“Waggle dance”

Experiment

Technology

Traditional

Using a fine silk fabric the design was digitally printed onto the textile and then further manipulated using a laser cutter. The design used to laser cut is a line version of the repeat print design but cut in the opposite direction to the original print design to create an optical illusion.

Material

Fiber

Craft

Printing
Textiles

General Technique

Combining
Constructing
Structural modifying

Specific Technique

The repeat print design was produced on illustrator and photoshop and then digitally printed onto a light-weight silk fabric. Once the print is complete using the original illustrator line drawing the design was laser cut in the opposite direction to the original print to create an optical illusion.

Properties & Qualities

Application

Sample Making Art

Qualities

Textured

Colour

Blue Pink Violet

Sample Information

Date of creation

Designed & made April 2021.

Dimensions

Width 42cm x Height 59cm

Weight

41g

Culture & Context

This sample is inspired by bees their incredible vision and behaviour. Bees communicate with each other through what is called the waggle dance. They wiggle
their bums side to side in a figure of eight in order to communicate and tell the other bees in the hive where pollen/ danger is depending on the direction of this dance. This piece takes inspiration from the side to side wiggle they do and a repeat pattern was created. I then proceeded to use this pattern and laser cut it in the opposite direction to create an optical illusion. When the sample flows in the air the movement of the material is very similar to the way bees move and fly in the air.

Process & Production

The process of this material was firstly designing the repeat pattern to be digitally printed on a fine silk fabric. This design was initially drawn up on illustrator and then brought into photoshop to add colour. Then using a digital printer it was printed onto the fabric. Using the first line drawing from illustrator this was then laser cut onto the digitally printed fabric in the opposite direction to the print. This created an optical illusion and beautiful movement and flow to the material.

Recipe Details

Line design was complete on Adobe Illustrator.
Colour was added to the design through Adobe Photoshop.
The laser cut settings were : 120mm/s at 30-34%

Credits

Craft Maker

Amy Kerr (AK Textiles)

Library Contributor

National College of Art & Design Ireland

Photographer

Amy Kerr

Practitioner

Amy Kerr

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