Fashion Knitwear & Textiles
Shannon Mc Donnell
||Beautiful Infestation||
My fascination with insects developed in first year of college. In second year this fascination inspired my bee project and then in third year my love of all weird and wonderful bug like creatures flourished. I have made these insects my main concept for my final collection so I can try and battle the social belief that bugs are creepy and disgusting by portraying their beautiful shapes and glistening colours that make up an insects characteristics, so as that other people can appreciate the true beauty of these insects; A BEAUTIFUL INFESTATION.
My collection depicts a culmination of the different shapes and sizes of the bugs and insects I investigated at the National History Museum of Ireland in Dublin. There I organized to view all the bugs in the national entomologist’s collection which gave me an incredible insight into structure of the bugs which I could not gain from just googling the insects.
To create my collection, I used a variation of materials consisting of linen yarns, satin cord, beads and metallic transfers. The linen yarn has a waxier texture which represents the shell or wings of the insect. I manipulated the satin cord and metallic transfers to illustrate the iridescent colours of these beautiful creatures while the structured weaving and beadwork represents the form of the insect.