MEÜS.META

A blog dedicated to all textile lovers in the world, with the goal of awakening your creativity and desire for experimentation. By Guatemalan label MEÜS.

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Done with the refashioning of a garment and found yourself with remaining pieces of fabric? No problem! We’ve got you covered.

Since our next workshop is coming up soon, we’ve been doing some research that’ll help us (and you!) solve the fabric leftovers issue and we’ve found a couple of incredibly fun ideas that we couldn’t wait to shared.  

Here they are, 

The first one would be WEAVING WITH DENIM (or any left over fabric) by the Weaving Loom 

Denim, as Kate from the the Weaving Loom says, is a great fabric to weave with, not only because of its stiffness but also, because it already has its own woven pattern. Below an example combining yarn and denim, but you can definitely get creative and apply fabric leftovers only. In case you’re interested in doing this project as shown, we highly recommend The New Denim Project yarn made from up-cycled denim.  Click here to see full process! 

Option number two would be, CROCHETED FABRIC SCRAP BASKETS by Elena Bloom from Salvage & Stitch

Fabric scraps can be a big problem when you work in fashion or have a passion for sewing, refashioning and crafts. We personally have a box full of scraps from our projects that we’ve managed to reuse for workshops and packaging. Nonetheless, there are plenty left! Elena Bloom gave us the perfect solution to use the scraps we still have, since we are on the process of remodeling the studio and, as herself, want to make it more eco-friendly. The crocheted fabric scrap baskets are the perfect solution for both waste and organization (plus, they look very nice!). Check out the entire process here! 

Keep posted for more in the next weeks! #MetamorfosisTextil 15.0 

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#FashionRevolution must know news! 

Read the full article and download the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Change here! 

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Why only drink your coffee when you can actually wear it?  And no, we don’t mean as a stain in your clothes! 

Wear your coffee on a daily basis thanks to S.Café® ’s founder and president, Jason Chen. The idea that started as a joke from Jason Chen’s wife, Amy, is now a company that produces textiles from coffee and plastic “waste”. 

The whole inspiration came from the fact that coffee grounds have a unique deodorizing function, a quality designers, producers and clients want (need) in their clothing! Besides of all the functions you can watch in the video below: 

Amazing, huh?  Now the question is, how on earth is this done? 

Well, it basically comes down to this: Getting a cup of coffee in our favorite coffee shop. 

No, we’re not joking. S.Café ® literally needs the used coffee grounds to create its products because they are applied in the yarn production. After they collect them from all the coffee we drink, they combine post patented grounds and polymer to create master batches. The result of this combination is used to generate the wonderful products we can now acquired: 

P4DRY™ , mylithe™, AIRNEST™, eco²sy®, sefía™, AEx Technology™ and last but not least, AIRMEM™. 

Each one of them providing us a sustainable solution for our different production demands. Just as they did for Mountain Designs: 

We don’t know about you, but we are definitely digging this “wear your coffee” situation. Find out more here and who knows? you might find yourself being the next S.Café ® brand partner. Let us know! 

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CLAYTHING, ceramics on the move.

Unexpected. Tactile. An aesthetic  and functional experience.

“CLAYTHING is all about innovative clay-based flexible surfaces.” 

The question is: What on earth is CLAYTHING? Well, it’s a project (product), created by founder Justina Monceviciute, to re-envision the possible application of clay and put hold to the thought of it being a static, fragile material by redesigning its aesthetics to transform its functionality. 

CLAY + TEXTILE 

Okay. Now, we’re talking.  The incorporation of textiles is an essential part of the designing process, as they are fundamental for the construction since they’re used to assemble the ceramic particles to achieve flexibility in the structures and objects created. 

THE RESULT: Surfaces behaving like fabrics. 

“CLAYTHING creates unique design language through the combination of High-Low Tech. Both traditional clay-moulding and 3D printing techniques vary and complement each other to achieve a desirable alternative aesthetics to mass-produced components.”  - Beyond Material 

It is an actual invitation to open our minds to a new era of textile design. An era that gives shape to endless possibilities of merging a variety of materials with textiles to create modern tactile experiences that can be integrated in fashion, interior design and architecture. 

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The basics applied with creativity lead to the making of genius.

It’s always surprising what people create with traditional techniques; as is the case of the embroidery artists, Richard McVetis and Annalee Levin  . Opposites, yet both, outstanding.

Greatness is the way to go when describing Annalee Levin’s art. For Levin, embroidery is an obsessive manifestation of devotion, as a result she’s created monumental embroidered pieces with traditional techniques. Yet the most curious aspect about her work is that one of her main inspirations is the known “American Dream”, its values and how it has been manifested in objects. 

Meticulous, is the correct word to describe Richard McVetis work, as he is known for using labored wools and multiple embroidered dots and crosses with subdued color to deliberately create a binary simplicity. 

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And what about natural fibers?

We’ve all heard about them. They are the ones that can be sourced from plants, animals and minerals. Such as: cotton, wool, silk and asbestos fibre. Do you know why they are chosen when making sustainable fashion, aside from the obvious reason?

What we are about to share its just the surface of it! Go investigate! You’ll find wonders.

First - It is true that as well as synthetic fabrics, natural fibers can have similar environmental impacts since the process to create them requires not only a lot of water but also chemicals, yet what gives them the advantage is that, organically processed or not, Natural Fibers are biodegradable. On the other hand, synthetic fibers, are not; since they’re basically plastic it’ll take them around 30 years or more before they START to decompose. As a result, we end up with a large amount of waste because of our consumerist society.

Second - If you are a lover of natural dye or planning on experimenting with it soon, the way to go is, in fact, a natural fiber, because they adhere beautifully thanks to their properties. Aside from them being excellent conductors these fibers have vitality and healing properties of their own.

Third but not least - they feel AMAZING against your skin. Natural fibers not only feel better but they are the solution for those who find themselves allergic to other materials.. Why? Because it has been discover that most of the allergies that are, supposedly, caused by fabrics are normally caused by the chemicals applied to them and not because of the fiber itself.

It is important to know that natural fibers are normally more expensive and require extra care but the benefits are, without a doubt, worth it.

Learn more:

Natural Fibers

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#FashionRevolutionWeek is here! 

Last week we wrote a post about Natural Dyes as an introduction to this wonderful week in which hundreds of people are working together, not only this week, but everyday of the year to make a change in the fashion industry. 

So, as we said in the last post... we’ll keep on posting about ecological options that could be applied in your own production process. Aside from that, as we always had, we’ll post about innovations in textiles and technologies in fashion that you might find both interesting and useful. Keep posted! 

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Were you aware of the existence of thousands of natural materials that make stunning colors for fabric? Including bugs! (Yes, bugs…)

#FashionRevolutionWeek is around the corner and we couldn’t be more excited! In its honor we’ll be sharing our love for natural alternatives that can be made and applied easily into fabric. Our first pick is: Natural Dye. (YES!)

So…

There are a lot of reasons why natural dye is the way to go. It’s eco-friendly, so we get to have the pleasure of creating something wonderful while not making anymore damage to our lovely planet (which is great!). Yet, aside from that, they are fun to work with; you’ll find that’s quite exciting extracting colors from a flower, coffee/tea or even bugs (as we said earlier). Specially if, in the case of plants, you grew them in your garden.

It’s reasonable to believe that natural dying could be harder than dying with artificial dye, but on the contrary, it’s quite simple, it just takes longer yet the result will be without a doubt more satisfying. You’ll find that it’s easy to complement them well because they rarely clash and the remnants can be incorporated into another avoiding waste.

Check out the links below to find out more about the best natural materiales to use, mordants, the correct fabrics to use, and more…

All Natural Dyeing

The Art Of Natural Dyeing  

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META 69.00

We’d be lying if we never wished for super powers… How about self-healing fabric?

Yes! You read correctly: SELF-HEALING FABRIC!

A group of researchers from Penn State University had this brilliant idea years ago and they finally made it possible by turning squid teeth proteins into a liquid form using yeast and bacteria, and later used it to coat different fabrics. How it works? Apply either warmth or warm water to the fabric and it heals! Just as good and strong as before. Wow!

Are you loving this as much as we did? We think so!  

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META 68.00

Have you ever seen ceramic looking so amazingly sharp? 

Zemer Peled, is an artist born in the northern part of Israel, who specializes on sculptures made of ceramic. Wait! If you’re thinking you’ve already seen a lot of ceramic sculptures before, don’t go because you would definitely want to check this out!

Peled’s work beautifully accomplishes the art of making something that’s supposed to be delicate, intense by mixing its beauty with the brutality of the natural world. She makes this possible by working with thousands of ceramic shards giving nature and landscapes and edge.

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META 67.00

Has dead nature ever looked so good?

First of all, sorry we’ve been out for a while! It’s been an amazing yet crazy year but we’re back with some very cool stuff to share with you. Starting with: Susanna Bauer.

Susanna Bauer, is an artist who works with found natural objects, such as, leaves, stones, and pieces of wood (for now) by using crochet. Wow! Combining this objects with crochet seems nearly impossible but Susanna, somehow manages it easily by turning 2D leaves into 3D cubes, tunnels, and geometric patterns with techniques that, when thinking about it, might be appropriate for the durability of leatherwork.

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META 66.00

Every now and then I find these amazing inventions that cry for our creativity. Is not the invention but all that we can do with it, it all becomes a tool for something new and exciting, if we want to. 

This is Sugru create by Industrial Designer, Jane. She found a gap in design, why do we keep producing new things? Why don’t we stop and improve or fix the things that we already have? 

Sugru is a  mouldable glue designed for fixing, making and improving your stuff, sticks to almost anything, moulds like play-dough, then cures overnight into a durable silicone rubber. Its patented formula can be customised for industrial applications  - hardness, density, resistivity and adhesive properties can be adjusted according to requirements.so even if you’re a big company and you see a huge potential you can make SUGRU a partner! 

Check out the video!  More information -> sugru.com

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META 65.00

Installation for interaction is the future. 

New York design firm Design Office Takebayashi Scroggin (D.O.T.S.) created this Massimal for the 2011 Beaux Arts Festival using 20,000 standard white zip ties. “massimal” is what the firm describes as  “design objects that serve as prototypes to examine how physical form can engage the public realm. These constructs are mass abstractions of animal forms fabricated in systematic fashion from one material.” The zip ties are meticulously interlinked creating a complex outer mesh that is then suspended in place using cables.

More info: http://dots-ky.com/index.php

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META 64.00

Porcelain has never looked so organic. 

Nuala O’Donovan is an Ireland artist with background in tres-dimensional design and ceramics. 

Nuala works on hand-built porcelain forms that resemble fractal patterns found in nature. She finds inspiration from shapes found in coral, teasel flowers, and pinecones, Nuala examines not only patterns, but irregularities that arise from random or unexpected events.

The viewer engages with the piece by allowing their own visual experiences to influence their view of the outcome of the form and its future possibilities. She evokes he transitory quality of living organisms.

More Info: http://www.nualaodonovan.com/

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META 63.00

What about a natural embroidery?

Australian artist Meredith Woolnough creates elaborate embroideries that mimic delicate forms of nature like leaves and coral.

Woolnough uses a special embroidery technique that involves a domestic sewing machine and a base cloth that dissolves in water after the piece is complete leaving just the skeleton. The threads are not stitched but knotted to create her art pieces. I don’t know about you but I would really like to learn how this is made!  

http://www.meredithwoolnough.com

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META 62.00

Do you know what a vortex is?

Japanese artist Akiko Ikeuchi. Born in Tokyo in 1964, has been for over two decades hanging her delicately crafted string sculptures in galleries around Japan, Korea, and New York. 

The installations are constructed from extremely delicate silk threads, and despite the chaotic appearance of the knotted webs Akiko plans each work as an architect would plan a building with precision blueprints that involve a complex internal framework. 

The resulting works are room-size vortices of silk, that emerge us in a spiral mental travel, we can translate them to whatever shares the spiral flow of a vortex: tornados, galaxies ... 

http://www.taisax.com/akiko/ikeuchi.html

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META 61.00

Let the wind do its job! 

Merel Karhof is the author of this piece, “Wind knitting Factory”. Traveling has given her the opportunity to sharpen her curiosity, as well as discover local manufacturers, and it continues to inspire her to make products in a dialogue with her surroundings.

Catching wind to power itself, churning out an incredibly long piece of colorful knit material. Each of piece gets a label indicating the time and date of which the wind produced the garment. Adorable!! 

http://windknittingfactory.bigcartel.com/