patchwork

I've been exploring patchwork in nature and process, and have discovered that although craft maybe scrutinised as twee and focused on handmade, there's a real beauty in it ethos. I think that translating craft principles and applying them to a design process would be an interesting and insightful design project. 

Patchwork is the most collaborative of all craft, large communities and community activities are traditionally embedded into its production. Patchwork can be traced back to the Egyptians but its social story began when the world experienced a cold spell in 15c and people took small pieces from any textile possession they owned to combine and sew together to make extra quilts for their beds. There is wonderful poetry in taking a material from lots of existing items that wouldn't suffer from the loss and creating an entire new entity.  It becomes collection of narratives, a picture of worth and a illustration of displacement of matter. I think this idea is quite exiting and begins to discuss relationships between craft and thrift and our conceptions of materiality.