ReFib - Recycling Fibroins as Textile Refinement
The residency, organized by the State Art Collections Dresden, Museum of Decorative Arts (SKD), saw textile designer and scientist Kim Cordes explore how traditional German techniques of silk and wool processing could be combined with modern material research to find innovative ways of extending the lifecycle of these natural materials.
About
Aug–Oct 2024 | Dresden, Germany | Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Design/Technology: Kim Cordes, Michael Wöltje
craftsperson: Ute Luft
As part of the residency, textile designer Kim Cordes experiments with the use of liquid silk coatings on local wool and try out applications of silk coatings for clothing production. The aim is to establish a long-term co-operation between textile design and wool producers.
During the three-week residency in Dresden, Kim Cordes experimented with wool felts from Ute Luft and the right recipe for coating the dissolved silk in order to achieve a special feel and high durability at the same time. The patterns and colours were inspired by the gardens and architecture of Pillnitz. These studies are used by Kim Cordes to develop the first prototypes for yarns and textile surfaces.
Textile designer and scientist Kim Cordes combines various traditional aspects of textile craftsmanship with the language of design in his work. During the preparation and concept phase of the residency, Kim Cordes researched the centuries-old tradition of silkworm rearing and artisanal sheep’s wool processing in Germany. His aim for the residency is to combine these traditions and his material research in the interests of sustainability.
Together with Ute Luft, he developed silk-coated woollen yarns and textile surfaces that have the feel of a silk surface. The aim was to make this coating technique applicable to clothing production. The background to this is that domestic wool is rarely used as clothing due to its scratchiness, but is either used as insulation material or, in the worst case, is even thrown away. In addition, Kim uses leftovers from silk fabric production as well as hatched silk cocoons, which are also unusable for fabric production, in the products created in the residence.
About the Designer:
Kim Cordes lives and works in Halle and global. Interdisciplinary starting point of Kim Cordes’ work is to create aesthetically appealing textile design from silk textile waste and combine it with other materials. His research project “ReFib – Recycling Fibroins as Textile Refinement” opens the exciting field for in-depth research with silk fibroins. By combining research and design, experiments are developed that are intended to make the scientific findings tangible and usable. On the one hand, visions are to be shown, but also the more efficient and diverse use of the materials is to be researched, made visible, and used. On the other hand, illustrative experiments show that these visions can also be implemented. The aim is to keep the exclusive material silk in the product cycle for as long as possible.
