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Translating the conceptual term of sustainability into materials and exploring bio plastics in order to generate visually and tacitly intriguing objects are the aims for this project. Other designers and previous projects in the field of textile design showed how the material works in a small scale. This project used the material’s design properties to generate groups of object elements. The three main design properties of the material, transparency, biomorph expression and flexibility, and their opposites, opaqueness, geometric expression and stiffness, were combined in different sets which resulted in the used artistic methodology. Therefore, the material properties and earlier established techniques formed the base for finding the overall forms of the installations. The collection and a book about the surface design possibilities for plant based plastic show how the material can be manufactured. The installations focus on the interplay between colour, light and shadow, material texture and pattern in relation to the overall shape of the object. Moulding, laser cutting and the addition of other ingredients like recycled paper, fibres and mica powder influenced the material’s durability, flexibility, transparency and texture. Experiments revealed that the colours change over time and all of them are highly influenced in their intensity and shade by the light source behind the material. This project visualises how all these factors interact and which techniques and tools are required to process the new material. Moreover, it generates new options for a new formal language and terminology for sustainable interior textiles.

Translating the conceptual term of sustainability into materials and exploring bio plastics in order to generate visually and tacitly intriguing objects are the aims for this project. Other designers and previous projects in the field of textile design showed how the material works in a small scale. This project used the material’s design properties to generate groups of object elements. The three main design properties of the material, transparency, biomorph expression and flexibility, and their opposites, opaqueness, geometric expression and stiffness, were combined in different sets which resulted in the used artistic methodology. Therefore, the material properties and earlier established techniques formed the base for finding the overall forms of the installations. The collection and a book about the surface design possibilities for plant based plastic show how the material can be manufactured. The installations focus on the interplay between colour, light and shadow, material texture and pattern in relation to the overall shape of the object. Moulding, laser cutting and the addition of other ingredients like recycled paper, fibres and mica powder influenced the material’s durability, flexibility, transparency and texture. Experiments revealed that the colours change over time and all of them are highly influenced in their intensity and shade by the light source behind the material. This project visualises how all these factors interact and which techniques and tools are required to process the new material. Moreover, it generates new options for a new formal language and terminology for sustainable interior textiles.

Contemporary preconception of color within textile design is more or less seen as a static and measurable phenomena, but in this project will the opposite be investigated, textile colors are crafted to investigate expressions that is evolving over time. This practice based design research project presents a series of textile color samples that will give guidance to a number of plant dyed expressions. Textiles are dyed without any mordant, meaning no added chemical or salts that will influence on the color or color fastness. The objective in this project is to investigate and visualize color changing textile expressions from plant dye, and to verify the changing process within the color samples. This will be documented and fulfilled in two phases: Åland 2013 - Report no.1 (this report) plant dyed samples are documented and presented as visual scanned color samples with foundational information like; materials, plants, dyeing methods etc. Evaluation of first phase in the project covering what visual color you get from different combination of textile materials/fibres and plants etc. Åland 2013 - Report no.2 (to be presented) same samples will be juxtaposed and presented a second time, after being exposed to light etc. in x time. Evaluation and comparison between the scanned samples presented in report no. 1 and in report no. 2 with respect to visual color changes., Åland 2013 _ report no. 1

How did a story that was recorded centuries ago by two German brothers inspire me to immerse paper within pots of boiling eucalyptus leaves? The Handless Maiden is a relatively obscure fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm which tells the story of a young girl who, when betrayed and maimed by her family, takes off into the forest to find her own pathway in the world. This traditional German fairy tale has intrigued me since first reading it as a teenager, and it is this story which continues to inform my studio work, research and, accordingly, this paper. My paper, Curious Maidens, investigates the relationship between the fairy tale, The Handless Maiden, the process of plant dyeing, and the art work to have emerged from my studio research, Curious Maidens (series 1-19) . The paper identifies the notion of wonderment and curiosity as playing central and dynamic roles within each of these three elements. This emotive link, and the nature of curiosity within fairy tales in general, is explored through an investigation of American artist Kiki Smith’s sculpture Daughter, 1999 and substantiated by the theories by Bruno Bettleheim, Marina Warner and Jack Zipes. Curious Maidens concludes by identifying how an active and open curiosity to life can be an empowering, potent and transformative function for females both within fairy tales, and also within life.

Contemporary preconception of color within textile design is more or less seen as a static and measurable phenomena, but in this project will the opposite be investigated, textile colors are crafted to investigate expressions that is evolving over time. This practice based design research project presents a series of textile color samples that will give guidance to a number of plant dyed expressions. Textiles are dyed without any mordant, meaning no added chemical or salts that will influence on the color or color fastness. The objective in this project is to investigate and visualize color changing textile expressions from plant dye, and to verify the changing process within the color samples. This will be documented and fulfilled in two phases: Åland 2013 - Report no.1 (this report) plant dyed samples are documented and presented as visual scanned color samples with foundational information like; materials, plants, dyeing methods etc. Evaluation of first phase in the project covering what visual color you get from different combination of textile materials/fibres and plants etc. Åland 2013 - Report no.2 (to be presented) same samples will be juxtaposed and presented a second time, after being exposed to light etc. in x time. Evaluation and comparison between the scanned samples presented in report no. 1 and in report no. 2 with respect to visual color changes., Åland 2013 _ report no. 1