2023 Year 12 Student, Finnian, is taking sustainability to the next level in his Textiles Major Work by growing his own fabric.
In addition to wheat fabric, Finnian propagated mulberry bark lace from the Patonga area to decorate the waistline and collar of his garment. He said he wanted to lace to look like the water features that surround Patonga, a town on the NSW Central Coast.
The Mulberry Bark Lace represents the water features and landmarks that surround Patonga
Finnian has a family link to Patonga as it’s his grandmother’s hometown and one of his intentions is to pay homage to the town.
Finnian’s wearable art also pays homage to the traditional owners of the Patonga area, the Kuring-gai peoples and their traditional fishing cultures. Utilising the Textiles Embroidery Machine, Agnew has imprinted models of Indigenous coastal fish traps on the back of the blouse he created. Coastal stone walls were utilised to guide fish into holding ponds where Indigenous people would catch them.
Using the embroidery machine, Finnian created models of Indigenous coastal fish traps
When designing and creating his work, Finnian spent many Friday afternoons at “Makerspace”, an after school co-curricular activity open to students from Year 7 to Year 12. Students in the space are invited to pursue a passion or interest in any area of design with the help of Technical and Applied Studies staff.
“The whole technology department has been so useful for me, I could not have completed my design without their facilities, knowledge and assistance”
“The whole technology department has been so useful for me, I could not have completed my design without their facilities, knowledge and assistance” Finnian said, “Makerspace was really beneficial to me and I spent a lot of time there, through it, I was able to work with teachers who had expertise in woodwork and printing which allowed me to expand my design beyond sewing”.
Finnian said Textiles was his most challenging subject. “Practising growing the fabric under different conditions was definitely a labour of love but the result was better than I could ever imagine!” he said.
Finnian grew his wheat fabric over a period of 3 months to create the pant leg of his unique design
“I think that my work captures both my essence and the essence of Patonga, I am definitely interested in continuing studying design” Finnian said, “I have been looking at fashion courses at UTS, I originally was not interested in that but was inspired to pursue the industry by the subject and my teacher.”
