Riverford is an organic food delivery company and restaurant based in Devon.
I wanted to channel their morals through my own work, with the initial plan being food during the unending lockdowns and the idea of growing your own food and appreciating it as a new luxury. They're all about the production of food from the land it's planted into to the family traditions of farming and harvesting, similarly in fashion and interiors with the textile design and manufacture being the basis on which these foundations are built upon.
The making of garments and interiors are thought to be the most important step, like the cooking itself; and yes, whilst the manufacture step is important, the origins are sometimes overlooked and not considered when deciding the final value. Here is where Riverford shines, they acknowledge every step of the process, from the initial planting of the seeds, to the time it is consumed in the restaurants or delivered at home.
I ordered one of their food boxes and followed several recipes, documenting each process, drawing from personal experiences with cooking and using this as the primary research.
From this I created a collection of kitchen textile accessories using food derived natural dyes and sustainable yarns to create graphical jacquard designs and handwoven tactile fabrics. The graphical designs were translated using Scotweave into woven structures, these structures were chosen in accordance to the type of yarn being most prominent and how the dye is taken up when overdyed. The fabric once woven is treated in a particular way so that only one type of yarn used takes up the dye creating this three toned gradient revealing the design.
This minimalistic colour palette emphasises the structures of the fabric and works in tandem to highlight how colour changes bold pattern and structure with the jacquard samples.
