Smithsonian Institution, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; the Brooklyn Museum; the Knoll Museum; and the KnollTextiles Archive.

Interestingly, the lack of museological and historical interest in modern textiles became apparent as the various loans for this exhibition were secured. For example, key works from Knoll’s innovative handwoven collection of the 1950s were found in boxes of scraps preserved for more than fifty years in the attic of a former Knoll employee and large samples dating to 1948, the second year of production for Knoll Textiles, languished in storage for decades at one of America’s leading design collections without formally entering the collection until they were recognized by Bard’s curatorial team.

Another major contribution of this exhibition has been the discovery in private collections of furniture with its original upholstery. Not only were these rare examples of early upholstery on Knoll furniture brought to light, but a major conservation project was subsequently undertaken that revealed the challenges of properly conserving twentieth-century furniture—of preserving not simply the furniture form but also the textile covering it.

Textile Sensor Demos

Textile sensor demos of the Tufted Stroke Sensor, Beaded Tilt Sensor, Knit Stretch Sensor, Felted PomPom Pressure Sensor, Neoprene Bend Sensor and the Crochet Potentiometer.

IKEA Pledges to Transition to 100% “Better Cotton” by 2015

Ikea Textiles

IKEA wants all its cotton to adhere to Better Cotton Initiative guidelines by the end of 2015, according to a 2010 Sustainability Report released Wednesday. The multi-stakeholder organization, which counts the Swedish furnishings giant as a founding member, is currently evaluating a set of draft criteria in pilot projects in West Africa, Brazil, Pakistan, and India, after which it will take responsibility for verifying compliance at the farm level. From chemical consumption to forced child labor, cotton’s importance as a raw material belies its social and environmental dark sides, admits the Swedish furnishings retailer. “IKEA works to reduce its need for cotton, but it is not realistic to believe that all cotton can be replaced with alternative materials,” it says. “This is why we work actively to increase the availability of more sustainable cotton.”

Read the full post by Jasmin Malik Chua

eTextile, Smart Clothing and Wearable Computing Showcase

Deadline: 18 May 2011
eTextile, Smart Clothing and Wearable Computing Showcase
Maker Faire and Lynne Bruning
San Mateo County Event Center
San Mateo, CA
21 May 2011


As technology becomes ever more interwoven with our daily lives, innovative means of interface blur the lines between computers, textiles and fashion.

Maker Faire and Lynne Bruning come together to create a showcase that fuses tech and fashion, function and form, reality and possibility..

On Sunday 21 May 2011 fashion designers and engineers, young and old, beginners and the skilled will join forces to present a Maker Fair original: An eTextile, smart clothing and wearable computing showcase!

Date: Sunday 21 May 2011
Time: TBA
Location: Arc Attack Stage
Producer: Lynne Bruning

Designers: Contact Lynne lynne at lynnebruning.com
Designers must be present at the time of the showcase
Designers can model their eTextile creation or bring their own model
Designer submission deadline Wednesday 11 May 2011

For more information and showcase details:
http://www.lbruning.com/etextiles/etextile-showcase-at-maker-faire-bay-area-2011/

from Fiber Art Calls for Entry

Laser Cutting

Laser cut paper and textiles merge a technology with textiles that we are beginning to see more and more.


We are familiar with Creation Baumann, a Swiss company that developed curtains that we've seen in Interior Design magazine among other publications.

ENERGY is a laser cut, three-dimensional curtain that looks more like a hanging sculpture than a fabric. It transforms light through a series of slits and ridges, which at a glance are reminiscent of geometric feathers. “A voluminous fabric”, ENERGY is a paper-like material whose construction method is mysterious but intriguing.

Creation Baumann has an extensive collection of extravagant modern textiles that put traditional tweed to shame. The company is sustainably minded, optimizing water management, energy consumption and the use of chemical products along every step of the textile chain. Creation Baumann has been awarded the coveted Oeke-Tex Standard 100 certification, which is a globally uniform testing system that guarantees safe and ecologically sound principles along all stages of textile manufacture—from raw material production to final product. The Oeke-Tex Standard 100 certification also guarantees end products are free from harmful substances like formaldehyde, pesticides, heavy metals, chlororganic carriers and all allergy-inducing dyes and colorants.
by Amanda Smith

We've also seen laser cut fabric at Art Basel Miami in 2008. They featured a giant laser cut tent!

Laser cutting is not limited to cut-through shapes, but the lasers can also be controlled with the depth of a laser cut, creating sculptural relief on almost any surface. Helen Amy Murray, a London-based textile designer, experiments with this technique on leather.

photo by Camila Diedrich

On the other end, artist Piper Shepard created paper creations that appear to be laser cut. Its attention to detail, and repetitive nature in pattern on the surface make you believe that it is laser cut. However, her designs are completely hand cut!

source

Geotextiles

The company, R.H. Moore & Associates, uses Geotextiles in soil stabilization, reinforcement, and ground stress relief. These materials can be found in the application of building and paving new roads, controlling erosion, water management, and waste management.