FAMILIARITY
The textile collection ‘FAMILIARITY’ is a digital print collection based on the history of my fathers family lineage. The story goes that 2 baby boys from a French family were sent on a boat to the United Kingdom during the French Revolution. The family jewels were sent with them and the rest of the family did not survive. These boys landed in Beachy Head, UK, and adopted the name becoming wards of chancery.
My challenge for this collection was to create a print with my family history, but finding a way to make it my own. As a South African with a complex lineage, I have to make the choice between trying to find my identity in cultures that aren’t my own, or to battle with impostor syndrome and forge my own path.
Making a Toile de Jouy with hand drawn sketches that depict the story
Making a ‘redacted information’ version of each sketch from the Toile de jouy.
Then composing an ombre fabric from it
Creating a digital version of each scene from the toile de jouy in grey scale, and using them to create a camouflage print
And using another version of digitising the ship sketch, combined with the enlarged redacting blocks, created another print
Lastly, using the design of pictures on my wall, and the way they are taped, to create a print that truly resembles myself.
KIMONO DESIGN
Making a pattern based print using existing prints from the collection in new colour-ways
I was going for a very elegant colour atmosphere, full of rich, deep tones.
some other colour-ways
Silk Scarf Design
The final part of this project was to design a 90x90cm silk scarf. Using the same concept of the rest of the collection
Hand drawing elements of the scarf to scale, and piecing them together to figure out the layout. I then scanned the individual elements and joined them digitally. Then came the colour.
