Colour – Kayleigh Mace

Thermochromics

Kayleigh — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:28:53 +0000

Moving on from the black thermochromic ink I wanted to test some of the other colours available. I decided to try 2 colours as they fit with the colours from my palette. These were a purple that changed the neon pink with heat and a yellow that turns neon yellow with heat. I tested them on a few colours and found that they only worked on the light colours, the dark fabrics absorbed the colours so they couldn't be seen. I'm happy with how they look on a white background so will be using them like this however if I wanted to use it on a dark fabric I could try discharging the fabric first and printing over the top of that.

The purple changed colour really well and there is a distinct difference in the change but the yellow is much more subtle and difficult to see. The print was tested on a few different white or light fabrics and worked on them all but with some variation on how solid the lines were. The print did not cover the organza as well as the cotton for example due to the structure of the fabric so a solid base will be required for the best appearance.

Going forward I will be using the purple within my samples as it works much better than the yellow. I will perhaps test the yellow again on an idea as I still have it to experiment with but with the change not working well I wouldn't want to rely on it as the feature of a design.

Materials Research

Kayleigh — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 01:30:06 +0000

Fabric Types

Previously I have mainly worked with silks and cottons so I wanted to make sure I looked at a wider range of fabrics for this project. I have purchased a range of materials in various colours with my palette or dyed them myself and decided the group them into their types to see exactly what I had to work with. The fabrics I currently have to work with are:

Acetate, cotton, denim, faux leather/suede, polyester holed fabrics, leathers/suede, neoprene/faux neoprene, transfolie, transparent silks/cotton organdie, silks/polyester, stretch fabrics, tulle and wool/velvet.

The wide range of fabrics were chosen based on the market research I have conducted. I was hoping to be able to use some more technical fabrics however as of yet I haven't been able to obtain the ones I had wanted to use. I'm looking at how some others that I can get hold of might be able to fit into my project. For now though I have a good range to get started with using the smart textile applications and innovative ideas. From my sampling it is becoming clear that not all of the ideas work with each other but they do work in smaller groups. Because of this I have decided to create mini collections so, looking at the fabrics I currently have I put them together into 3 collections to represent how they will be used.

The final collection groups currently look as follows:

One thing that did become apparent was that there is currently a lot of black fabrics which is something that needs addressing.

Printing with smart pigments

Kayleigh — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 17:00:36 +0000

Having purchased a trial pack of smart inks for screen printing I have begun to test how the work and look on fabrics. The designs I am printing are taken from my sketchbook and are a range of outlines, motifs and shading. I exposed the screen below to allow me to test the different drawings on a range of fabrics. I did print them on tracing paper which has exposed however next time it will need to be darker as some of the lines did not come out completely clearly.

The inks in the trial pack included thermochromic, photochromic, hydrochromic and glow in the dark. I also ordered a colour changing powder which changes from blue to purple when the fabric moves. All the inks came pre-mixed or with a binder apart from the colour changing powder however there was a spare binder in the print room I was able to use. For the initial tests I have worked with the thermochromic and colour changing pigments as it doesn't state how long the inks last once mixed and I didn't want them to become unusable if I mixed them all in one day.

The tests worked really well on flat fabrics changing colour from black to white once heated. I tested printing onto embroidered samples and although it does work it did make the embroidery become hard. Further testing will be needed to establish whether or not this will work if it was used on flat machine embroidery.

The colour changing pigments were also successful when used on dark fabrics however when used on lighter fabric it simply came out a flat shade of pink. I am glad I decided to test this now as going forward I know I would only be able to use this printing on a dark base fabric.

More testing will be needed to find the best base fabrics to work with and if the therrmochromic ink can be successfully used on top of embroidery.

Dyeing the palette

Kayleigh — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 16:49:01 +0000

Last week I decided to dye some fabrics in the colours of my palette. Although my palette isn't yet finalised I felt it would be a good opportunity to see how some of the colours would look on different fabrics and would give me fabrics to start working on for design ideas. As they were being dyed in batches of 2 each had to be the same type of dye, because of this I have started with acid dyes and have dyed a variety of silks of varying weights. The colours were scanned into the colour matching software to generate the dye mixture proportions and each colour was dyed onto a different fabric.

Checking the pH levels before adding the colour, salt and fabric.

The larger pots are able to hold fabric around A2 in size depending on its weight and 2 pots can be dyed in the mathis at once.

The results were generally good and evenly distributed onto the fabrics. The purple was the same colour shade as previously dyed however the mixture was different as it was more accurate to the original colour. The blue did come out much lighter than the shade I had scanned however it is a colour that appears in the original photographs I took for inspiration and may work as a part of the palette. I will use it for now in design ideas but in the new year I will also be dyeing it again and setting it as a wool fabric which i'm told may work better. The yellow and green are also very close in colour so I will be looking at whether either will need to change or if it is because they are both on transparent fabrics. Overall they are a good base to work from for now and to start developing ideas on were I can see how they will work in the colours from my palettes. In the new year I hope to dye on a wider range of fabrics to see how they take the colours which should allow me to decide which fabrics would be best to use in each colour.

Dyeing fabrics

Kayleigh — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 21:09:36 +0000

On Friday I had an induction to the dye labs and colour matching machine. It was great to be back dyein fabrics again and exploring new ways to get the colour matching right to my palette.

This amazing machine and software will scan a colour chip/fabric and tell you the exact colour mixing measurements to recreate it. It produces a series of results ranging from as close to possible to similar colours and how much of each of the mixed colours (red, blue, yellow, turquoise, violet) to use to create your colour. Previously I've had to mix colours by trial and error which although is a great way to learn how to create colours, it is very time consuming. This new method will allow me to quickly mix a colour and then place it into a machine for an hour and a half which would mix the colour with the fabric and dye it for me saving a great deal of time.

Whilst our fabrics were being dyed we were also given an opportunity to dye fabrics by hand in a pan on a hot plate. This was mainly to explore different types of shiburi dyeing and one off designs. For this we mixed the colours by hand in a fume cabinet, heated it to boiling point and then poured the colour into a pan of hot water.

The result of this was a collection of brightly coloured fabrics. Some were tied around a pole, some had shapes tied in them and one was simply dipped into two of the colours. Some of the techniques I don't feel will be appropriate for my project however the dip dyeing could be if done correctly. The purple I dyed in the machine did come out more red than the chip I had scanned due to not being able to use violet to mix it in the workshop however the colour was perfectly dyed. I will have to re try with the more accurate recipe to see if it comes out closer to the purple I currently have in my palette however I do like the richer purple so will see if that might work better after I have dyed all the colours.

Colour

Kayleigh — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:25:59 +0000

I've spent the last few days working on the colour development for my project. The initial inspiration has come from the artist Alexandra Pacula who creates oil painting of urban night life. These are some of her paintings:

(images taken from www.alexandrapacula.com)

Inspired by these I took my own images of light movement at night. They ranged from images of shows, buildings, traffic and light displays but were all taken in a way that distorts the original subject so the colour becomes the focus. These are a few of the photos I have been working on:

From these images I took the main 8 colours that were in each and analysed them looking at the tones, proportion and how they would compare on their current dark background if I were to swap it with the lightest colour/white. There were a range of colours that came through however there were similarities in some shades such as reds and blues. Further development and analysis will help to determine which of these if any will bee the most fitting for my final palette.

Whilst doing this I also researched designer from my intended market to see what colours they were current using and came across Mary Katrantzou's latest resort collection.

(Images taken from www.vogue.com)

The Primary colours are quite similar to those from my initial ideas showing that these bright colours are being used in high-end fashion. There were also similarities with the predicted spring/summer 18 colours on WGSN. It was pointed out to me however that I needed to be careful with my research as I need to be working beyond trends and not within them. This was not actually my intention, the research was simply to show that the colours that I am developing could work within commercial fashion. As a result of this feedback I need to make this clear that I am designing ahead of any predicted trends and not working to what has already been done/predicted for the coming seasons.