Diploma Project Proposal
By
Pranathi Vadlamani
Textile Design
Date of submission: 11th July 2011
Name of Client/Company: Swati Unakar, Tuni Designs.
Context:
The resources and energy required for leather manufacturing industry makes the process tedious and expensive. Modern leather industries use harmful chemicals to reduce the time and labor used in leather tanning, which are not health and environmental friendly though consume less processing time.
After all the stages from processing of raw material to finished product, waste generated from these industries are bleached and used for making fertilizers or waterproof leather products by combining with plastic. Some small scale industries also depend on these wastes for their livelihood, where they make hand gloves, small wallets, other accessories, souvenirs etc. These products are manufactured mainly targeting lower end of the market with less or no design elements and finishing.
Design Brief:
The term “Upcycling” has been coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their discourse of sustainability efforts in “Cradle to Cradle”: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Upcycling is the process that can be repeated in perpetuity of returning materials back to a pliable, usable form without degradation to their latent value—moving resources back up the supply chain.
Upcycling represents a truly cyclical, balanced process which fulfils the need of virgin material in the supply chain, where as recycling is treating, processing or altering the true nature of the material to make suitable for reuse. Though Upcycling the leather waste is a labor intensive process, an effort to be made to use it in its original state as recycling of leather waste is both time and energy consuming.
This project is an effort to produce good finished products by keeping the idea of Upcycling, targeting domestic home furnishing and fashion accessories market. Main concentration would be on leather, can also include other textile industrial waste.
This is also an attempt of using the local raw material and labor to produce exclusive products which creates employment and livelihood.
Research Questions:
o Recycling Vs Upcycling, why Upcycling is important?
o What is the history and evolution of leather industries in India?
o What is the Geographical, cultural and economical importance of leather industries in South India?
o What is the overall insight of labors working in leather industries (Cultural, health issues etc)?
o What are the different qualities of leather available, their properties and importance?
o What is the process involved in small scale industries which depend on leather waste, their investment and profit?
o Who are the designers working on leather waste? Brief about their products and market review.
o What are the different textile techniques that can be used in this project effectively to create exclusive products?
o What is the requirement of present market?
o What is the need of this project?
Approach/Process:
o Visiting the nearest leather manufacturing industry and collecting possible data and raw material.
o Visiting the small scale or home industries that use leather waste, documenting the process and experience.
o Meetings and Interviews with people who are associated with property of leather, leather waste disposal etc.
o Intense process of iterations and possibilities of combining it with other textile waste.
o Market research for products trend analysis.
o Costing.
o Prototype making.
o Labeling, packaging and finishing details.
o Final product making.
o Pricing
Resources:
o Internet
o Specialists and analysts
o Libraries
o Users
o Manufacturers/Artisans
Learning outcome:
Working towards social awareness and applying my academic learning appropriately in the real world would be my biggest learning during this project. Time and resource management would also be a part of my learning. Step by step birth and life cycle of a new product would give me a more practical knowledge on material and product. This would be my first project where I will have to do decision making without facilitators help.
This project would be a platform for me to experience and learn to interact with real client, specialist and analysts, gives me an opportunity to pick information from their diverse opinions. Thus this project will be a stepping stone for me into the market oriented design world.
Final output/ Product:
A series of well finished home furnishing and fashion accessories along with pricing, labeling and packaging.
Timeline:
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| pricing and labeling | ||
| Oct 1-Oct 25 |
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| Prototype making |
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| Sept 16-Sept 30 |
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| Iterations |
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| Sept 1-Sept 15 |
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| Mind maps, Inspiration board, | ||
| Aug 16-Aug 30 |
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| Product trend analysis | |||
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| Research, visiting the place, | ||
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| Discussions and Case studies | ||
| July 25-Aug 15 |
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Why leather waste:
Untreated leather hide is biodegradable but in order to make leather workable and durable for use in a range of products it must go through a tanning process. Tanning involves large amounts of water and a number of toxic chemicals that can contaminate the soil and waterways. By reusing leather scraps diverts usable materials from landfill (It may take 25-50 years to decompose), reduces the demand for fresh leather production and reduces the need for chemical tanning processes.
Whole leather scraps can be used in small goods manufacturing such as bags, belts and wallet(Upcycling) or it can also be ground up and reprocessed for use in products such as leather tiles or portfolios(Recycling).
The process of recycling the leather waste into tiles and portfolios follows the procedure of tiny pieces of leather scrap ground into shreds, combined with water and then mixed with binding products such as natural rubber and acacia wood bark. The leather pulp is then formed into a sheet or roll and mechanically processed for size, color, and texture to make leather tiles which are durable and easy to sustain.
Recycled leather flocked fabric products, which consist of fabrics that are reconstituted from leather waste and are flocked with recycled leather powder that improve the texture of the fabric.
