Emerging from 1815: Planned Random and Reasoned Serendipity: Internationally Co-Created Textile Art responding to the Gleneden Post-War Design Archive Image Design No. 1815

Pattern design archives are a valuable resource for many people working in Fashion and Textiles. As records of completed commissions they preserve memories of an ever-changing designed world by capturing the visual instruction that guided the original manufacturing process and through careful curation their value can be extended to provide inspiration for designers seeking to converse with patterns from the past.

The Gleneden Post-War Design Archive is a collection of 900 – 1000 historic design sheets, hand drawn in pencil and coloured with gouache paint, they were accurately rendered to aid commercial production of jacquard woven cloth. Most of the artworks were produced between the formation of Gleneden Textiles Ltd in 1955 and the closure of its Carlisle factory in 1990. The archive was last commercially owned by and acquired from Collins and Aikman, it was donated to the University of Huddersfield as a resource for teaching and is conserved in the Universities Heritage Quay Archive.

This work, ‘Emerging from 1815: Planned Random and Reasoned Serendipity’, was made through co-creative practice in 3 venues: A conference at Donghau University, Shanghai, China, organised by IFFTI: International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes, in a domestic interior in Chorlton, Manchester, and in the digital print centre of the Barbara Hepworth Building, Huddersfield

To do this the Gleneden image Design No. 1815 was photographed. The digital image enlarged and split into 12 sections. Each section was numbered and presented in a physical format with a piece of tracing paper attached. The design sheets and drawing implements are distributed between the conference delegates willing to participate. The image was traced / drawn over by the participants during a 20-minute paper presentation. At the end of the talk, the design sheets were returned. The drawings were gathered, and the components used to make a new design that transformed the original textile design.
The new work, by Matthew Taylor is a co-creation between the original pattern designer, 12 international conference delegates and the artist/designer/project organiser.

‘Emerging from 1815’ was printed using dye sublimation & pigment inkjet printing. It was exhibited alongside an A3 print that explained the process, showing the genesis of the image. An edition of 10 Prints on Paper (5-colour Risographs) was produced to commemorate the first exhibition of the piece.