NATURAL PRODUCE

Digital textile printing technology has not only revolutionized how printed textiles can be produced, it has also engendered an alternative design approach, allowing for imagery that has been developed through digital resourcing, generation and manipulation to be printed directly onto fabric.

Natural Produce is the exhibition output of a combined design-science project sponsored by The LeverhulmeTrust. Access to knowledge, facilities and resources at Glasgow University Veterinary School's Poultry Research Unit, and at The Centre For Advanced Textiles, The Glasgow School of Art, facilitated the design, production and exhibition of original digital textile prints developed from scanning electron micrographs of chicken eggshell.

Two and three-dimensional digital softwares were used in the design process to generate intricate pattern derived from micrographs with particular attention to the aesthetic peculiarities of eggshell formation, faults and abberant crystal forms. Resulting printed fabrics were shown in exhibitions in both design and science contexts in the UK, France and Italy.

With thanks to Prof. Sally Solomon, Dr. Maureen Bain and Helena Britt.