Hannah Starkey

My MA final collection is about challenging knitted textiles, by using specialist technical yarns and applications that encourage and allow hand manipulation. Creating textiles that can perform and support the wearers movements. The collection has been inspired by kinetics and optic art, and how the use of line and distortion can create movement.

The focus of the collection is about surfaces that contradict each other with an emphasis on hard and soft, rigidity and stretch. Kinetic research influences adaptability, movement, and the use of line to reveal colour within my work.

With a strong focus on the technical aspects within knitting, I experiment with various yarn combinations, using a diverse range of knitting techniques, applications, and processes resulting in unanticipated materials and outcomes.

Heat processes and laser cut applications have allowed me to create a variety of surface textures and qualities, resulting in unexpected melted knitted textiles. Placement of abstract shapes within my knitting have created sections that allow the contradiction of stretch and rigidity, bringing a performance aspect within the collection.