Furmidable :
[An Exploration of Chiengora Fibers]
| Designed by : | Cynthia Chan |
Under the Supervision of Associate Professor Hans Tan.
Furmidable proposes and encourages the use of chiengora fibres. By acknowledging the amount of dog fur going to waste on the daily, and seeing clipped dog hairs as a renewable and sustainable resource. This repositions preconceptions and pushing the threshold of material possibilities. In addition to that, drawing upon the phenotypic variation and unorthodox genotypes, to implicitly complicate and question the fine line between nature and nurture.
Currently, there are over 150 grooming services in Singapore, of which cut an average of one kilogram of fur each per day. These accumulated fibers are usually thrown as waste leading to landfills.
Formulating 7 manual fabrication techniques that best suited these fibers, namely, felting techniques, tufting, knitting, “pelting” and compression moulding.
The series of pelts were inspired by the extraordinary amount of genomic and phenotypic variation contained within the chromosomes of domestic dogs.
The book could stimulate the imaginations of professionals and the general public with hopes to portray clipped dog hair as a renewable resource.
Explorations were done to push it as a material, to further investigate the raw, expressive qualities of these fibers expand its possibilities. This opens up an avenue to formulate various fabrication techniques with the same material. Which could lead to an end outcome of a series of textile enabled products.
