Materials Research

Is it strange to discuss materials on what is meant to be a visual journal?  No, not really, as materials inform the design, what you can do and how innovative the end result can be.  Also, I think a really interesting material could either inspire designs or design solutions.

These two companies seem to be interesting, (but not really relevant to what I am researching):-

Ingeo - the world's first manmade fibre from 100% annually renewable sources

Cloverbrook - performance fabrics for big retail companies

Bio Fibres - Materials Research

I was researching Biofibres for my project and trying to buy some in the UK from fabric shops and I couldn't find what I wanted.  I'd found Carole Collet's talk on biofibres very interesting and wanted to explore it a little bit.

I wanted to buy samples of soy silk fabric and bamboo (not jersey), but I couldn't do it in the UK.  

Cloth House's website seemed to show that they sold these fabrics, but in actual fact they don't only a bamboo jersey.  

It seems to be very easy to source them in the States and Canada but not in the UK.  Hmmm. I can buy soy silk yarn, but I don't want to knit with it...I think this is going to take time and it's something I will have to research further.

Pickhemp - seemed the best site to me and I like the look of the bamboo indigo twill denim. 

Bambrotex 

Loop fabric - lots of hemps, cottons and muslins

Near Sea Naturals - hemp and silk