Colour and Nature: Fabric Selection and Dying

Upon reflection, I have ditched the idea of working with only sustainable fabrics as I found that working with a range of fabrics would allow me to push my experiments further. To begin with I chose natural fabrics based on their texture and weight, considering which could be easily manipulated, dyed, collaged and transformed into something different, and also fabrics that would be suitable for tapestries or installation style pieces. In the end, I settled for linen, voile, felt, scrim and linen scrim and began dying them according to my finalised colour palettes, using the direct dyes.

My intentions for the use of these natural fabrics was to begin some fabric manipulation style samples into my work, and to focus on the use of machine work in my practice. I wanted to ensure that I chose fabrics that were suitable for layering and almost collaging with; focusing on combining and creating grounds to work on.

Furthermore, I also wanted to focus on creating a body of digital prints that could be used either for visualisations or sublimated onto fabric. Again I wanted this series to reflect textures rather than form, therefore they were inspired by any painting and mark-making work that I created. I feel that this prints really reflect my selected colour palette. The synthetics that I chose to work with were polyester and voile.