toilet paper textiles.
rope making and weaving
In two design classes at MIT, I have worked on projects exploring the application of toilet paper as a textile. In the first I made an index of ropes, twisting the toilet paper fibers in particular ways to highlight different rope textures. In the second class I explored toilet paper weaving. I built my own loom and wove strips of toilet paper through, creating fabric like samples.
rope making.
How do variations on twisting and bundling of fibers create ropes that differ in texture? I focused on treating the fibers and the bundles of fibers separately, creating an index of ropes varying in fiber and bundle twist. I mapped this concept onto a coordinate plane where the x-axis is organized to messy bundle and the y-axis is more to less twisting of the individual strands of toilet paper.
weaving.
On a loom I built, I wove strips of toilet paper, varying the number warp (vertical fibers) strands I weaved in and out of. I combined this project with a print making project (explained more in the prints project), and I felt they were connected through this surprising and zany treatment of material or content. I choose to treat the ends of the toilet paper in a few different ways: braiding and unbraiding, cutting, twisting, and leaving them untouched. These choices drew much inspiration from my rope making project above.
