The technique is to create unique shapes of fabric using other materials and forms to influence the design.

The materials used to form the shapes can be anything, as long as they are relatively heat resistant as they will be boiled in water.

First the fabric was manipulated into 2 different designs, one with spiky forms influenced by aluminium foil, and another with more rounded bubble like forms using glass pebbles, marbles and wooden dice, tied down with rubber bands.

Then the pieces are wrapped in more aluminium foil. They look like baked potatoes. And then they are boiled for an hour to allow the cloth to be formed into the shape as guided by the glass pebbles and aluminium foil spikes.

After that the foil packet is opened revealing the above image. Learning point is that the fabric shape is achieved by heat, therefore cannot be ironed or heated else its form is lost.

Final outcome

I arranged both pieces of fabric together and displayed it in a ceramic vase, being inspired by ikebana.

Vacuum forming is a process also using heat, but to manipulate or mold a sheet of plastic around an object to create a reverse mould. 

above is Patrick demonstrating how to use the vacuum forming machine. I think he was saying to be careful not to burn our hands. As seen in the picture the white sheet of plastic is clamped into a frame and heated, before being lowered over an object to mould over it.

I moulded over an oval shape of chemical wood creating this piece above.

The machine can be confusing to use because there are so many steps involved. Also another very important point to take note is that the shape to be moulded has to be widest at the bottom or else the object may not be able to be removed after moulding. For example at first i wanted to mould a coconut but was advised against it as it would be difficult to take out from the moulded plastic without breaking it. This is the main learning point.

Plastic fusing involves making a new sort of material by fusing plastic bag scraps using heat. Many differently coloured plastic bags and even fruit wrap sponge were used to be fused together between 2 layers of baking paper using an iron.

Above are the 2 sides of the material created from plastic fusing. What i like about it is the random nature of the pattern, no 2 are alike, and that with a variety of colours of plastic to choose from we can create exciting colour combinations, not to mention the text on some plastic bags creates a recycled feel.

I was wondering what application i could use with this material, and I decided to make this:

The fused plastic became the ‘cloth’ piece in this handheld fan, serving both an aesthetic and functional purpose. The shape is also a simplified motif of the butterfly.

Next technique is fabric of thread.

Fabric of thread is a method where a sort of new cloth or fabric is created by sewing intertwining and overlaying strings and threads of cloth and yarn together.

First the threads of yarn are arranged in a random pattern over each other until satisfied. Next they are sandwiched between a folded layer of watersoluble material that feels like plastic but is organic based. Then, sewing in a criss cossed fashion with vertical and horizontal lines of sewing a mesh grid is created that holds the yarn strings together. Next the piece is soaked in water for the material to dissolve, and placed over a shaped mould to form its shape. The piece is flat here because I flattened it to fit into the bowl.

The technique is image transfer of designs or patterns from paper onto another medium, using a heat source such as a heat press or iron.

The materials I explored transferring onto included polyester satin cloth as well as plywood. What I learnt was that some kinds of transfer mediums like transfer ink and fabric crayon could be used on regular copier paper, while to transfer a printed image onto wood you needed a laser printer and the Magic Touch CPM 6.2 paper.

Different natural leaves and a bird feather were used to create different patterns, as seen above.

The Iron was used as a heat source to transfer the design from the paper to the polyester satin cloth. Firstly the paper with the image is placed face down on top of the polyester satin cloth, then covered with a sheet of baking paper. Next heat is applied with the iron.

It turned out that after the image was transferred to the cloth, the colours became lighter, brighter and more vivid. The right image above shows direct transfer printing and indirect transfer printing using the pattern made by thread.

Digital transfer printing is different, as the image needs to be printed onto the Magic Touch paper.

The original image file has darker and richer colours, and when transferred to plywood using heat press the colours became lighter and look abit washed out. The learning point here is that perhaps the heat press should be used for a longer period of time and the paper should be peeled slowly to check if the image has transferred over properly, as some of the image on the bottom left corner did not transfer to the wood. Perhaps an image with warmer colours should have been chosen as well to go better with the light tan colour of the wood.

Due to the blue theme, I decided to pair it with my resin butterflies.