Textile Investigation and Application

Anyka Curcic
S3957845
Leather making Page 2

An item in my home that inspired me to make my leather was a green wallet that had now broken. It was my mum's
wallet and it was small and held mostly cards and some cash. The colour was a deep green and what I wanted to
recreate with my leather. To make the leather I choose to use a large leaf as I live near a park and wanted to use what
was around me. I started by picking a few big leaves in my backyard and then socking them in boiling water for 2
hours. This helped break down the leaf structure so it could be more mouldable and flexible. I then towel-dried that
water off of the leaves and pressed and air-dried them for 2 days. After that, the leaves become much tougher and I
then stuck them together with a hot glue gun so I could re-create the wallet. I then cut the leaves and glue the sides
together nicely to create my very own leather wallet. The leaf leather worked well mostly. Unfortunately one of the
leaves instead of becoming stronger became much drier and brittle and fragile. I am not too sure what happened to
that leaf as the rest of them turned out well. I was able to recreate that green leather colour of my mum's original
wallet organically through the leaves which I thought was really good and didn’t include any artificial colouring and
toxic materials. My new leather was very durable, waterproof and surprisingly strong.
Thermoplastic modifications Page 3

Thermoplastic materials are materials made from plastic polymers that react to heat by becoming more
pliable and mouldable. Thermoplastics soften when heated and harden when cooled. Such materials are
easier to recycle, however, lack important properties such as elasticity. A way of modifying materials is
through thermoplastic modifications. This changes the shape of the design usually and at times can add a
3D quality to fabrics.

With natural fabrics, glucose molecules and cellulose molecules within the fibres and linked via hydrogen
bonds. These hydrogen bonds are consistently reforming and breaking therefore taking the shape of the
material as it has been last left in, creating folds and creases. By applying heat these bonds break much
easier and therefore can quickly change the shape of the fabric. We can see this in some tests we studied
at home.

Shibori

is a Japanese technique of resist dyeing. Though due to application it also creates different shapes for the
material that is being dyed. For this example, I took two swatches of fabric and had some silk chiffon and
some silk and tied up rocks and aluminium balls into the fabric creating many bumps. I then soaked them
and boiled them in water for 20 mins and then added the dye on top. I then waited a day for them to dry
and then took out the rocks and aluminium to have a final fabric. The fabric both had the same properties
except for the shape which was manipulated to look as though it had bubbled up and had many hills and
dips where the fabric was tied.
 Page 4

Pleating.
Another way of manipulating the fabric’s shape with heating was pleating. I first got 2
samples of fabric one were cotton and the other was a polyester-type material (I’m not
exactly sure as it was some old fabric I decided to reuse). I created knife plates which
involve folding the fabric onto itself and leaving a gap between the folds which creates
the pleats. Then ironing those folds down keeps them in place and changes the shape.
Both fabrics were able to hold this in place and kept the folds after the ironing.
 Page 5

Natural dyes and printing

Dyeing and printing is a way for the material to change through colour. Dyeing and printing, however, act
differently. Dye pigments are bonded to each fibre of the fabric and it is bonded usually through heat but
can also be absorbed to be bonded. This means all the fibres now have the pigment bonded to them whilst
printing involves the pigment sitting on top of the fabric and isn’t as strongly bonded with the material
and fibres as dying is.

Natural Dying
An example of dying I recreated was natural dying. I choose some ingredients in my house I did turmeric
and red cabbage and added them with boiling water. I stirred the ingredients with the water so that the
colour pigment could mix with the water. I then added a strip of cotton material to the mixture and let that
sit for a day so it could absorb into the fibre. After I took out the strips to dry and see the changes made to
the material. The Tumeric created a bright yellow colour change to the material and the Red cabbage
created a purple colour to the material. The only properties that were changed were the colour everything
else was the same.
 Page 6

Printing
For a printing technique I choose to do stamping. I carved out a shape into a potato to create a stamp. I
carved out a love hard and a clover. I got some cotton fabric and tried the stamps. For the first stamp, I
tried gouache and used a green colour and used the stamp. I did the same with the love heart however I
used acrylic paint with a red colour. For the gouache swatch the colour absorbed a little into the fabric and
there for the only quality that was changed was the colour because it absorbed quite well into the fabric
but not completely so only one side of the fabric has that stamp in that colour and the rest of the fabric is
the same. The acrylic paint however sat on top of the fabric and didn’t absorb in this making a bit of a
rougher patch changing the texture of the material and also making that patch less flexible and more
structured where the stamp is.
 Page 7

Modify it your way

For modifying it my own way I trialled changing the aesthetic. The first trial I did was with alcohol
markers and I drew a design onto the fabric and then added water to make the alcohol bleed out. I did this
on cotton material. The alcohol didn’t really bleed out and I think that's because the marker's hand already
absorbed into the cotton before they could bleed and change the design. I think this might of worked
better on a nonabsorbent material. However other than the colours drawn n the material didn’t change.

I drew a pattern with alcohol markers. I then wet it so the makers would bleed which they didn’t much.

Flower hammering
The other modification I did was flower hammering. This required me to pick some flowers from my
garden and then hit them with a hammer onto the cotton material to stamp the pigment into the cotton.
Similar to the other trial the only modification only changed the colour of the material everything else
stayed the same.

I chose some flowers and then arranged them on the fabric to then hammer them
into the material. I used backing paper so that they would stay in place and onto
the material. I then go the final flower print on the cotton fabric.
 Page 8

Final Material Investigation

The material I will be starting with is some basic cotton fabric which is flexible and durable and
is a woven structure that helps create that durability. It is not very stretchy and is not waterproof.
It is also an off-white colour.
For my final material, I am going to change the material in three ways. Changing the shape
worked really well so I am planning on pleating the fabric. I also really liked the flower
hammering so I want to add colour to the material in an interesting way. I also want to make the
material weaker and even more flexible so I would do surface abrasion with sandpaper so that
the surface gets get weaker. This could be a good use for something decorative such as a pretty
skirt or some curtains as they work well with the pleats along with the softness of the material.
Personally, I would like to see this as a skirt I think it would be very comfortable and pretty
however with the surface abrasion and the weakening of the fabric it might be only worn on
special occasions and not for everyday use.

I started with the sandpaper abrasion so that I can weaken the fibres of the cotton and weaken
and make the fabric which it did. I started by getting some sandpaper and rubbing it on the
surface of the fabric on both sides and in all directions, I did this for about 20 minutes to make
sure it was all covered. The fabric was
It also softened the fabric as well. It made the fabric a little more stretchy and a bit more flexible.
I then went to do the flower hammering. Similar to the process I completed before I did it again.
It is like a way of stamping the colours onto the fabric and adding an organic design. Like in the
last process I picked some flowers from my garden and smashed a heavy object onto them to
press the colour into the cotton. This manipulated the colour of the fabric. The final modification
I did was the pleating this created a 3D shape to the material. Similarly, I made knife pleats again
by folding the material on top of itself and leaving gaps to make the pleats. I then ironed them in
place. This makes a different shape to the material and adds a bumpy texture with the folds the
folds also, therefore, shrink the fabric and then is able to stretch back out to its original size.
 Page 9

The original cotton material which is a woven piece of I then sanded the fabric
Fabric that contains continuous fibres.

After the fabric became softer and weaker Then I added flowers and placed them to then hammer
I then hammered them in wth a rolling pin because
that is all I had and it worked just as well. I used
baking paper to keep the flowers in place.

Then the material looked like this with the flowers

pressed into them

This is the final result after creating knife pleats

 Page 11

Material Specification Sheet

Common textile name Cotton

Fibre composition Continuous fibre type

Yarn type S-Twist

Fabric construction Woven

Modification 1 Surface abrasion with sandpaper

Modification 2 Flower hammering

Modification 3 Pleating

Additional finishes (if applicable) N/A

Properties soft, weak, flexible and wettable.

Suggested application/s this material could be used as a curtain or a skirt

with the pleats and decorative design mixed with
the softness and flexibility.

Suggested care cold hand wash as material is now very week.

Instructions N/A
Referencing (Harvard style)

DIY: How To Shibori Dye (2022). Available at:

https://www.brooklyncraftcompany.com/blogs/news/how-to-shibori-dye#:~:text=Shibori%20is%20a%20J
apanese%20dyeing,are%20both%20geometric%20and%20organic. (Accessed: 22 June 2022).

The Chemistry of Ironing (2017). Available at:

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-chemistry-of-ironing (Accessed: 22 June 2022).

DIY flower pounding on fabric (2020). Available at:

https://thehousethatlarsbuilt.com/2020/05/diy-flower-pounding-on-fabric.html/#:~:text=Tape%20down%2
0your%20flowers%20gently,a%20small%20hammer%2C%20begin%20pounding! (Accessed: 23 June
2022).