Poetic Realism

Electroluminescent wire (often abbreviated to EL wire) is a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an alternating current is applied to it. wikipedia
Certainly the quality of EL wire is unlike other light sources like LED ( a series of points) – it produces a smooth unbroken line of visible light. Its thin diameter makes it flexible and ideal for use in a variety of applications such as clothing or costumes – which makes it very interesting for me to use it in my weaving practice.

Loop.pH is a London based art and design studio intervening at an urban scale to re-imagine life in the city. Rachel Wingfield set up loop.pH to develop reactive surfaces for the interior and has worked on architectural and fashion commissions, product design and public installations. Rachel Wingfield was as well a speaker at the Enmeshed: Architecture and Textiles Conference in Stockholm last year.
They experiment in many fields of electroluminescence materials.

The work of Loop.ph inspires me a lot, since they put their work in the context of urban spaces and their interaction. Their work is settled in between research, art and design practice, creating works that will define our future way of living – not only seen fro the use of new materials and techniques, morelikely from the side of a sustainable point of view. (read further MetabolicCity.

From a textile design point of view, the EL-wire poses a wider understanding of the use of light and textiles. Several esthetical functions can be of interest when working with the EL-wire: light as a design element (interior patterns), light as a communicative element (warning systems), light as a lighting element (light object), … . Aspects that I am aware of when making testweavings with the EL-wire on my table loom.

My studio with workshop for electronic textiles is now operative. I am equipped with all tools, materials, electronic hard and software, fibers and yarns necessary to create interactive environments, objects and Installations. Weaving chair and spinning wheel help me to combine optic fiber, el wire / light cable, conductive yarns, different kinds of fibers (natural, synthetic, animal, metal ) into electronic textiles, that can carry light and sound. Follow my work via blog, or pay a visit when you are around! Welcome!

Summer holidays are over, and with the sunshine in my heart I am starting my production phase. Back lays half a year of planning, organizing and ordering. I unpacked quite some boxes of materials, and now it is time to use them. Next delivery of materials will contain fine metal thread cu/ag 0,06mm, stainless steal thread 0,07mm, more el – wire, different kinds of colors and qualities of flaxthread, … . I started production of 3 big works, – a light textile installation, a sound textile installation, and an interactive fiber installation. The picture shows a photo of a model i made and put in an architecture model, to check proportions of one of he works.

I will be part of 2 group exhibitions this autumn: 2 of my works will be shown at the Vevringutstilling in Vevring / Norway, 17 – 19 of september, and another 2 at a travelling exhibition, with opening in sogndal, the 23rd of october.

Next week I will be visiting bergen, for an intense weaving week with the digital TC1 loom. There I will produce a big digital weaving, that later I will use for my light Installation.

The Thread Controler, TC-1 Loom, is developed and produced by Tonrud Engineering, Norway. The digital weaving machine allows you to create designs that usually require a Jaquard Loom. Jaquard is a technique where you can control every single shaft unlike the traditional shaft weaving looms.
I use the machine to weave out my designs I create via my computer. I take photos, edit them in Photoshop and create a weave-able file for the TC-1 Loom. It is like printing out a picture with textile threads.

3D weavings, – project from 2001, Berlin.

I constructed little weaving models, where I used metal for the weft that and a flexible black colored cotton yarn for the chain. Because of the metal elements, such as bands, spirals and so on, which I found on a scrap yard, the woven fabric gets somehow stable and flexible. It can be transformed from the 2D surface into a 3D object. This technique of weaving, with a stable forming element as a weft, can be used for creating architecture. The walls get a new shape, creating a new type of facades, thus new spaces.
I brought the textile weaving technique into another context for building up architectural spaces, trying to create a new modern language of spaces for the needs of today.

Future Textiles project with Création Baumann and UDK, Berlin, Bern 2000

Aim was a the production of functional textiles and the conception of a collection, that coherent either reflection, acoustic or technical optic. Creation Baumann supplied innovative yarns, like holographic yarns, reflective-, thin lightweight metal-, paper- and other hybrid and synthetic yarns. Aim was to create a collection of textiles, that can be used in modern architecture.

It was an intense and fantastic project. An international selected team of students from Germany and Lithuania joined that project, and we learned how to weave with innovative very thin yarn, that is used for mass production of textiles. additional courses of how to experiment with yarn, to manipulate, destroy, paint / Color Stream Pigments from Merck AG, print etc with it – and to color yarn, was helping to create a collection.

We visited Creation Baumann, and innovative other companies in switzerland, that produce garn and textiles / Schöller Textiles, carpets / Ruckstuhl and embroidery / F. Rohner in StGallen. Ruckstuhl is worldwide known for its production of environmetal friendly carpets and Rohner for its outstanding and stunning high class quality embroidery that is seen on Haute Couture all over the world, f ex Christian Dior.

My collection:
Polysight Reflection textiles are transparent and semitransparent fabrics, that deal with the topic of reflection, transparency and visibility. The weavings have changing effects in color, reflection and transparency. I used polyester mono filaments, metal, plastic, holographic and light reflecting yarns as well as wool. Depending on the point of view and the time of day, the textiles have a different look. They appear like a semitransparent colored fabric or as a transparent light fabric. The use of the fabric is for modern architecture, with its huge glass facades and the cold appearance of concrete. Its function lays in to regulate the sun´s impact into the building, to cool down the room climate, and to regulate the working privacy of the inside for outside viewers. In the evening the textiles turns transparent and the building opens up to the outside. The textile can be used as window panels, room dividers or curtains.

What I love about spinning is, that you can put -almost- whatever – you – want – to – have – in it , as long as it fits through the orifice. Here I started something I want to continue. My Lost and Found Mood series. Stuff I take with me from places I visit. Places that later became part in my Installations and in my creative art practice. It is a nice way to capture a mood. Not only with materials, it is a collection of senses. Here I used stuff I found at the baltic see, northsea and around the Fjords. I mixed it with japanese paper garn, horsehair, transparent synthetic filament, different wires of fishing net … .

A hand-spun yarn, where I used/recycled old fabrics and teared them into thin stripes that I later could wrap around a pre-spun yarn. As well I used old textile with silk screen printings on, yarn, etc. Its very fun to produce that type of yarn, you recycle your fabrics, it is like a clean up. Maybe I should call it clean up yarn.

Sneak preview of my first conductive yarn spinning results. I tried different technics, and different approaches to make them conductive. Some have a thin metal thread core (hidden), some have the metal thread/wire wrapped around the core (very loose coil spinning), some have metal splitters from stuff I found at the scrapyard (special stainless steal scrap yards…), some are a combination of it all. Now I am eager to produce conductive handspunn yarn, with the very thin metal wire I recently received samples for and in thinner quality.

Electric Blue, Material: metal wire core, stainless steal splitters, wool in different color, mohair, turquoise polyester yarnsplitter

Electric Fairy tale, Material: Metal wire core, Metal wire wrapping, baby mohair, wool, turquoise yarnsplitter

Electric Glitter, Material: stainless steal splitter, yarn splitter, mohair, wool / shetland tops / leicester tops / , flax

Electric Jazz, Material: metal wire core, metal wire wrapping, wool / shetland tops, Bluefaced leicester tops

Picture of el-wire. It ll glow blue, according to the amount of voltage. I will make some experiments with this yarn, I want to bring light into weaving. I ordered it at PlugandWear, an internet shop for materials and tools for el-textile. I met Riccardo owner of it at the Worklab with Diffus in Oslo, at Atelier Nord.