Abstract
Background
Drawing upon ancient human making practices, Vitreous Knit offers an early-stage research into the realisation of novel object forms fabricated via glass knitting. The project reconsiders preconceptions that glass objects are solid, rigid, and brittle.
Contribution
Glass-fibres are a highly versatile class of materials commonly used as reinforcement, either as loose strands or woven textiles, within polymer-based resins such as epoxy and unsaturated polyester. While its contemporary use sits firmly within technologically-advanced material practices connected to aerospace, less appreciated is the fact that glass-fibre is an extremely old material. The earliest examples of its use can be traced to the ancient Pheonician and Egyptian civilisations, who wound course glass-fibres over clay vessels and objects.
Vitreous Knit innovatively combines glass twill, commonly used in industry to produce glassfibre reinforcement textiles, with a cheap and readily available manual knitting machine to fabricate a sparse tubular matrix that is stepwise formed and infused. The result, a highly unique materialization strategy capable of forming highly intricate knitted structures that offer few clues to their production.
Significance
The work is included in an exhibition entitled ‘Material Worlds’ curated by Dr Lyndon Anderson for the National Museum of Australia.
Drawing upon ancient human making practices, Vitreous Knit offers an early-stage research into the realisation of novel object forms fabricated via glass knitting. The project reconsiders preconceptions that glass objects are solid, rigid, and brittle.
Contribution
Glass-fibres are a highly versatile class of materials commonly used as reinforcement, either as loose strands or woven textiles, within polymer-based resins such as epoxy and unsaturated polyester. While its contemporary use sits firmly within technologically-advanced material practices connected to aerospace, less appreciated is the fact that glass-fibre is an extremely old material. The earliest examples of its use can be traced to the ancient Pheonician and Egyptian civilisations, who wound course glass-fibres over clay vessels and objects.
Vitreous Knit innovatively combines glass twill, commonly used in industry to produce glassfibre reinforcement textiles, with a cheap and readily available manual knitting machine to fabricate a sparse tubular matrix that is stepwise formed and infused. The result, a highly unique materialization strategy capable of forming highly intricate knitted structures that offer few clues to their production.
Significance
The work is included in an exhibition entitled ‘Material Worlds’ curated by Dr Lyndon Anderson for the National Museum of Australia.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Canberra |
| Publisher | National Museum of Australia |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Apr 2023 |
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