Kay Lange
"It's All About the Fabric"
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| (Photos by Patrick Fraser) |
When faced with the challenge of creating a garment to represent a paradigm, I spent a fair amount of time on the computer “Googling” and scratching my head. What is a paradigm and how do I, as a designer/weaver, endeavor to depict that concept in my work? I wanted to weave the fabric for this project and so I turned to “complex weave structures”….a challenge in and of itself.
What I created is a fabric that begins one way and through a process…ends up another. When the fabric comes off of the loom it is totally FLAT. The introduction of hot water and agitation (in a washing machine) begins the transformation through the shrinkage of the wool fibers and the puffing of the cotton yarns.
IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY you can “read” this paradigm from the bottom up in the “shift”. The entire fabric was washed…the middle and top was washed again and then the top was washed once more. The result is subtle but the change is undeniable. It is a paradigm shift-shift…..and IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FABRIC!