Introduction

Incremental pleats have folds that increase and decrease to create different effects. Twisted pleats move to the left and/or right giving the appearance of a softer, wave-like effect or ripple.

i) Working with a range of materials – paper, tissue and fabric

For this exercise I created a small number of samples using paper, tissue and a voile fabric.

Thoughts and conclusions

Making incremental pleats in the paper was essentially an extension/variation on the standard pleats and worked well in paper. However, it was quite difficult to twist the paper into pleats (particularly to get them to hold in place). The tissue was a little easier but it was still difficult to make twisted pleats stay in place.

The voile fabric on the other hand, was a much more satisfying result. I roughly pleated the fabric and steam-set the twisted pleats in place. The synthetic nature of the voile didn’t exactly melt but did set into near-permanent creases. The light effects created by the voile give a pleasing ripples in water or waves effect. I can see potential for this using this in landscapes for sky, oceans and other textures.

Further ideas for exploration

It would be interesting to experiment further with paper-based media to see if the pleats can be made more permanent by dampening the paper or painting it with dilute pva. I’ll also be looking out for more of the voiles as I love the play of light with this fabric (frustratingly I onlyhad a small amount!).