“The samples are a great starting point for a new project,” agrees textile artist Yu-Mei Huang, who worked with the TextielLab’s knitting experts for the first time this year. “Instead of trying 100 different things, you can use the physical examples to examine the material and texture. It saves a lot of time.” Huang worked in the lab in February and June on Soft Sculptures, a series of sculptural knits that combine elements of body art and spatial design. The project explores the interaction between textiles, body and space and breaks down the system of fixed sizes and shapes. “The prevailing sizing system is unsustainable and not very wearer-friendly,” says Huang, whose Soft Sculptures are so flexible that they can conform effortlessly to different body types or spaces.

Huang is not new to knitting, so she was able to skip the lab’s knitting knowledge clip covering the basics. However, the Sample Studio provided inspiration for how to approach the three works – an object, a garment and six wall hangings – which she will finalise in January. When she started talking about the structure of bubble wrap, product developer Yani Chuang showed her the sample of Sangmin Oh’s latest ‘Knitted Light’. Huang loved the sculptural look of this and decided to use a similar technique to develop an object with the working title ‘The Fold’. This gracefully pleated, stretchy structure is knitted, like Oh’s lamps, with polyester monofilament and elastic, resulting in a sturdy but highly flexible and resilient construction. But Huang wanted a less compact, more transparent effect, to give the result an airy, lightweight look. She also added her own monofilament to achieve a specific shade of salmon pink.

For the other Soft Sculptures, Huang was inspired by several other samples. The design for the knitted one-size-fits-all kimono with three-dimensional pleats was already quite well developed when she arrived in the lab. But the 3D knitted fabrics for Robin Pleun Maas’ Archive of the Future project that she saw in the Sample Studio confirmed she was heading in the right direction. With the product developers, Huang used an innovative ‘plaiting’ technique to knit the complex colour pattern into the kimono instead of printing it on the fabric afterwards, as she initially planned to do. For the six tapestries, she looked to Kustaa Saksi’s Anius Myth Series, Jef Montes’ ‘Marinero’ and Marilene Madou’s textured cushions. “I don’t find plain jacquard knitting that interesting,” she says. “Something special has to happen.” And it has: the use of innovative techniques created striking floats and distinct textures, patterns and colours, based on the road markings that Huang saw in Tilburg.

All of Huang’s pieces will be shown in the coming year in a performance at her solo exhibition in Taiwan and during the London Design Festival. A sample from this project might also find its way into the Sample Studio in the future, as a source of inspiration for others. The studio is expanded each year with new samples that fill technical and aesthetic gaps in the existing collection. If necessary, the samples are remade, photographed and documented. The online Sample Studio contains photos and technical details of all the physical examples that can be found in the room next to the lab. The lab team recently selected 29 samples from projects completed in 2023: from the woven wall coverings for Carré theatre in Amsterdam by Bas van Beek and a woven tribute to exploited women by patricia kaersenhout to the fully fashioned ceramic moulds by Brian Anderson and the circular-knitted migraine hoodie by Laura Deckwisch. The new additions will be available in the Sample Studio sometime next year.