I initially wanted to create moveable textiles with weaving. The first sample I created was just a simple piece of cloth that I maneuvered so that the strings could be pulled to compress the warp together.
I originally had trouble coming up with a practical use for this piece of cloth, so I came up with a couple of ideas: face masks, bandages, clothes, and bags. I realized that face masks would not be very functional if the stretched out fabric had more holes and the bandages would be very difficult to implement with my materials. Inspired by Issey Miyake’s pleated bag, I decided to create a bag that would be able to compress and expand.
The woven bag had a very interesting texture and I like the I did enjoy how the bag scrunched up, but I wanted the bag to have a more dramatic change. Weaving was a long process, and the yarn is still quite tight when everything is woven together so there is not much room for compression, so I decided to use cloth and string to create a similar effect where the cloth has anchor points and strings that can be pulled.
With this idea, I made some sample pieces of cloth test out how the compression could result.
The way the strings all led to two common points made two lips on the sides of the bag, which I did not necessarily like. Also, I accidentally cut the anchor points when trying to clean up the edges of the fabric, so the strings actually pulled off the bag. I experimented with more ways to create lines, seeing how curves and angles would interact when compressed and observing the ease of pulling the string.
I decided to go with simple w shaped lines across the bag to create a lantern like shape.
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