User:Laura.schurink

Fantastic Forgeries

                
                        Long neck & Groove bottles by Hella Jongerius

http://www.jongeriuslab.com/work/long-neck-and-groove-bottles

http://www.frozenfountain.nl/hellajongerius

http://www.kunstbus.nl/design/hella+jongerius.html

http://www.unfold.be/pages/projects/items/kiosk-20/all/date

  Other Projects Hella Jongerius did with bottles

http://www.jongeriuslab.com/work/chicle-project

http://www.jongeriuslab.com/work/evian-bottle

                      Process first replica

I was really inspired by the material experiments and material usage which Hella Jongerius applies in her works. These are my first drafts about what kind of materials I wanted to use.

First I wanted to translate the materials of the longneck bottles too directly. So after that I decides to bring the material usage more to my fashion background. So it could be knitting, felting, using patterns, weaving and embroidering.

First I tried copying the shape of a bottle with fabric, so I could make patterns out of it and resew it together in a different fabric.

Than for the bottom part of the bottle I wanted something that would be in contrast with the top part I made out of patterns with tulle. So I decided I would knit it with a thick wool. For this I used a Knifty Knitter, a tool to knit around that is used a lot to knit hats.

After trying to make the longneck bottle out of fabric I concluded that it was too traditional and easy. So instead of thinking about new ways to work with fabric I started over again. I started thinking about things that rotate, like a mixer that everyone has in their home, and how to use rotation to make the replica. Last week I saw a project of two artists that really inspired me. By rotating paint with a hardner in a bowl, the paint starts ascending up the sides and when the paint is hard it has the shape of the bowl.

STUDIO STILO - NEWTON'S BUCKET

www.studiosilo.net

newton's bucket movie

I started thinking about how I can do something with this technique but than more accessible to do it at home. So everyone can produce art or products at home.

I am going to make a mold of the top of the bottle that I can put on a domestic mixer and let it rotate, with a fluid material inside that gets harder during the rotating process.

After the mould was done it turned out to be pretty heavy, so I was scared the mixer would not be able to rotate. But it did! The first material i tried out was latex.

For the bottom part of the bottle I wanted to use another technique and a different machine that has a rotating function. So I thought of a drill or even a clock, but they are not very practical. And when I did not know anymore which machine I could use, I looked at my desk and saw the machine that I use so much for my work: my sewing machine! There is a function on my domestic sewing machine to wind a bobbin, so this part rotates! Perfect to not only be able to sew on my sewing machine but also make pottery!!

Sewing Machine / Pottery Wheel

I attached my own version of a pottery wheel (made out of, a wooden stick, cardboard and fake laminate) on the sewing machine. It worked! But it was not yet stable enough, so it still needs some work before I can really use it.

TRANSFORMATION

For the transformation of the Longneck bottle I wanted to use the part where Hella Jongerius combined two different materials together. So I chose to combine fabric with different materials in a print. First I lasercutted a print in two neoprene and felt, the print represents two materials melting together. After I lasercutted the print I experimented by casting different materials in to the print.

The first experiments I tried out where with latex and plaster that i casted into the lasercutted pattern on neoprene and felt fabric.

After the first two experiments I tried out combining the neoprene and felt with wood and resin.

After the first four experiments I did I realized that actually the texture that the laser cutter made in the fabric was much more interesting than trying to cover this texture up with other materials. I thought it was really interesting that every time I had a bit of difference in the setting of the laser cutter, the texture would be different. So I decided to go on with the textures that I could laser cut on the felt. And because the long neck bottle of Hella Jongerius is made out of 3 different materials, which can never fuse together, I thought it would be interesting to make the bottle out of one material that gives the appearance of 3 different materials. I made a little square in illustrator that I could engrave into the fabric, every time I engraved the square into the felt I tried out what happened if I changed the speed or power. All the changes in the lasercut settings I wrote down, so I would know exactly which settings I used for every square. After doing tests on the felt, I chose 3 different textures for my replica of the long neck bottle.

When I was making the replica of the Longneck Bottle with the laser cutter, I noticed that the texture on the bottle was different than the test squares I had made with the exact same settings. While the lasercutter is used to make something that you can completely control, it felt like my experiments where controlled by the fabric and the lasercutter and not by me. This I thought was actually really interesting and I decided do go on with experimenting. This time I started experimenting with different fabrics and fabrics on top of each other, to see what different effects it would have. And also this time I changed the settings of the lasercutter every time and kept all the settings for the different experiments.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

In this last year as a fashion student, I am starting think more and more about: what if I am graduated? Since I was little I wanted to be a fashion designer. But what is the definition of being a fashion designer exactly? I looked it up in the dictionary:

- designer of new fashions in clothing – - Then we get to the next question, what is fashion?

-a popular way of dressing during a particular time or among a particular group of people-

and

- the business of creating and selling clothes in new styles –

Then I realised I was not going to be just a fashion designer, because I do not want to be a designer who only creates and sells clothes. I see it more as fashion designer being a part of my profession. Because as a designer I am curious about everything and I want to experiment everything and that means that I am not only creating clothes.

In the beginning of the 20th century fashion designers worked in lab coats, almost like there are scientists. Fashion designers would either design clothes or design clothes and make them. In their ateliers they would create the newest collections. It was not easy to become a fashion designer, you would need years of experience, it was not something that everyone could just do. These days the time has changed, fashion designers do not walk around in lab coats anymore, they are not seen like scientists. And you can ask yourself do you really need years of experience to be a fashion designer, when all the information you need is in the wide and open on the internet. Can today anyone start calling themselves a fashion designer when they design clothes? This question is why I want to be more than just a fashion designer, these days it is much more interesting to see with what fashion design can be combined to find a new way, in which fashion design gets a new life.

As Daan Roosegaarde said in Dutch Profiles:

Do not create more comfort zones for yourself, but enter relationships that are uncomfortable. Then it becomes exiting, then you learn and will get unique things.

This quote of Daan Roosegaarde really shows how I work. I am intrigued by things that I do not know and I want to try it out. This gets combined with the fact that today you can find everything on the internet. When get inspired by something I do research about it and talk to people who know about it. After this I start my experiment. Because I do not know all the techniques I try to work with I approach it in a different way than someone who is specialised in it. Which brings new results. I think this is also what the world needs. Because these days there is so much that we already know and it sometimes feels that there are no more new things to discover. But there are so much more things to discover in the things we already know.

Maybe I can call myself a professional amateur just like Kieren Jones does. He also tries out new things he never did before, because he is intrigued about it. He looks at the things we already know and with his design background he uses these data to create something that is really his own. For example the sea chair project, he used the data that there is a lot of plastic in the sea. This he combined with his research about the job of the fisherman these days. And together with his design background he created the sea chair that is a product of all the data he was inspired by. The chair reuses plastic from the sea, it gives traditional fisherman more work and it is a great design product.

Like Kieren Jones I want to combine data we already have and make it in something new, that does not only presents me as a designer but also gives something to other people and inspires other people to start thinking in a different way. This way I can combine my fashion background with other fascinations.

Today people can achieve a lot with the newer technologies we have like the 3D printer and lasercutter. Things that where never possible become possible! This is really interesting to use for the concept of combining different data. Combining these newer technologies with problems that are happening in the world and my fashion background could result in amazing projects. It really fascinates me what people already achieved with the newer technologies and it makes me even more exited to start experiment with is myself, which could result in totally different approaches and results.

So to explore myself as a fashion designer/ amateur, I want to get knowledge of different data and combine these data with different techniques. For me it is really interesting to see how I can combine these different data with the newer technologies we have today, because there is already so much possible but even more possibilities to discover new things with them. And with the combination of the data we already have, the newer technologies we have and my fashion background I really hope to create a new way of seeing fashion design differently than just pretty clothes. Because today the world needs more than just pretty clothes, we need a new way to make what we have interesting and solve the problems that. And lets not forget we should stop getting bored with what we have, because there is still so much to do that we do not know yet!