Today was concept development phase for a product we need to create based on our experience in Sarawak. In the past week, we have all gained much insight into the local songket weaving and the ceramics industry. Many elements of nature are incorporated into Sarawak designs, ranging from plants, flowers and animals. Our group wanted to address some of the issues that the songket industry faces: limited usage, competition with mass produced songket which are cheaper and more readily available, and also to give the craft a new zest of life.
We started by brainstorming on ideas that can promote practical application of both songket and ceramics. After an initial group discussion, we conducted individual research and made sketches based on our experience in Sarawak and personal strengths: Dai on the industrial design aspect, Nicole on songket/batik/tie dye textile techniques and Irine on ceramics.
Combining our research results, we focused on creating a concept that can utilise the strength of ceramics and the versatility of songket, to highlight the beauty of both materials we have come to appreciate during our experiences in Sarawak. Songket, being a laborious fabric to create is precious and often purchased as a family heirloom.
Our initial concept was a series of ceramic tiles draped in songket, inspired by our trip to Batang Ai on the longboats. We wanted the tiles to be modular to create a flexible tessellation. So we started to experiment with various geometrical shapes which are commonly used in songket motif designs. We also referenced the works of M.S. Escher, and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for creative inspirations.
We then expanded the idea by adding space for lighting behind the tile, and then utilising a combination of ceramic perforation and songket density to showcase the light. In this way, our object can be used as wall tiling, lighting, wall covering and at the same, a form of art.
We plan to use a combination of silk and chiffon with varying openness of the weave to achieve various levels of translucency as the light shines through from behind. We will also be looking at incorporating a double ikat (tie) dye method to the songket weaving which also produces geometric shapes similar to that of the traditional songket weave designs. This method has never been used in conjunction with songket weaving and can be precarious but as our object is modular, we can still utilise parts of a songket fabric and just discard parts with inconsistencies. We believe this will be an added benefit to the songket industry to promote reusability of imperfect songket fabric which is otherwise not sellable.
The ceramic base will be porcelain. The shape will be created using press mould technique where a slab of clay is pressed between a two-part mould. Once the shape is leather hard, perforations and an outline indentation in the back part will be applied. The backside indentation will serve as a space to tuck and glue in the songket fabric edges. In this way, the songket fabric will remain free flowing as no glue is used for the front part of the object.
We believe our object can be a solution to the problem faced by the songket industry. We hope upmarket interior designers will be interested to use our wall lighting tile for their clients in Malaysia and overseas.
Group: Alicia, Dai, Emma, Irine, Nicole
Post by Dai, Emma, Irine, Nicole
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