On Reflection...

As mentioned within my first blog, I decided to join the Textiles Innovation TOP because it was completely out of my comfort zone and I was interested in learning about the world of textiles. Having started the course with very poor knowledge about the textile industry and the things available, I feel like I'm leaving it with a much greater understanding.

I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to delve in to another area of design, and ultimately all of the things that I have learned will help me a lot within my interior & spatial design work. It was great to be in a class full of students from the various degree courses as we could all give examples of textiles within our own industries and bring something different to the table. It was also lovely to meet some new faces.

Although we only had 4 lectures, the amount of knowledge I picked up from them was immense. At first I found the pace a little quick and had hand-ache at the end of most sessions from frantically writing notes, but I eventually got used to it! The lectures were engaging and I liked the mix of power point presentations, show & tell boards and normal verbal teaching. The seminars were great too because they were really tactile, with everyone bringing in a different example to pass around, it was interesting to listen to everyone else's thoughts and opinions on things, being from different backgrounds.

I think the blog is a fantastic idea because personally through making my blog and re-reading notes etc I feel that it has fully cemented the knowledge I have gained in to my brain. I have actually also enjoyed doing it. The course has given me a genuine interest in, and enthusiasm towards the industry - I've spent hours online, reading articles and watching videos relating to the subject. I am particularly fascinated by new developments in textiles that aim to combat environmental issues. As something that is also a major issue and concern in interior & spatial design, I will look at trying to include some of these smart textiles within my design work in the future. After learning about the NPE scandal I have now signed up to the Green Peace Toxic Threads campaign (something I wasn't aware of) and receive regular newsletters from them keeping me up to date with the latest issues. My new found knowledge of different fibres and their qualities will be highly useful within my work when deciding which fabric will be best to use in various circumstances.

I think the TOP scheme in general is a great idea and it is a shame the course has come to an end. I hope to sign up to another textile related TOP again if given the opportunity.

Seaswarm

MIT have created an incredible self-powered robot which could completely repair disasters such as the oil spill in the Golf of Mexico. These machines are made from a nano fabric that separates oil from water, picking up the oil and leaving the water behind. The amazing thing is, once heated up the oil can be removed and the fabric used over and over again.

A plastic bag is manufactured in 1 SECOND, used during an average 20 MINUTES, and decomposes in 100 YEARS!

Plant Plastic

Along the same lines as Helen Storey and her Wonderland project, Cereplast have created a plastic from plants, that once used can be composted straight back down. This method appears to have so many benefits, will all our plastics eventually be plant plastics? Watch the fascinating video here...

http://www.wimp.com/plantplastic/

The Power of Twitter

<https://twitter.com/i/#!/Greenpeace>

Green Peace seem to be picking one company at a time and badgering them on twitter until they commit to detox. A good example of this being Zara, one of the worst offenders. “Zara alone churns out 850 million clothing items a year,” says Li Yifang, a toxics campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia. “You can imagine the size of the toxic footprint it has left on this planet, particularly in developing countries like China where many of its products are made.”

Green Peace

"Toxic Threads". Photo. <http://www.ecouterre.com>

Companies such as Puma, Nike, Adidas, H&M, M&S, C&A and Li-Ning have already commited to change, because we told them to with the help of Green Peace. Their Toxic Threads campaign focuses on outing companies guilting of putting NPE's in their garments and putting pressure on them to change.

TOXIC

Are toxic chemicals in our clothing damaging to our health?...

Ros mentioned this issue within a lecture and it really intrigued me, as personally I hadn't even realised that this was a possibility. So I had a little read up about it...

The clothes we wear contain NPE's (nonylphenol ethoxylates), which technically are banned in Europe. When you wash your garments in water these NPE's break down in to NP (nonylphenol) and are creeping into and poisoning our waterways. NP is a toxic and hormone disrupting substance, let alone extremely harmful to animals. 52 out of 78 garments sold in the UK tested positive. There are other alcohol ethoxylates available that companies can use, however they don't, as this is more expensive. Traces have already been found in human breast milk blood and urine, its slowly working its way inside of us!