Young Designers

Today I went to the Friends Day of The Textile Museum in Tilburg.
Once a year all the Friends are invited for a special day.
This year, like last year, they had 4 young designers who graduated at the Eindhoven Design Academy presenting themselves. It was very inspiring.

First was Michelle Baggerman. When she looked at her growing stash of plastic shopping bags she began to look into a way to re-use them. Also she looked at what happened to these shopping bags, ending in waste fills and recycling units. But she discovered that even the recycling was very damaging to the environment. So, her mission is to find a way to re-use these bags. We all seem to keep quite a few and have a stash growing. Anyway, she started to cut the bags into strips and spin with a spindle into a thread. These threads were very strong so she was able to make a warp with them and wove a cloth from 20 shopping bags from one big supermarket. By spinning the strip the loud advertisements on the bags were no longer visible, she ended up with a pale coloured cloth. By using the same brand bags she was able to create a uniform cloth. The spun yarn was very thin as the plastic was stretching a lot.
She had quite a variety of coloured yarns on show by using different bags. She is still very much into researching how she could use this into a larger scale project as it is all very time consuming by hand.

The second was Borre Akkersdijk. Now, he really inspired me. He intended to go into interior design but he said he always ends up into fashion. He has been researching a way to weave or knit a cloth that is not only layered but could be made up into clothing. By designing it so, that it can be made up ready for cutting without needing a pattern. The pattern is woven or knit in. I think he will go a long way. He had my vote. (after all 4 presentations we could cast our vote who should get the Friends price of €1000.) Do have a look at his website.

After a short brake we had number three Anique Noordman. Her graduation project was A tuft of hair. She has been looking into ways of designing carpets inspired by hair treatment in African culture. Some very interesting results were on show.

Last was Niek Pulles. This again was so inspiring. He used film for his graduation project to show his fabrics, what an idea. He makes prints onto lycra. By using screen print, the result is never the same. But he has also been lasering or burning the fabric. I'm sure sport and dance will be interested in his ideas for fabric.

The €1000 price went to Michelle. I think her idea was the safest idea, the others needed more courage to vote for.
All in all an enjoyable afternoon. For next year's Friends Day they will invite more young designers. I think it is a great idea.

The Museum has a Textile Lab. Here designers, artists and students can use 7 different techniques to develop ideas they have. Some projects can be realised in the Lab but bigger projects will go onto industry to be realised after first being developed in the Lab. It is a great way to interact but also to generate an income for the Museum.

Current exhibition was of 3 project developed at the Lab. Enjoyable and interesting.