Kayleigh Mace

New smart materials

Kayleigh — Tue, 02 May 2017 19:53:40 +0000

As i am not able to use the photochomric inks at the uni i have been looking at alternatives to do the same thing. The company i purchased the inks from also produces a film so i ordered some to test that. It changes from clear to blue in the daylight and works really well. The film is slightly frosty but i was thinking about how it could be used. I have the idea of perhaps sticking it to sequins which are either clear or white and seeing if it will still work then. The only issue i have currently is how it would work in the long run with the film and whether it would peel off the sequins over time. It is an idea that I would like to test and I have developed a design idea that it could work really well with.

New Market Trip

Kayleigh — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 18:34:41 +0000

To further my market research and gain more inspiration I visited London again to explore the latest collections and how they differed from my first visit. There was a particularly inspiring display on at Liberty's which focused on garments that were embroidered and embellished. There were a range of styles on show but the most used technique was digital embroidery. Seeing these garments gave me a good insight into how high-end designers are currently using digital embroidery in their designs and the varying approaches to style that are being explored. It was also good to see the scale and placement of the embroidery which I can use as inspiration for my design ideas when creating final samples.

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.

Development Progress

Kayleigh — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 20:24:31 +0000

I was unsure about how each collection was going so I decided to group them again and see how they had developed. I was surprised to see some had developed a lot more than others for example the first collection had 3 final samples on the way where as the others were mainly development ideas. It also gave me the opportunity to see what was missing and if anything else needs to be bought into them. Doing this has enabled me to form a plan for each collection going forward to address the issues and continue building them.

Collection 1

The samples are coming along well and reflect the aesthetic I want this collection to have. I need to make sure I finish the samples completely before I start to make more so that I don't end up with lots of half finished pieces. There is a lot of fringing so far so I need to look at other techniques to pull into this collection and re look at the layout of the top frayed sample. The collection is starting to give a sense of movement and has a light feminine aesthetic. I also haven't used any purple in this collection so far and need to see where or if I can bring it in or, whether the palette needs re looking at.

Collection 2

Theres a lot of blue in this collection and no pink or purple yet. I need to design how I am going to use the thermochromic printing ink of these colours to tie it in with the collection. There is a lot of 3D and manipulation in the this collection so I need to look at what other techniques can be bought into it. I also need to start developing these into final design samples to make sure they are not forgotten about as ideas. I have changed the green in this palette to a brighter shade which I felt helped to add to the fun, energetic nature of the collection.

Collection 3

This collection needs the most development as it is lacking in design ideas. I have decided from this to revisit my initial photographs from Paris to look at the details and gather some more motif ideas to explore. This collection is going in the direction of having a mix of illustrative designs and large embellishments that use the rich colours to interpret the light movement images. I'm hoping to be able to tie these all together through colour and using similar techniques across the digital embroidery ideas. There are a lot of dark colours so far in this collection, mainly black, so more colour needs to be introduced.

Digital Prints

Kayleigh — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 20:00:32 +0000

It was suggested from my first presentation to consider digitally printing some of light movement images and the ones with the colour palettes on. I decided to look back through the images to see if there were any that could work as prints. I narrowed them down but found a lot had other things going on that I wouldn't want in the prints such as signs and performers. To resolve this I loaded the images in photoshop and experimented with the scale and placement making them larger and focusing on certain areas of the images. What I found was that it then created areas which were in focus and others that were blurred but they seemed to work well together. I printed them onto paper first so that I could narrow them down to see which worked best together and picked 8 to work with initially.

I like the colours on these images and can see how I could easily work into them with stitch. One image has been put into a repeat as the lines worked well to create a stripe pattern. I will be printing them onto a silk crepe as from the samples on display it showed the colours in bright tones well and had a good weight.

New Design Ideas

Kayleigh — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 15:05:13 +0000

I had a few ideas that I wanted to test and get out of my system so I could see them with my development work. I wanted to explore manipulation on the surface through altering the materials. I started with creating a 3D surface with the tubular crin weaving it with another fabric. The technique created layers to the surface and could be developed to create a 3D sample.

I then had an idea to recreate a goldwork technique but with acetate folding a strip over a shape. The technique worked well to create layers but not on the base fabric as it distorted it due to its lightweight.

Continuing with the same idea I cut sequin strips and manipulated them on the surface of different fabrics. This created a few potential ideas that could work well in samples. The final one had the added feature of manipulating the fabric when it retreats. This idea means I can use embellishment to create a stretch like fabric from a non stretch fabric.

Finally I looked at using distress as a type of fringing to vary the techniques I was using for the idea. I have layered different fabrics and manipulated the edges by distressing them.

E-textiles light sensor experiment

Kayleigh — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 16:22:13 +0000

I ordered lots of e-textiles bits a few weeks ago and have been testing them to see how they work. I started with a battery holder with a built in light sensor which turns the leds on when the light level drops. I tried stitching a parallel circuit following a shape from my visual research to see if I could work out how to do it.

After I had completed the circuit and checked that it was working I attached clear tubes to the leds so I could test a design idea I had. I wanted to see if the light would travel down the tubes and create a fibre optic look. The tubing is quite stiff and difficult to work with so I will need to find something that is more flexible but for the technical testing it worked ok. I tested the idea in a dark room and these were the results.

The light does travel a bit but not as much as I had expected. I do however like the appearance of it with a subtle glow down the tube. The stitching of the conductive thread has come loose from being handled a lot so this is something I will need to address for the final design. I will also use more flexible tubing and smaller pieces as they are quite long due to it's lack of flexibility. 1 battery will light 5 leds as shown so this will need to be considered in the final design. I will be looking at using 2 batteries to power 10 leds and I'm hoping 2 sensors would react the same to the varying light levels.

More 3D printing embellishments

Kayleigh — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 19:14:02 +0000

Following on from my original tests I spent more time in rhino learning what I could do on the program. I really wanted to create ideas and shapes that were unique and couldn't be replicated through techniques such as laser cutting which is something I've used a lot in the past. At first it was difficult to get my head around how to create the 3D shapes accurately but with lots of practice I managed to produce some shapes I was happy with.

I learnt how to create a 'wavy' shape from drawing a motif in the top view and then editing the points in the right view so that the lines were no longer flat. The result was a 3D leaf shape that has movement no longer sits flat in the surface like the previous shapes.

From researching I came across a tool called cage edit which allowed me to edit lots of point on a shape and change their height to create caved in shapes. I used this tool on the flat leaf shapes I had drawn to create a 3 D surface which I lend put holes into. I wanted to combine some of the shapes in my research I felt a simple shape would work best with a leaf.

After these I continued to create a variety of shapes that I could use which resulted in these. They were all inspired by shapes in my visual research and created using the skills I had developed in the program. I'm really pleased with my progress and what I've been able to create in a short time. I now feel I have to confidence to work on these skills and refine them in the future to use the software more in my designs. I came onto the MA degree wanted to be able to use 3D printing and now I can.

So from these I selected the most appropriate shapes and 3D printed them.

They came out really well although you can start to see how the clear resin is affecting the glowing qualities in some of them. When printing the finals this is something I will need to consider and place them accordingly or use it as a feature. What was surprising was that the spring shape does in fact spring so has movement which was exciting and the shape sizes were also exactly what I had hoped. Going forward I will be printing the tubes, medium and small size, and the swirls. I would also like to print the leaf with the holes however the technician would like to try making a mold and casting it as an alternative method.

3D printing tests

Kayleigh — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:51:03 +0000

After testing the glow in the dark resin and developing some simple shapes from my visual research in Rhino and Maya I finally got the chance to 3D print some ideas. We had decided to use 1 part glow pigment to 3 part resin so started with mixing the printing resin in a cup with the pigment. It took quite a bit of mixing to get the consistency smooth as the pigment made the resin mixture thicker. Once mixed it was added to an empty cartridge and put into the machine with an older tray. As this was a new test for the machine and university we were unsure how it was going to work or if it even would but thankfully it seems to have worked really well. I was particularly grateful that the university were kind enough to pay for half of the mixture to help with costs provided they could use some of it to print their own examples with it being new to the university. The tank has to have a certain amount of resin it in to print so it had to have more resin in it than will actually to be used. It unfortunately also means that some of it will potentially be wasted if it cant be used in another way.

We decided to print solid shapes to begin with including 3 straight lines of varying lengths and 1 curved line. In addition to these we also printed 2 leaf shapes and, a screw and bolt for the uni. The mixture does clearly need shaking to re mix it before use to make sure it doesn't clog up the cartridge and that the pigments don't sink to the bottom.

The print took 3 hours and once finished had to be removed from the plate and washed in an alcohol bath.

After this the components were placed in a UV machine to set for an hour. The machine changed up the UV pigments in the components making them glow really bright when they were removed. This also proved that the process had worked with all the components glowing strongly when the lights were turned off.

The pigment had spread fairly evenly within the pieces with only the thinner layers showing some slight inconsistency. They aren't too heavy in weight either although if a lot were used in one sample it would make it quite heavy. Due to the weight I have stitched them onto neoprene and they would need to be used on a base fabric that could support their weight.

The appearance is plastic and so this needs to be considered in their use and there is a slight rough texture but I was informed they were printed on the lowest quality setting. I can see how these pieces could be used in my work and i'm excited to produce a design with the components. Next we are testing the hollow grid shapes to see how the scaffolding affects the design and whether they could be printed on this machine.

Sarah Kettley

Kayleigh — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 15:23:07 +0000

Yesterday we had a lecture from Sarah Kettley and I have to admit I was really looking forward to it having read extracts from her book for my research. She showed us the various projects she has worked on over the last 13 years exploring e-textiles and sensory work. It was really inspiring to see how the e-textiles have been used in so many different ways for a variety of purposes. The work ranged from using sensors to detect people's presence to interactive projects with the charity Mind. I was intrigued to see the different types of sensors that had been used and the possibilities of e-textiles when used in products. She also mentioned working with conductive thread on the digital embroidery machine which could help my work as I had been wondering what type of thread would work best.

After the lecture I was fortunate enough to be able to have some 1 on 1 time with Sarah to talk about my project. In comparison to last week she was very enthusiastic about my work and what I was exploring which was great to see and hear. She gave me some good advice on people to look into and it was helpful to talk with her about my ideas and get instant feedback on how I could approach them. She did seem to particularly like the idea of putting LEDs on the end of bugle beads to create an almost optic light look. I wanted to take this opportunity to talk to someone who is clearly an expert in their field with lots of experience working with e-textiles and I'm glad I did. Going forward I'm going to start testing some ideas to make sure I get the circuits right for a design as it needs to be structured in a particular way. She told me to look at their work for the 'internet of soft things' as there is a guide to designing circuits which should be really useful. I've got a temperature sensor and light detecting sensor I'm keen to get designs for along with a few others if they are appropriate and I can find the right design for them. The hardest part will be working a circuit into a design but I look forward to the challenge.