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1. State of the art, project management and documentation

State of the art, project management and documentation

describe what you see in this image Emma Harutyunyan, Armenian Madder, 2022

Research & Ideation

During our first global lecture, as we began fabricademy, there was a comment about fictional narratives. The lecturer spoke about how we should envision what we want for the future! This has flooded my brain with so much freedom. I feel a creative liberation. Sustainability is core and always a priority, of course. To me personally and to Fabricademy too. Color is always central to my work (when I speak of color, I refer to naturally derived colors usually). And so, thoughts and ideas of my final project stem from these points. However, artists, makers and some of the incredible Fabricademy Alumni fuel my inspiration.

What I would like to propose at this moment is simple. I feel a need to work with local resources and here is why. Whenever I am buying something that isn’t grown or produced locally, I feel like I am cheating sustainability a little (or a lot). Even if I am buying organically grown cotton, or linens and silks, all that transportation, packaging etc makes it not as sustainable as I would like it to be. And I cheat in this sense a lot. Armenia doesn’t have its production of beautiful linens and silks for example. But Armenia has wool! And wool makes felt and the idea of working with felt feels exciting right now. Maybe also because winter is coming?

There are so many local dye plants, roots, peels and so on. Then my colors are set. I don’t need to worry about that! For example, Armenia has an abundance of seabuckthorn bushes. It’s the perfect season for seabuckthorn, and seabuckthorn branches and leaves carry the most beautiful ochers and terracottas. I would like to incorporate seasonal, local dye stuff in my work.

A thought that’s nagging me in my head is also how we always think of fashion when we think of fabrics and textiles. Yet, fabrics are used in so many other places, in so many different ways. In our houses for example we interact with many different weaves and patterns and colours of fabrics, yet we do not always give it much attention. I am thinking, what if I make something that is transformative?

This summer I finally got to see the beautiful work of Anni Albers, Gunta Stölzl (and many more) during the “Woven Histories- Textiles and Modern Abstraction” exhibition at MoMA and I carry the impact it has had on me. This will be part of my research. In recent years I’ve also been drawn to quilts, the way they are made and the symbolism they carry, much like the Armenian carpet. I am interested in exploring and understanding traditional techniques, but applying innovative ways to tackle them. At Fabricademy I will have the opportunity to learn and apply digital fabrication to achieve patterns and maybe even create new symbols, reflective of the now.

The project will explore the potential of naturally dyed felt as a transformative material- an object that can shift from being an interior object, such as a wall hanging to a blanket, to a garment. I would also like to experiment on how I can integrate conductive threads, with a detachable sensor to heat up the piece. I would like to try using biomaterials and laser cut/ modular shapes to transform the material from one shape to the other, without needing additional sewing. I would also like to research how colors affect our emotions/ mood and the possibility of changing these colors with temperature changes. It may even have hidden herb pockets, which can release aromas with heat for an added sensorial experience.

References & Inspiration

I will refer to and research through a selection of books, starting with - “Gee’s Bend The Architecture of the Quilt” - "In Pursuit of Color: From Fungi to Fossil Fuels: Uncovering the Origins of the World's Most Famous Dyes" - Georgia O'Keeffe Living Modern - Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy: A High-Country Guide to Natural Dyeing and Making Heirloom Quilts from Scratch

Many more to follow as I go ahead!

And allow the Fabricademy Alumni Lara Campos , Dominique Vial, Sara Alvarez Vinagre and Margrét Katrin Guttormsdóttir to continue to fuel my inspiration.

Alt text Gunta Stölzl‘s Bauhaus textile design

Agnes Martin Agnes Martin Untitled


Working with Gitlab and MarkDown

In the first week Julian introduced us to our personal websites and how we should build it using Gitlab and Markdown.. And then time suddenly stopped? My brain that functions visually was lost in all these codes and words and symbols at the beginning. To get things going, however, I first went back to the initial lecture recording, time and time and time again. I found that the easiest way to tackle this was cloning a lot of the codes and in general understanding/ studying the logic and language of it all, until I got the hang of it. Another thing that I found useful was making a separate doc, where I jotted down all the ideas and texts. To further make things easier for myself, I made a file of large images, then a file of the resized images on my personal computer. I also changed the names of all the images, to make them clear and easy to upload and use. Looking at Fabricademy alumni pages is very helpful! For example Ailin has a great page showing some of the basics. Diane takes it to a different level!

Tools

Digital Tools

  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Photoshop - easy changes to images
  • Photopea- like illustrator but for free
  • Unsplash- for images
  • Pintrest - for moodboards and inspiration

Resizing photos - I have used apple preview to resize my photos (file-export- choose the size with max 100kb - save! I have also used my whats app for resizing images!

Documentation workflow

Documenting as we go is key! If we haven't documented, then we haven't done it. Here are some simple guidlines do get you started.

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describe what you see in this image

Changing the assignment grid!

After many attempts and looking at many (beautiful and inspiring) pages, I found a grid that I liked on Johanna’s page, where she had kindly added this link. I added the grid and did some adjustments in my css (with the help of ChatGPT). I wanted the title of each week’s assignment to only appear, when you hover over it. Now I will slowly unveil the grid as we go (just bare with me, please).

The new css

/ Assignments page /
.assignments-grid .row {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  margin-bottom: 1em;
}

.assignment-link {
  position: relative;
  width: 32%;
  background-size: cover;
  background-position: center;
  min-height: 200px;
  text-decoration: none; /* removes underline */
  overflow: hidden; /* ensures text doesn't spill outside */
}

.assignment-link:hover {
  opacity: 0.7;
}

.assignment-link img {
  width: 100%;
}

.assignment-link span {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 10px; /* a little above bottom edge */
  left: 50%;
  transform: translateX(-50%); /* centers text horizontally */
  font-weight: bold;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
  opacity: 0; /* hidden by default */
  transition: opacity 0.3s ease; /* fade-in effect */
  text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.7); /* optional for readability */
}

.assignment-link:hover span {
  opacity: 1; /* show text on hover */
}

Changing logo and favicon

theme:
  favicon: images/home/logo.png
  # The name of the theme, needs to match your requirements.txt file
  name: material
  logo: images/home/logo.png

Videos

Here's how you can add a video to your page!

describe what you see in this image

From Youtube

Here is a video to inspire all that visit my website!