This framework aims to support the fabrication, documentation and communication of your work as a textile designer. It consists of five phases, or sections, that can be used in any order, depending on the goals and starting point of your project.
I think it is important to capture different aspects of the knowledge you gain in your practice in one place and facilitate connections among them, both for yourself as in your communication with collaborators. The book or database you will create through this process can be seen as a visualisation of your personal knowledge, which helps you and your collaborators understand the opportunities and challenges of the things you design.
The framework is developed for textile designers that want to prototype in both industrial and craft practices, but if you do not work on industrial looms, feel free to pick and choose or adjust the tools as you wish. This framework is designed with flexibility in mind; it is intended to grow and change with your wishes and needs as a textile designer.
Fig. 1 shows the phases of the framework. Each phase can be used in any order, in any combination.
Each phase in the process has its own purpose:
Systematic exploration
This phase is aimed to support you in choosing what samples to make, and giving you the tools to communicate about your sample ideas with collaborators.
The sample library
This phase is aimed at the documentation of your work, and on using documented samples from previous explorations as inspiration for future projects.
Technical characterization
This phase is aimed at collecting technical insights you gain throughout your project. These insights can be used to communicate possibilities and limitations of the techniques you are working with to your collaborators.
Reflective mapping
This phase focuses on reflecting and understanding the samples you develop within industrial and sustainable contexts.
Future vision
In this phase, you can articulate and visualise the use and further possibilities of the techniques you are working with.
Example Project
In my practice, projects are often; Material-driven, outcome-driven, process driven or a combination of these. And therefore,how I navigate these phases changes per project. To explain the framework, I will use a project that involves the use of a TC2 jacquard loom to explore the possibilities of discontinued weft for woven textile-form trousers.
Fig 2. Shows the way I navigated each phase during the Discontinued weft project.