User:Timreuser

alt text

My name is Tim Reuser and I'm a second years product design student at the WDKA. I choose the practise digital craft because I'm interested in learning more about the topic of craftsmanship and industry. I like the more theoretical approach this quarter offers and at the same time going to the workshop to test things hands-on. For me doing and learning is the same thing. The knowledge I gain from making things and reflecting on them is my biggest source of inspiration.

Embroidery

Technique; hand/ machine

First ideas/ tests

Here I did some handmade embroidery. It works by stitching a single thread through a fabric. It's very time consuming but therefore very satisfaction when finished

Here a first piece I did using a PFAFF embroidery machine at school. I found out the the machine does not recognize vector lines, only pixels. That's why I did a test with a drawing that uses a single continuos line. The machine just choose it's own path and the result wasn't very impressive

During my last test I learned that the machine doesn't recognize lines and figures out its own path using algorithms. To explore this a bit more I randomly spaced squares to find out what would happen.

Because the embroidery machine uses two threads( upper and lower) I thought that this would mean that my embroidery would as well have a positive and negative side. By using multiple colours the embroidery becomes interesting form both sides

Because the stitches make the textile 2,5D I wondered what it could be used for other than decoration. Perhaps a stamp?

experiments with my new learnings

after doing some test with the embroidery machine I developed this idea that I perhaps imitate an old television screen using red/green/blue lines and making an image with this. Unfortunately the machine couldn't read the file because the lines were too near to each other.

masterclass clair williams

Claire had a really nice workspace. For her work she uses data and applies that to her textile works. Also the uses a program calles processing to come up with fractal textures. The thing that bothered me a little that the things that come out don't really communicate their making process. You really need to know what happend to understand what you are seeing. To me her designs felt quite random and maybe even a bit arbitrary.

the workspace

Using copper to knit. copper is conductive so perhaps it could be used to transfer electricity of heat.

pushing to the limit

By studying the stitching machine I learned the the upper and the lower threads loop around each other. I figured that I could perhaps loose the binding material as long al the loops don't unwind. By crossing two layers of stitches I prevented the loops from unwinding.

sketches and ideas for the final work

stitch program experiment

after my pushing to the limit I got a bit stuck because I didn't really know which way to go. I knew I had to make something that could define me as a maker but usually my process goes the other way around. I usually don't know what the end result has to be but I figure it out during the process, and that was exactly what I was missing. I had to collect some more data and inspiration by doing tests. that is why I decided to explore the multiple stitches on a stitching machine. I decides to focus towards solely the properties of the stitches instead of the decorative part.

final product