Digital Craft

The images shown here are taken from Melanie Bowles 'make it digital' blog. What i like about all these examples especially the 'wallpaper dress project' is that it combines the handcrafted or the old with the new and innovative process of digital printing. What I like particularly about the wallpaper dress project is that it allows that piece of wallpaper...a memory, personal aesthetic to live on.
Melanie Bowles is a London based textile designer and Senior Lecturer in Digital Textile Design at Chelsea College of Art & Design. Melanie’s work explores new concepts for digital textile design and develops systems for emotional durable and sustainable design through bespoke digital print. Her work focuses on the creative interaction between traditional textile design and new digital technology. Digital printing is a much more environmentally friendly way of designing as the chemicals are less damaging then those used in the dyes for screen printing and the waste of fabric can be controlled through setting up compositions to fit the majority of the fabrics width and length. This is also true of other types of digital processes for all different types of design.

What i find particularly interesting working with digital means is that it actually can enhance the hand made craft element of a design and make it more contemporary and relevant to modern day design. As textile designers we are constantly taken inspiration from the past, whether its an aesthetic or just a technique traditional craft methods hugely inform our practice. What I like about digital print in particular is that it allows this 'craft look' to be updated and recycled.
Aesthetically, practically and environmentally I think digital printing will become the most prominent print process in fashion design over the next few years. The same is true for most digital processes. What is important to recognise though is that these methods are tools and that the hand craft will never really die out, especially in times of economic turmoil.