Textile Design, Riot Fest Rust

Student: Emily L. R. Adams

Major: Textile Design

My work is connected to design because of the process involved to create it. As an artist and designer I carefully consider every detail along the way, the smallest change can cause a ripple in the outcome. The interaction of imagery and materials is part of the magic of designing that begins to take on a life of its own. I use photographic screen-printing techniques to achieve a variety of 'looks' on different fabrics. For me the design process happens organically, yet I am constantly thinking one step ahead of my actions. For example, in the "Polaroid Cloth" I used a snow dye process to add color to the fabric first and then printed the geometric Polaroid pattern using a chemical agent to pull the dye back out of the fabric. The push and pull of layering process and combining results in one, the fabric becomes rich with evidence to how it was created.

*Recipient of the Best in Textile and Apparel Design Award

Dye Plant Sampler - Quilt

Name: Mali Mrotinski
Major: Textile Design

My art practice has focused on the integration of research and object making within the studio and directly with the urban landscape. I look to historical textiles and processes to grater influence that I translate into a contemporary context. Through the foraging of my own dye plants and creating my own tools for harvest, I have been mapping my own process. I am interested in how the research process can be articulated through the creation of objects.

*Honorable Mention recipient

Flight of Fancy

Student: Barbara T. Bradley

Major: Apparel Design

Second Life is a biophilic textile design process that involved gently gathering over two thousand maple seeds from local street gutters and sidewalks and re-purposing them. Instead of becoming refuse, they receive a new life. Each seed was reinforced, hand-sewn, and patterned in a way to reflect movement around the silk organza robe and human form. Each seed invites us to appreciate its organic beauty as “nature’s perfect design”. Simplicity of placement transforms into chaos, as seeds mass towards the trailing sections. The two-piece gown and silk robe are designed using a flat rectangle draping processes with little waste. The gown’s rust polyester fabric is slit and burned to reveal a contrasting gold lining. Its overstitched loose threads mimic the hand-stitched seeds. The three pieces work in tandem to narrate a story about what happens when we blur the boundaries between nature, art, and textile making and revere nature’s gifts.

Textile Design, Riot Fest Polka Dot

Student: Emily L. R. Adams
Program: Textile Design

My work is connected to design because of the process involved to create it. As an artist and designer I carefully consider every detail along the way, the smallest change can cause a ripple in the outcome. The interaction of imagery and materials is part of the magic of designing that begins to take on a life of its own. I use photographic screen-printing techniques to achieve a variety of 'looks' on different fabrics. For me the design process happens organically, yet I am constantly thinking one step ahead of my actions. For example, in the "Polaroid Cloth" I used a snow dye process to add color to the fabric first and then printed the geometric Polaroid pattern using a chemical agent to pull the dye back out of the fabric. The push and pull of layering process and combining results in one, the fabric becomes rich with evidence to how it was created.

"Moodie"

Name: Jessica Frantal
Class: ART 448, Interactive Objects & Environments
Major: Apparel Design

The "Moodie" was born out of my desire to blend technology with apparel design in a cohesive, thoughtful manner. In this case, the technology reacts to the wearer, creating a garment which is truly an extension of the wearer. The lighting in the hood reveals information about the emotional state of the wearer to others, hightening the interation.

Windswept

Name: Barbara T. Bradley
Major: Apparel Design

I’ve always been drawn to the magic of shaping raw materials into three-dimensional form. My MFA creative work pursues the relationships found in biophilic design, fashioning a reverence for nature’s mystery. Found natural objects are embellished into pieces of wearable art. Windswept reflects nature’s complex layering of texture, shape, and movement. My intent is to imbue the sense of wind and a transformation passage between humans and nature’s archetype spirits. Hundreds of feathers, fiber-wrapped wires and plastic elements are designed to suspend in space and become a conduit for light. The tubing translucency exposes a raw core; a metaphor on exposing our human vulnerability. The custom-designed bias-cut halter dress offers an organic, body-hugging, liquid drape. Layers of coffee-dyed cheesecloth and wire mesh wrap the body to mimic nature’s erosion, surfaces exposed to wind. Windswept explores how manipulation of materials can blur the boundary between humans, art, and our natural environment.