Design Feature #22
Master of Masking Tape ZOEE
Zoe
Written by Kit Chan
Translated by Derek
Photos by Kit Chan
How much more can a roll of mt masking tape work out besides the most practical paste-up?
"It's just like a thread when you pull it out, and it's so colourful that you can't help create something," said the designer Zoe imagining loops of "threads" on hand when holding the tape.
Weaving comes next when "threads" are present. Crisscrossing those threads creates a good-looking grid pattern in a while, and this possible decoration for the cover jacket of a PDA or a notebook is a testimony of liberty and creativity.
It is beyond expectation but patently possible to weave with the masking tape because it is easier to tear this woven material off than a normal tape, and no marks can be found after crisscrossing. A cautious selection of the tape texture will hardly result in damage on the handicraft, but will on the contrary allow handwriting and drawing on the surface of the finished work.
"They're very thin in texture and usually translucent," explained Zoe while ripping one masking tape. "Two tapes of two different colours stacked together will form a brand new hue, a shade or even kind of a 3D effect, which even threads cannot do something similar. This handicraft works totally beyond what transparent adhesive tapes can."
While various patterns like monotones, dots and twills suffice to bring imagination and design to an escalated level, a well-planned weaving arrangement of tapes can even create a seeming portrait or landscape painting resembling a mosaic artpiece.
This is what Zoe has been inspired by those rolls of masking tapes: think outside the box.
Always fond of studying any possible functions of different textile materials, the founder of jewelry brand ZOEE has recently created a series of accessories inspired by traditional Chinese knots, which are subtly fashionable with a new lively twist of the classics.
Amazed at their artistic diversity at her first encounter, she finds the tapes the right materials for showcasing creativity, and a beautiful window for the contemporary misinterpreting weaving art is beyond access and comprehension, thus pushing her to run a child-handicraft-like class to give interested parties a basic and fun idea of weaving.
"In the text-less Stone Age, weaving was an essential part of one's life to meet the suviving needs," analysed Zoe who worked on various computerized design programmes for a famous fashion brand some time ago. "Later I got rid of the fast-paced lifestyle and set up my own brand to make knots. We've got dexterous hands and why don't we just slow down to feel and create? Otherwise, no one can even knit after a couple of years..."
Coincidentally, mt, a centurial tape brand evolving from a flypaper maker to mainly a manufacturer of industrial paper tapes, has in recent years been working its utmost to elevate the image of the stereotyped functional tool to a refreshingly healing type of stationery and to arouse people's potential through paste-up:
a creative instinct of craftmanship through slow and heartfelt manual work.
"Stick with Joy – The Masking Tape Creativity Fair" - Masking Tape Weaving Notebook Workshop
Registration & Details: http://www.putyourself.in/masking-tape-weaving-notebook/
ZOEE