Alternative Interior Surfaces Project: Week 2

Week 2: Technical Sampling & Textile Development

To help us think about sampling and the choice of materials we use, we have referred back to week 1's research and final colour palette. I've been really looking forward to this week as I haven't ever used alternative materials like this, and I've never designed an interior product either- so this unfamiliar territory was very exciting indeed. This experimental approach will encourage us to aim towards an appropriate fabric for the final outcome. 

My initial thought was to look at metals, however, my starting point was taking a trip around all the bargain stores in Edinburgh to see what I could cheaply purchase. I found a gridded heat mat which gave me some ideas, along with a hessian bag and some steel wool. I then popped into homebase on my way back to the good old 'Halls of Residence' where I selected various things, one of which were some veneer pins. I wanted to experiment by weaving various objects through wired and plastic grids as well as combining these with threads and beads. 

I decided my first mission was to bravely head down to the metal works in the college to see if I could find any scraps of metal. After being there for just 2 minutes, I was already wearing the attractive bulging goggles, determinedly drilling holes into some circular piece's of metal which the lovely metal man let me cut out. This machine involved a lot of muscle...good job I've been doing my weights at the gym! However, I only managed to make 4 as I maaay have broken the machine...oops!! Hope he's fixed it now! I did a pretty good effort in only breaking the drill bit once though when drilling the holes. Leaving the man with two broken pieces of equipment, I was back on my way up to textiles to get back into my sampling. The art building is massive and me being me, I got totally lost so the experimenting was on hold for a good 15 minutes while I discovered my route back to the comfort of textiles. Phew! 

I brought some tin baking trays to see if I could emboss forms successfully, however, I wasn't really happy with the finished samples as I felt it didn't look refined enough. I like this idea of repeating a shape though, so I will consider this for a final sample. 

Experimentation - playing around by weaving nails into various materials

I have now started adding in some colour, for example with these pink nails ( although not from my original colour palette). I wanted to see how gouache paint would react with metal. It worked quite well, so I will continue with this method. 

My group and I discovered these odd looking rusted metal piece's scattered and embedded all over the muddy ground at Samual Burn's Yard last week. Emma and I scooped all of these up in haste whilst Susana watched on the side line looking disgusted at our unusual enthusiasm. There was no way she was putting her hands anywhere near anything on this scarp yard. No way! Her punishment for this was to carry the heavy bag of goods priced at an expensive £2 back to college. Ahah! These unknown objects are what we have decided to use as the link between each of our final 6 samples. This will hopefully enable an obvious connection, along with the choice of colour between all of our designs for our chosen domestic interior, the bedroom. As I have chosen a headboard for my interior product, I thought that by connecting two of these shapes together, as shown above, it could make an interesting headboard shape. 

I'm happy with the amount of sampling I've managed to do this week. Its now time to take a step back and decide where I want to go from here. This however will have to be put on hold as a certain London train is calling for me to go and visit a dear friend...it's birthday party time! Very excited!!