Upcycled Video Tape

It appears I've been beaten by Kai Yeung Yan I found her when I was researching different weaving mateirals online. Kai Yeung Yan goes to London College of fashion and has managed to make captivating garments by weaving video tape into textiles. Yan bought the video tape from a second-hand shop and then stitched it on garments to visualize music with different pitches and frequencies by varying the heights and widths of the pleating.

Cornelia Parker's Pornograghic Drawings

These delicate, watery images are distinctly sexual in appearance, though the shapes occurred by chance. The suggestion of body parts is appropriate, since the ink the artist used was made by dissolving pornographic video tapes. Describing the process, Parker says: "I dissolved pornographic video tapes in solvent and made Rorschach blots with the stain. The video tapes were shredded by the Customs and Excise who decide what should be taken out of circulation. I’m making you look at them again but they’ve become an abstraction...I just dropped these blots of ‘ink’ onto paper and folded it. I didn’t dictate what images appeared." 

I was told about this by a ex-tutor of mine, It really opened my eyes to the level of disortion a starting material can go through. I previously had been looking at knitting and weaving video tape but now I realise that I'm not thinking outside the box enough. I still want to experiment with the tape as an altenative to yarn but I also want to experiement with its strength and durablity by manipulating it further with other materials, possibly looking at other ways of breaking it down with inspiration from Cornelia Parker's experiments with solvent.

Reclaimed Video Tape



More to come.


I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with this new material but I'm thinking of knitting or weaving with these reclaimed video tapes into fabric..

Tea bags

After some sewing and gluing I have constructed a length of self-made fabric from the used tea bags. I've been drinking a lot of tea recently these are a mix of jasmine, mint and green tea. To finish this piece I think I want to seal it with PVA glue because I've tested it and it seems to darken the teabags and make them more transparent also it'll give it a nice shiny finish. From the photographs you can see that I've taken to hanging the fabric piece in my window because you can see the imperfections of each tea bag when light is shined behind it.

Cigarettes

This morning due to the break in the rainy showers of the past few days I did some litter picking, I went around the flats near my house with gloves picking up used cigarettes.Unfortunately do to the rain they are still a bit soggy so  I'm drying them out. They will be used in my cigarette fabric that I've previously posted. I'm going to need to obtain quite a lot of cigarette butts to fill the pockets of the teabags so I imagine from now on I'll be carrying some gloves and a plastic bag around with at all times. Its nice because I feel like I'm truly recycling. 

Kitchen/Studio



I turned my kitchen into a studio today. As I went to sleep last night I was thinking about teabags and the different shapes and sizes they come in these days, previously I've worked with triangular and circular bags but my mind wondered to more traditional shapes. After scouring my local shopping centre I came home with an overpriced box of individually wrapped jasmine flavoured teabags. I thought that the jasmine would atleast make the teabags give off a different scent which could add to my now fragrant portfolio. So this afternoon I've been hard at work, drinking tea,deconstructing,emptying,dying and drying teabags. I've yet to see if my venture will be successful as I plan to later in the week (once they are fully dried) to get out my needle and thread and begin the laborious job of sewing each individual bag together.

Cancer Stick Clothing Eco-friendly?

 

FACT:  Researchers say that in 2008, some 4.5 trillion cigarettes were stubbed out all over the world.

Alexandra Guerrero is a Chilean designer who discovered that cigarette butts, if properly cleaned, can be recycled into a wool-like fabric and made into stylish, durable and eco-friendly clothing. According to ButtsOut an estimated 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are discarded around the world each year. So far Guerrero has used about 5,000 cleaned and recycled cigarette butts to design a dress, a vest, a hat a poncho and even some soap. 5,000 recycled cigarette butts isn't much of an impact compared to the amount littered each year but it is a start and Guerrero does hope to recycle more in the future.

To clean the cigarette butts they are first placed through an autoclaves. Then the cigarette butts are washed in a polar solvent, put back in an autoclaves, rinsed, dried and then shredded. Once cleaned the recycled cigarette fiber is dyed different colors and separated by color. The colored cigarette fibers are then spun together with natural sheep wool. This end fabric is what is used to make the clothing. About 10% of the fabric is recycled cigarette butts. When financially feasible Guerrero hopes to increase the percentage of cigarette butts to wool in the fabric mix.

Alexandra Guerrero Article

Response to Susie Freeman/Lady Gaga

Cigarettes in Fashion?

Lady Gaga - Telephone

I saw this video today, I was particularly fascinated by the 'cigarette sunglasses'. Its a great example of reclaiming materials and altering their uses. I also liked the idea that they were displeasing to the senses as they burned noisly and gave off a strong smell. Its also interesting because in the video the cigarettes were lit which started me thinking about different sorts of temporary materials and coverings that I could experiment with such as ice.


Other artists/designers who inspired me to use cigarrettes include Susie Freeman & Irving Penn below.