Square dancing is hugely popular amongst Chinese middle-aged and retired women. The collective dancing brings these people not only joyfullness but aslo a sense of bonded community.

I intend to showcases a state of connecting with one other via cross knotting. Upon manupilating the fabric which the uniforms dancing grannies wear are made of, I noticed the whole action of knotting resembles the movement of them while dancing as well.

textile samples

In China, the delivery service from supermarkets has been booming quickly because many people dont want to frequently go to grocery stores to store ingredients during the corona time. The service brings a great deal of convenience and safety. Yet the problem is, a couple of weeks ago, the delivery time switched from previous 30 mins to now 20 mins, which caused loads of couriers may have to violate the traffic rules to save time for delivering on time.

When I got my delivery and saw the plastic bag, I even didn't know the work of the courier is that intensive and demanding.Hence,I made this.

When I was first introduced to this textile technique - fabric yo-yo's, the shape of it reminded me one of famous snack in my howntown —— Xiao Long Bao, which is a bun with soup and meat inside. Xiao Long Bao is considerated as a comforting food for many Chinese people. That is probably because it contains the essential elements to stimulate the happy chemistry in our brain.

Apart from being used for packaging stuff, Bubble wrapping sometimes are used by people to realse stress via pressing the bubbles.

I tend to combines these to create a new comforting object.

There is mostly zero corona affection case in where I live these days (9/24/2020) ，but it is not uncommon to see one still wearing masks on the street.

Every countries has taken different approaches facing to corona crisis. In my country, wearing a mask is believed as one of the best means to prevent from getting corona as well as avoid affecting others.

Utilising Bubbling techinque gave the mask a few seemingly virus-cannot-go-through-it texture.

This colour has been quite popular these days, at least in China, one can see it was used to embellish cars and smartphones. I intend to weave the PVC material to generate more such glare visual textures.

The sound from pressing the bubbles on the previous “Yo-yo's bun”， reminded me of the sound that Chinese people set off firecrackers for celebrating Chinese New Year. Speaking of Chinese New year, another thing came to my head quickly is lucky money/ red pocket money/ Hong Bao, which is a small amount of money put in a red envelope as a wish of luck. Coincidentally, in Chinese, red bag, red bun, and red pocket money sound the same. Hence, I intended to create a new alternative object by combining these associations.

Honeycomb smocking can generate similar patterns which indicate the communal sense of enjoyment like knotting. I am thinking of applying these patterns on headbands and wristbands, which square dancing ladies can use them to absorb or swipe sweat away from their faces while dancing.