Module 5 - Chapter 4 - Fabric Investigation

I collected as many different types of fabric as I could in white or natural colours. Some were from my fabric stash, some (many of the man-mades and rubbers) were from work. Some I ordered online to increase the selection and diversity.

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I then carried out test on a selection of fabrics to see how each behaved:

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SILK NOIL

construction: finely woven

creases when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretch on bias
edges fray easily
bias frays with some difficulty
threads unpick from centre of weave easily
a crumbling ash was formed on the edge when burned
burn marks were made on the fabric with a soldering iron

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LINEN SCRIM

construction: loosely woven

creases when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretch on bias
edges fray easily
bias frays easily
threads unpick from centre of weave easily
a crumbling ash was formed on the edge when burned
burn marks made with a soldering iron were difficult to see because of the openness of the weave

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COTTON ORGANDIE

construction: firmly woven

creases heavily when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretch on bias
edges fray easily
bias frays quite easily
threads unpick from centre of weave easily
a crumbling ash was formed on the edge when burned
burn marks were made on the fabric with a soldering iron

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LINEN

construction:  woven

creases when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretch on bias
edges fray easily
bias frayseasily

threads unpick from centre of weave easily
a crumbling ash was formed on the edge when burned
burn marks were made on the fabric with a soldering iron

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WOOL BLANKET

construction:  woven

does not crease when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretch on bias
edges do not fray very easily
bias does not fray very easily

threads unpick from centre of weave quite easily
a crumbling ash was formed on the edge when burned
burn marks were made on the fabric with a soldering iron

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COTTON VELVET

construction:  woven

creases when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretch on bias
edges fray easily
bias frays easily

difficult to unpick threads from centre of weave
a crumbling ash was formed on the edge when burned
burn marks were made on the fabric with a soldering iron

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NYLON LYCRA

construction: knitted

does not crease when crumpled
stretches well both vertically & horizontally
stretches well on bias
edges do not fray easily
bias does not fray easily

difficult to unpick threads from centre of weave
fabric melted away from flame when burned and created a hard edge
fabric was melted away with soldering iron

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POLYESTER SATIN

construction: woven

does not crease when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
stretches well on bias
edges fray very easily
bias frays easily

threads unpick from centre of weave quite easily
fabric melted away from flame when burned and created a hard edge
fabric was melted away with soldering iron

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TYVEK

construction: spun bonded

does not crease when crumpled
no stretch on warp/weft
no stretch on bias
edges do not fray
bias does not fray

no threads to unpick
fabric melted away from flame when burned
fabric was melted away with soldering iron

I then decorated fabric bands with inventive edges.

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It was interesting to see how the different processes gave exciting textural qualities to the fabric strips.