Fabric construction Document final

FABRIC CONSTRUCTION A Document by- Smriti Prasad

Textile Design, UG 2008

Guide- Aditi Ranjan

BAMBOO ATTRIBUTES PHYSICAL Smooth Striped Straight Horizontal internodes STRUCTURAL Strong Rigid Cylindrical Straight Cross section shows wall thickness from which bamboo splits are made CULTURAL Perennial Sustainable Poor man’s timber Basketry Bamboo houses Flute craftsmanship traditional knowledge

NATURAL & SUSTAINABLE I chose Bamboo as the subject for my study.

Bamboo is a perennial grass that is natural and is sustainable in nature. I was amazed to see the culms of the bamboo growing in a cluster. To me the whole group was like a family growing together. I appreciate the natural lines/ stripes that are a part of the surface of the culms. The nodes after a certain interval was also something that I wanted to study about. Apart from these the culm has a very soft feel to it. The various colour palettes that I could see also made me choose Bamboo as a subject for study to derive fabrics by a process of interpreting the multi- faceted attributes of bamboo.

ABOUT BAMBOO Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. In bamboo, the internodal regions of the stem are hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, even of palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.

Bamboos are some of the fastest growing plants in the world. Unlike trees, individual bamboo culms emerge from the ground at their full diameter and grow to their full height in a single growing season of 3–4 months. Many bamboos only flower at intervals as long as 65 or 120 years.

Bamboo is used in Chinese medicine for treating infections and healing. Bamboo grows abundantly in South Asia and is an inexpensive building material. Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia, South East Asia and East Asia, being used as a food source, and as a versatile raw product. In India its a cultural significance for the Northeastern States.

People make a wide variety of baskets, bridges,

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Subfamily: Bambusoideae Supertribe: Bambusodae Tribe: Bambuseae

fences, houses, musical instruments, containers, objects, etc. using the parts of bamboo.

Sources: http://biodiversity-mohanpai.blogspot. in/2009/06/bamboo-grass-of-heaven.html Wikipedia.com

COLOUR PALETTE

TECHNIQUES

MATERIALS

Weaving Knotting Knitting Crotchet Quilting Layering Hand Stitching Machine Stitching

Plastic Straws Mulmul fabric Acrylic wool Polyester threads Madarpaat Terry cot fabric Cotton Polyester fabric Laces

SKETCHES My study of the Bamboo includes the sketches and coloured impressions that I did after finalising the mood board and the colour palette. Here are some of the examples of the sketches that I have done during the study of Bamboo.

FUNDAMENTALS OF DESIGN RHYTHM, TEXTURE and COMPOSITION

RHYTHM Rhythm is the flow or movement of linear object or shapes, which might be in straight or wavy form and which is composed well, is lyrical to our eyes. It could be the arrangement of linear forms which have a lyrical or musical quality.

Rhythm is necessary in textiles because it has the linear element which makes surfaces at a frequency and which helps us in making judgement, it sensitize us and help us to compose things well.

STRIPES I chose to take forward stripes because I could relate the vertical culms of the bamboo as stripes when we look at it from a distance which creates a rhythm in itself. Also, when I looked closer at the lines that are there on the surface it very well depicts the idea of stripes. The different compositions that these stripes create is something I wanted to look at and simulate these stripes in fabric.

These artworks are done to understand the concept of rhythm. The very first one where I arranged the culms of the bamboo in a particular arrangement followed by the study of the lines on its surface that in itself depicts rhythm and at last with the help of stripes I tried to create a surface where the distribution of stripes has a lyrical quality because of exploring rhythm as a sensibility.

I choose stripes to take forward. The bamboo has beautiful lines on its surface which I could relate to stripes. Also the nodes at different intervals conveyed a similar attribute. I started exploring coloured papers and depicted stripes and created several compositions.

These are my very initial explorations using plastic straws. To depict the concept of stripes and rhythm. I found plastic straws to be quite close to the form of bamboo. It is straight, cylindrical. I tried to explore its natural cylindrical and rigid form to construct a surface thus found a way to re-purpose plastic drinking straws and add it to my inventory of textile materials. The technique used is hand stitching the straws together with polyester threads.

WEAVING: The next step was to explore these stripes using the same plastic straws with weaving technique. Here I took the reference of Kora grass mats and wove the straws in the same way. One can see the interaction of the two different coloured straws to form the stripes. This as a surface can be used as window blinds.

Double Cloth structure: These explorations are done using the Double cloth structure. The idea was to explore the stripes, taking the reference of bamboo culms put together. This exploration is done using the yellow and white plastic straws.

The end product is window blinds and space dividers.

The next exploration shows the colour interaction in the straws. This surface is woven using the green and yellow straws. These interaction points depict the nodes of the Bamboo.

CROSS SECTION of BAMBOO

The idea behind this exploration was to develop a surface which is an interpretation of the circular cross-section of bamboo. I searched the market for objects, hardware items, buttons and such readily available parts which I could re-purpose and develop an innovative surface. The technique used is hand stitching. The end product can be table runners.

KNITTING These explorations are done to simulate the nodes that the bamboo have at different intervals. Also, the texture depicts the smoothness on the surface of the bamboo. The technique used is knitting and the materials used are acrylic and wool.

This exploration simulates the texture of the nodes, the fibres that are a part of the nodes. The technique used here is knitting and the material used is stripes of mulmul fabric.

QUILTTING In this exploration I have done hand quilting using 2/10’s cotton yarn. The idea was to use a single coloured thread and show the colour interaction on three diffrent coloured fabrics. These stitches represent the stripes that are there on the bamboo culm. An exploration for a product such as a pouch uses the construction of a tetra-pack. Another end product can be a cushion cover. Over here I have made a miniature version for the cushion cover.

A glimpse of the final collection of the explorations that have the attributes of the subject of my study Bamboo.