Project Critique

So, here are a few pictures of what we showed in class last Friday.  The biggest problem the group had was with the printed shirt covered in tags. The suggestion was to turn it into a 3d object that can be worn. So you have the art object as the worn piece and worn clothing as the art objects or something to that extent. Not sure what's going on with this right at the moment. It's time to get through other final's first.

WIP Shots

Work in Progress Shot's, from a few nights ago. We had critique on Friday. I have some pictures of the final product as well but I wanted to post these first cause I thought they were fun. We had a few issues;

1. The t-shirt print out turned pink when we steamed it. All the white is now a rather aweful shade of pink. This is an issue with the printer at the moment it hasn't been properly calibrated or something to that affect.

2. When screen printing on denim, the pigment soaks into the material and rather disappears. However, the effect was rather nice in the end even if it wasn't expected.

3.  We decided to go with just one type of fiber for the display of blog information instead of a lot of different facts. We went with Cotton as it's one of the main fibers used in clothing and something that everyone knows.

4. We dumped down the mission statement for the project quiet a bit and made it a lot simpler. I think it worked fairly well in terms of tying everything together.

Alright that's all I'm going to say at the moment since I have other comments on the critique and a few points from coming out of that.

 

Cotton & The Environment

Did you know that the average tee-shirt will generate 28 times its weight in harmful carbon emissions in its lifetime?

Well you like me might wonder well, why and how is that? It comes down to a number of issues:

1. Methods that are used in farming the cotton.
2. The fact that most cotton is then transported across large distances to reach the processing/manufacturing plants.
3. Methods that are used to process the raw material, to the knitting and dying processes.
4. The later washing, drawing and packaging of the producting.
5. And the fact that most products once packaged for shipping then travel long distances to reach the place where they are then sold.

Transportation accounts for a large percentage of the carbon footprint that is given off. The fact that most materials are not grown where the product is made and the fact that most of our products are no longer made locally not even remotely so.

People might think that Cotton is a wonderful alternative to all the plastic fabrics out there such as polyester or nylon and other mixes there of. However, Cotton isn't always the great alternative.

1. Cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops grown in the world.
2. Cotton farming and the production accounts for a quarter of the world's total pesticide use.

Links: 
- Harmonious Living, Your Carbon Footprint - Read The Lables: http://www.harmoniousliving.co.za/Environment/Eco-Friendly/Your-Carbon-Footprint-Check-the-Labels/
- Earth Trust, Carbon Footprint Reduction Table

Tag UpDate

So an update on the tags and what we're doing. Candace and I put together a number of the images we took from the GoodWill escapade and I took from the Walmart escapade (People give you the oddest looks for just walking around places and taking pictures). So we took all these pictures and put them together into the shape of a t-shirt and then used the cloth printer in the textile's lap to print it out in a large size.

When Candace get's back we're going to collage the tags across the top of the printed form--sewing them on one side so that they stick out and create a 3d layer over the 2d print out. At least that is the current plan of attack. ;)

We may need more tags and we've talked about a couple of other ideas as well.

I would also like to create a digital form of the map that goes along with this project that is somewhat interactive but I'm still trying to figure out Flash and thus the first few attempts have failed. We'll see if I can do it by next week. hahaa. *disappears*

Around the World with Aunt Sharril!

In these last two weeks Jay and I are trying to reel in some information from people abroad, and I'm very happy to have received a response from my Aunt Sharril, who is the most well traveled lady I know. I'd love to get a peak her closet, but alas, all I have is some interesting information about a few items.

White pants,  50 % cotton,48pc linen 2 pc lycra bought in Australia, Made in China
Printed Top, 100 % rayon  bought in Autralia, made in Indonesia
Skirt, 100 % cotton bought in New Caledonia, made in India
Shorts, 100 % cotton bought in US, made in Egypt
Sweater, 100 % cotton bought in France, made in Spain
Night gown, 100 % cotton  bought in England, made in Sri Lanka.
"I wonder where all that cotton actually came from. I notice that nothing I randomly picked in my closet is made in France or the US where I spent a lot of time"

Which is a good point. Even though things are made in one country, there is a very long chain of production leading up the actual constructing of a garment. An item of clothing could have materials that travelled around the world 5 times before making it to your closet!!!

Thanks again to Aunt Sharril, and hopefully we get some more responses from others abroad!!

-Candace

Last One - Printed Tags

The newest thing as I'm sure many people are aware of is the 'Printed Tag', which I for one love. I cut all my tags out and throw them away as soon as I get anything from anywhere. However, when you got somewhere to try and take the tags out of something... it does rather present a problem.

So what do you do? Well, I took pictures of the tags for the fun of it. When approached by GoodWill employees asking what you're doing, looking like a crazy art student helps. Just smile and say, "I'm doing a design project, designing tags for clothing so I'm doing research is there a problem?"

Alright so there is an answer to that problem at least a fun one if not anything more then that. I'm done with the posting spam for tonight.

More to come later.

Adventure!

Well, you have a pile of tags on a table. What do you think? Where can I get more of these!

Hahhaha... or at least that's what went through my head. So Candace and I went on a field trip out of the studio with scissors, camera, hat's and all daring to GoodWill. Where we proceeded to fill a cart with clothing.

We did not much care what the clothing looked like, or if it wouldn't in a million years fit either one of us. What did we pay attention to? What was on the tag, a funny face, the word 'hemp', or *gasp* made in the USA and a variety of other things.

So you have a cart full of cloths in GoodWill and then you take them by fives and sixes into the dressing room and proceed to cut all the tags out of them and stuff them into your camera bag (or purse)!

And then after that of course you go through everything that has been left in the dressing room and see what you can find in there. You'd be surprise what you find in dressing rooms.

Any questions? Nope good, wanna help?

Tips:
1) Get a pair of scissors that fits into your purse or a small bag.
2) Make sure you have room in your small bag for the tags.
3) Take camera but remember people give you very strange looks if you use the flash while you're in there...

Blog Info

The current workings for the display of the information from the  blog. Two outfits that came out of the clothing swap--clothing that was left behind to be sent to good will. We're talking about screen printing and or sewing information and facts onto each article of clothing about where it came from--how far away that is--and things about what it's made out of. (Not sure about the undergarments but it was amusing to pin them to the wall.)

Either way that's where we're going so far. We have clothing the information needs to stream lined to bullet points or something easy to read and interesting.

Fiber Awareness Project Part 2

Alright well as some of you might be aware--or not. The FAW is really sort of a two part project. The first part involved this blog as well as the map and all of that. The second part of this project included clothing swaps, getting together with people and trying to make stuff. The first and the second parts of this project both sort of worked and sort of didn't work for differing reasons. The stepping stones in the first project we over came to some extent, I'm still not overly happy with the map--mainly because I want MORE people from other countries. However, I'm okay with where things are at this point in time. I would like to continue posting information on different fibers on here, we'll see how that goes.

So one of the big issues we've been trying to resolve with both of these projects is; what do we do with the information. How do we display it? How do we put what we've been doing into a format for people to come and look at. In a format that we can put up for critique next month. We got together today to try and figure out the answers to some of these questions:

What came first? The attack of the clothing zombies! We've all been brain washed into buying more and more clothing. What would happen if we all had to wear all the clothing we think that we need and or want? (We'd probably all be sweating our buts off and falling over because we couldn't hardly stand up among other things.) Hahahha... anyway rather random but it was a fun interlude into meaninglessness.

You have a whole bunch of clothing, but what do you do with it? What do you do that constitutes an art project that raises awareness about clothing and where it comes from? What do you want to draw peoples attention and how do you do that? (Yes, clothing zombies isn't the answer.)

Well you can take all of the clothing that you have and weave them together into a great big rug. However then you end up with one more big thing that sits in a big somewhere in your house that you never know what to do with again. That isn't really something that either of us really wanted or needed. We discussed cutting things up to, but we didn't really want to destroy the clothing and render it useless... so we settled for cutting all the tags out of the clothing instead:

Hey Ruth!

A.. I live in Australia, state of New South Wales, town called Colo Vale.

 

B & C Where was the clothing made? What is it made from?

1- lime green pants - Made in China, cotton/spandex

2 -brown quilted jacket - Made in China, polyester/rayon

3 - white/floral dress - Made in Thailand, cotton

4 - Levis jeans - Made in Macau, cotton/spandex

5 - black knit jacket - Made in Indonesia, rayon

 

I''m attaching a pic of myself in the green pants (1) at my brother's wedding which was about a year ago, as you can see it was an outdoors afair.  I bought the outfit, green top and pants in Canberra on a girls weekend away just before I came to Bloomington. I would have included details about the jacket as well but I have cut all the tags off so I havent got a clue about it.

It was a bit scary to see where all these clothes were made...in Asia, mostly China.  I'm sure I have a few things in my wardrobe that are made in Australia, but unfortunately I have nothing with me.  The Levis I bought at College Mall in Bloomington...seems it doesnt matter where you buy the stuff, it's all made in the same area.

 

Anyway I hope this is of some use,

 

Cheers,

Ruth

Swap-Eration Part 1

So Candace and I held the first Swap-Eration today. It went well, we had people show up. We mostly did mending today and traded clothing. It was interesting to see what people showed up with and what they went home with.

Anyway, so I'm not going to post a whole lot of pictures. Candace set up a FB event for it. I'm hoping that people can view the pictures that way. This is a link to the Face Book Event, where images have been posted. If that doesn't work please let me know and I'll post a few of the images here.

I think Candace took a couple of pictures to. We will be having another Swap-Eration later this month if anyone is interested in joining us for that, please let us know and we'll send you information.

Map Close Ups

On the Subject of Cotton

Fiber Footprint Calculator; So, Candace found this earlier today or yesterday and sent me the link to it. It's rather interesting. There were a lot of other facts on this website as well that I found interesting.

This website is run by a group in California, advocating for cleaner cotton in the state. They include facts about cotton, ways to support cleaner cotton. I also found it amusing that they have fashion pictures for garments made out of cleaner cotton.



The video was taken from the website above, found on this page. But yeah, anyway it's kinda interesting there are more facts and stuff on there if you want to poke around. :)

SWAP-ERATION

CLOTHING SWAP AND ALTERNATION/MENDING WORKSHOP

In a two part project, jay and I will be hosting a SWAP-ERATION.

Part one of the project is data collection on http://fiberawareness.blogspot.com/

Part two is where we bring it around town/full circle, and encourage everyone to waste and purchase less. The clothing swap is an opportunity for ya'll to bring clothes you'd like to trade, bring clothes you need help mending or altering.

Bring your own booze, we'll have snacks, bring a favorite record or cd, bring any thread or needles you have.

Jay and I will be working on a crazy costume out of the unwanted clothes, so feel free to help out with that!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

12-5pm

come anytime! 714 E 2nd St Bloomington IN 47401

Map update!

Alright, so I've been told I post too much. Now I feel bad for not hardly posting at all in here. Anyway, here are the new updated images for the map. I got a wonderful response from the local International community here in town. Once again thank you to everyone who took the time to email a response before and after I posted the previous thank you. It was much appreciated and it really helped fill out the map. ;)

Okay enough talk, time for pictures. ^_~

Thank you Lwin

I received this email today and decided to share it. Thank you very much for your response Lwin, we appreciate it!

We're asking all visitor's to this site to tell us what we're wearing right now (or your five favorite articles of clothing):



a. The country are you from (for the US what state are you from)?
Burma

b. Pick out three to five items of clothing (shirts, jeans, etc)

1) Longyi (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longyi.jpg)
   made in Burma
   made of cotton

2) Shirt (attached picture, the pants that go with the shirt is was actually bought in the USA (at Gap) and imported from China) :)
   made in Burma
   made of cotton

3) Shan Pants (this picture is of Thai pants, but they are pretty much the same. http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacefulbean/2686370513/)
 made in Burma
 made of cotton


Best,
Lwin
--
http://lwinmoe.friendsofburma.orgwas