Final Product

Structure

Lava

 This shows how strong and static synthetic cotton wool fibers are when exposed to lots of friction. Secondly it shows how the different densities react to light. The edges are transparent somewhat but the fuzz means you cannot see through, whereas the dense inner structure has sucked up the available space and you can see through each row.

Wave

Synthetic cotton wool absorbs only to a certain degree. It's chemical make up causes it to repel the dye. Until I rubbed and rubbed and soak and soaked, it remained in clumps. You can see this here.
What is also interesting about this final experiment is how coarse the wool became.





I have explained the properties of this particular type of experiment a lot throughout my blog - this was actually my first and remains my most successful product. I like how this photo ambiguously shows off the web-like pattern created when heat was applied, it looks like a glacial wave.

Working my final 3 pieces


1) I found out that synthetic wool does not take colour well. It repelled the dye mostly, I had to really work it in and scrunch it for about an hour to get it to stay and soak any of it. My final piece shows synthetic wool's poor, albeit present ability to absorb moisture. This moisture enabled the fibers to stick together in a messy pile. Many parts held droplets of thick dye which refused to absorb. From this we can see it is definitely not cotton wool, which would have sucked the colour right up.

here is a photo i liked but didn't use because I thought it was distracting and didn't really show the point of the piece.

Aftermath!













2) The synthetic wave... I enjoyed playing with different levels of heat. The fibers were fragile and I had to be very careful and deliberate when using the heat gun. The most heated side is dense and heavy, and gradually towards the other side it becomes more webbed and then airy.

Aesthetically, this is my favorite of the three structures, however it was the hardest to photograph. Here are two attempts that I liked but didn't make the cut.

3) Twisting the synthetic cotton was interesting - the fibers held together really easily when friction was applied to it. Overall it looked a little weak just scrunching the edges around a ball of the wool but I used a similar technique with larger sections to build a more interesting and expressive structure.

This is it below here. The rope like product that was left is strong and dense. I like how you can see the contrasting frayed edges, this gives the structure a bit more flare. When the individual bits I made were stacked on top of each other, this piece also showed the level of transparency in relation to the density of the stuff.

Here are two options I was considering for my final photo

Chosen Material: Synthetic Cotton Wool ~

These were my next lot of experiments with synthetic cotton wool. 

Firstly I was interested in how well it created a dread lock effect (image 1), I created this sort of rope spring by rubbing handfuls together quickly. The synthetic cotton wool is static and quite strong so it did this well. After I had made the long bit of material, I wound it tightly, around and around. I liked how it held its shape by itself and formed a springy coil.

There were many different stages that looked interesting during the burning process. This was the most heated version and uses the most of my material. It bubbles together and looks rather like a dirty plastic bag.

Here was the other heated version I liked. It has a spider web effect. I think its lightness and transparency is beautiful. Next time I will take this technique a step further by making a combination of the different levels of burning.

Here I tried to separate a bunch of individual strands and layer them back on top of one another, to show lightness and fine texture. This experiment really enables the viewer to see how the material is made up. I made a larger version, but it was so light and transparent that I lost it when I turned around for a second to talk to my tutor. I think it blew away, which I'm sad about, it looked really cool (i blame it on him).

Further Plans (final three processes):

-  use dye to show absorbency (or lack of aka how it repels the dye)
-  play around more with twisting and taking advantage of how well the fibers hold together when i rub and twist them
- make a more interesting structure using the successful variety of burning techniques.