Focusing on form

This week I’ve been thinking about how nature inspires designers. All my life, nature has been a source of inspiration. My final MA collection was inspired by natural form. This was quite a departure for me because my designs are usually inspired by colour, pattern, or texture.

In My Transition from Scientist to Artist, I described how I used knowledge of hand-knit techniques used in traditional garments to help me produce seamless three-dimensional forms on knitting machines. First, I had to learn how to programme the machines. Then I experimented in a scientific manner to work out how to write programmes for the forms I wanted to produce.

Today, I’m going to show you some of the images that inspired me.

Tessellation

This fossil shows complex tessellation on a three-dimensional surface. I must really like this because I have photographed it on different occasions.

Tessellation becomes surprisingly technical. Rather than bore you with terminology and definitions, I suggest you take a look at my Pinterest boards, regular tessellation, semi-regular tessellation, mathematical forms, for some lovely images from other people.

Spirals

I also looked at different types of a spiral. I love the spiral and the ridges in this ammonite.

More ammonites – just beautiful!

The nautilus shell is a golden spiral.

Not quite a spiral, but fascinating anyway.

You can see other people’s stunning images on my natural form Pinterest board.

Aesthetics

Finally here is the mood board that I made to help me with the aesthetics of my final collection. I wanted the pieces to have a delicate, ethereal appearance and incorporate soft light.

The finished pieces