Fiber Fusion : An exploration of color gradients through color mixing of blending wool fibers.

This degree work positions itself in the field of textile design, more specifically in non-woven, color blending, felting, and interaction. The work explores different techniques such as mechanical felting with needle punch, wet felting to manipulate forms, and carding, with a focus on color blending. The aimis to explore the design possibilities in non-woven wool in regards to color blending color gradients. The motivation for the project is to bring textile design into a wider context, and to investigate how the combination of blending colored fibers and felting techniques can create double-sided textiles. Through a hands-on method, explorations were carried out using two textile techniques; Color blending and needle punching. Loose wool fibers were dyed in the three primary colors, then carded into a range of saturated colors, which gave a rich color library to work further on with. Wet felting was used to bond, create non-woven material and make 3-dimensional forms. The result is three pieces in 100% non-woven wool with different color gradients which encourage interaction. The conclusion is that it is possible to work with an alternative color blending method (wool carding) in non-woven in order to create color gradations. The project shows that the field of textile design is expanded by pushing the boundaries of how a textile designer can work with these techniques