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I was recently leading the textiles and clothing for Building a Martian House project as a Spacewear and textiles artist. This community and artist centred art project is about making a real working prototype of Martian house. I lead a series of workshops in the Martian house where we created textiles and clothing using natural dyes extracted from the plants that can hydroponically grow on Mars.
Customised spacesuits
With the soon arrival of commercial space travel, spacesuits are currently being marketed as “ultimate in bespoke couture”. They will not only remain as uniforms for astronauts but might in future become an ultimate clothing item for “fashion - forward customers''. “It has become necessary for the suits to mirror trends in contemporary fashion design”.
Therefore, I asked Astro Stella and Astro Yuri to create a list of of items that would remind them of their life back on Earth. I later on added those objects to their customised spacesuits.
Image credit : Jack Offord
Quoted text : Spacewear by Dr Barbara Brownie
Martian bedroom pod
Indian Charpai inspired bed, natural dyed duvet, bedsheet and lavendar pillow.
https://buildingamartianhouse.com/woven-mattress-charpai-bed/
Martian textiles workshops
I ran a series of workshops for adults and children where they were able to help us make the textiles and learn about natural dyeing techniques that could be used on Mars to create prints and patterns. We used food waste that you will have to use on Mars, plants and flowers from hydroponics growing in the Martian house. These fabrics have been made by many people experimenting together and designing using their creativity and imagination.
These textiles were later on converted in making things for the bedroom pods such as bedsheets, duvet cover, pillows.