This week, we learned about textiles and creating textiles out of unconventional materials. For my new textile, my partners and I decided to use leaves that had “fallen” off of the tree outside of the classroom. (I forgot to document the process with photos and forgot to take a photo of the end result).
The tree looked a little like the one above, but had longer leaves – thus, we decided to tear each of the leaves off the smaller branches and start weaving them together to create a woven textile. We then added duct tape the seal the edges and keep it together, then added split pins in the intersections of each leaf. The result was a flexible yet rigid textile, that bent at the intersecting angles.
Though it looked cool, upon reflection after the class, I realise that I should have expanded my thoughts and ideas in terms of what could be used to create a new textile. I definitely went with something a little more conventional, and it wasn’t really something new – the tacky pins didn’t add any value to the textile either. If I were to expand on this or do it again, I would search for more out-of-the-box materials and also think about the function of every element I am putting into it, rather than just making it look pretty. I would also experiment with different ways of creating fabric/textiles rather than a basic weave – maybe with different knots.