Outside Inspiration: Live Color Shifting Layers
We saw a beautiful combination of leather and polymer on Wednesday, so I thought today we’d dovetail into that with a look at what some designers are doing with with leather alone. Well, with some the help of some very special inks.
What you see here is only a momentary shift in color on a leather jacket. This leather is imbued with a heat responsive ink. And yes, that means what you think it means… there is an ink out there that changes color as it warms up. Pretty freaking cool.
Now to lay to rest the first question I am certain is popping up in many a head out there reading this: Can this be used with polymer? The answer looks to be yes, but with a huge caveat–the equipment and expense of using this “thermochromic” ink is beyond what any individual craftsperson can afford to do. It’s rather specialized and requires special equipment and treatments to be applied and stabilized. So, it’s not a product ready for polymer prime time.
As for the other possible question out there: Is this related to mood rings? And the answer there is also yes, but this is like mood ring technology for the new age. So, now that we have those burning questions out of the way, let’s simply enjoy the beauty of this garment.
This sculptural leather, with its feather look and scale shapes, covered with this heat responsive ink is what the artist Lauren Bowker calls fabric manipulation art. In this case, it’s a piece that reacts “to the movement of air, changing colour as environmental conditions shift in varying climates and when people come close or walk past … The summer environment will create a brightly coloured jacket that will dull in the wind to become black again, whereas in the winter the pieces are black until the wind hits them then revealing the colour shift.”
I am having to refrain from saying some other version of “Isn’t that so cool!” If you are as awed by this as I am, head to this page with a series of posts on Lauren’s work and poke around for yourself. And, if you really want to own one of her pieces, pull all your pennies together and go shopping on “The Unseen” website.
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