Noemi Santos
Crown
2022
The collection empowers others with tactile hair to feel beautiful and confident. To celebrate their identity with any hairstyle even their natural afro. It is for young and mature women that are passionate about Black culture and want to keep making a change. Who want clothing that is for them and inspired by their desire for innovation through knitted textiles.
The Power of Afro Hair
2021
This project is to reflect Black hairstyles through knitting. Looking at the patterns of braids, twists, and curls to embrace their beauty with synthetic yarns and hair. Using Elongated stitch, Decorative E-wrap, Ripple, and Circular knit techniques. Creating samples that are neat and perfect and can be manipulated to look more like hair, its textures, and silhouettes. Observe and marge how the samples change shape and curl up when off the machine. To demonstrate that afro hair, in any style can be professional. Empowering others with tactile hair to feel beautiful and confident.
Knit Explorations
2017-2020
These are Knit samples done over the past years, exploring techniques and texture to make exciting designs. Having used observation drawing research to get inspiration. The ideas/designs, and colour palettes are all from research studies as well as patterns. This was translated into techniques like tuck, miss, weave in, fashionable increase/decrease, hooking up and others. Some have not been as successful, although it helped her develop the techniques and get better quality in the development process.
Drawing Research
2016-2018
Expanding on drawing skills through experimenting new techniques and drawing methods. Allowing her to get out of the comfort zone and develop paintings through these new skills. This has made room to improve techniques through collage, observation drawing, CAD and 3D making. It has helped combined ideas of making, together as the process of drawing enabling her to see things from a different angel and problem solve.
Final Major Project
12 weeks 2016
Dyslexia on a human is like lichen on a tree. This experience will be showing how she got to this conclusion and why. Researching the similarities of the two to make it clear how she felt about dyslexia and lichen. Looking at how dyslexia and lichen; grows, develops, and affects the human and the tree over a period of time. Influenced by her walk to college everyday, to the place where she struggle the most with my dyslexia. She took this subject into textiles where tactile techniques like vanishing muslin and texted screenprints forming crispy, delightful marks with expressive movement. Ideal for describing the texture of lichens and frustrations of dyslexia. The primary concerns have been illustrating how my dyslexia relates to a natural occurrence in nature, understanding and accepting these natural processes, human and environmental and building a relationship between the two with the inspiration of Anna Gillespie’s tactile and rich work.
Box Project
6 weeks 2015
Destructing a box and bring it it back together to create a primary drawing research. She looked at the work of Richard Serra and Tony Cragg for inspiration which helped her create the mysterious mood and functional structured objects giving it a playful and busy setting in a controlled environment. She developed this by doing extended pencil drawing and photocopying the shredded box to create refined sensitive drawing based on its up-cycling feel. This give her a good foundation to take in to print and create existing images that where very successful. As they had lots of movement, density, mood and sensitive marks that brought my project together.
