Royal College of Art
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Dr Lynn Tandler

Info

  • Lynn Tandler

  • Area

    School of Design

    Role

    Tutor in Yarn & Woven Textiles

    • Textiles

  • Lynn Tandler is a Tutor in Yarn and Woven Textiles at the Royal College of Art. Her academic research draws upon the insights of science and engineering for textile design. Her work also explores new forms of aesthetics in woven textiles through innovations in material structures - be it in fibres, yarns or weaves. Alongside her post at the RCA, Lynn also runs her consultancy practice in London. 

  • Biography

  • Lynn studied Textile Design at Central Saint Martins before completing her MA in Constructed Textiles at the Royal College of Art, where she specialised in weaving. She received her PhD titled 'The Role of Weaving in Smart Material Systems' from Northumbria University in 2016 and joined the Textiles department at the RCA in 2017.

    Her interest in using unconventional materials in the construction of new textiles began as a postgraduate at the RCA and with the development of woven metal fabrics. Inspired by her brother who is a blacksmith, these collections borrowed their aesthetics and morphology from the art of metalsmithing and the forge.

    Lynn has designed a number of collections of metal woven fabrics, all of which have been in production in Italy, and continue to sell worldwide. As a consultant, Lynn has worked alongside fashion and product designers, as well as with large companies such as Nike, Adidas and Unilever. Since 2013 she has been working with an international biomedical company for the development of the next generation of synthetic hair. Her investigation into smart textile design has led her to collaborate with various industrial partners - including chemical scientists, polymer processors, fibre extruders, yarn manufacturers as well as a variety of weaving and finishing mills across Europe and the UK.

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  • Practice

  • Lynn works jointly as a textile designer, a textile engineer and an academic researcher. She brings scientific knowledge and engineering methods to her work, looking to create innovative materials that will open up new applications and aesthetic possibilities. Lynn works as a consultant for industry and as a Tutor in Woven Textiles and Yarn at the Royal College of Art.

  • Publications, exhibitions and other outcomes

  • Tandler, L. (2016) 'The Role of Weaving in Smart Material Systems'. Doctoral thesis. Northumbria University.

    Kapsali, V., Toomey, A., Oliver, R. and Tandler, L. (2013) ‘Biomimetic spatial and temporal (4d) design and fabrication’. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, Vol: 8064, pp. 387–389.

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Selected work

  • Study into metal colouring: hand woven and hand dyed metal fabric samples and colour swatches from The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals

    Study into metal colouring: hand woven and hand dyed metal fabric samples and colour swatches from The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals, Lynn Tandler and Hughes & Rowe

    Study into metal colouring: hand woven and hand dyed metal fabric samples and colour swatches from The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals, Lynn Tandler and Hughes & Rowe

  • Study into the physical properties of a 2/72’s polyester yarn

    Study into the physical properties of a 2/72’s polyester yarn, Lynn Tandler

    Study into the physical properties of a 2/72’s polyester yarn, Lynn Tandler

  • Study into the physical properties of single cotton fibre

    Study into the physical properties of single cotton fibre, Lynn Tandler

    Study into the physical properties of single cotton fibre, Lynn Tandler

  • Metal fabric – hand woven

    Metal fabric – hand woven, Lynn Tandler

    Metal fabric – hand woven, Lynn Tandler

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Italy. Garment design by Marie Cunliffe.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Italy. Garment design by Marie Cunliffe.

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Italy. Garment design by Marie Cunliffe.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Italy. Garment design by Marie Cunliffe.

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, UK. Garment design by Tiffany Tang.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, UK. Garment design by Tiffany Tang.

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, UK. Garment design by Tiffany Tang.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, UK. Garment design by Tiffany Tang.

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Italy.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Italy.

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Switzerland.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, Switzerland.

  • Velvet metal fabric

    Velvet metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Hand woven

    Velvet metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Hand woven

  • Metal fabric

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, UK.

    Metal fabric, Lynn Tandler
    Production, UK.

Research

Research interests

Lynn is an early researcher whose work is dedicated to the investigation of new structuring methodologies and the role of weaving in particular, as an agent for creating smart textiles. Through her practical research she has created a new weave structure that counter-intuitively expands in all directions upon stretch. She has also developed several tools for the adaptation of leno weaving on the loom.

Lynn’s interests reach out in two directions: towards science and engineering, and towards design. In particular, she is interested in the development of new textile components and smart woven architectures for specific applications; the creation of an interactive digital predictive tool for smart textile systems; and the exploration of weaving as a fabrication methodology on micro and nano scale. 

Research students