Craft industry interface: a dialogue between hand, heart and machine

The work draws on continued applied research in the field of woven textiles merging designer-maker practice and associate design for industry, and embraces the fundamental elements of the field, namely materials, construction and textile finishing processes. It is conducted through collaboration with a Japanese fabrics manufacturer, whose primary concern is niche market fields within established textile genres and whose philosophy is a reflection of the craft approach brought from the studio practice. The working methodology is through a process of distributed knowledge into the industrial system, and the nature of the collaboration therefore, mutual knowledge transfer and rigorous interrogation of woven textile design methodologies. The work investigates the regularly unseen and unexplored areas of production and isn't immediately concerned with pattern or even colour, but with the deeper values and potentials of material properties and the manifestation of these expressed through constructional assimilation and post-weaving finishing processes.

The research paper and exhibition for the conference 'New Crafts:Future Voices', explored craft in its emergence from traditional and vocational beginnings to a contemporary context of technological innovation and cultural discourse. Through investigation of the relationships between traditional and modern practices and case studies from the commercial collaboration, the paper asked: What are the fundamental values of craft practice and how far can these be applied to contemporary industrial production? Where, and how is the interface of craft and industry?

Project originality is in the depth and focus of the research, which is particular to the collaboration, where the respective research methodologies embody individual and mutual values and interests of the research parties. The research doesn't set out to redefine craft or take ownership of the field, but to champion the value of knowledge rooted in rigorous crafts practice and its real capacity for transfer to industrial innovation.